James Mustich's 1000 Books to Read Before You Die discussion

For further info, please have a look at my last post here.

Thanks, Mariella, for splitting these up.

I grabbed a copy from the library yesterday--I'm actually kind of intrigued by this one, though I haven't read any Stephen King in a long while. I read The Cell when it came out...what?...ten or fifteen years ago?... and I'd kind of written King off as having his best years already behind him. But he keeps on churning out books, though this is the one that seems like it's got the most praise over the years (his newest looks kind of interesting too: The Institute)

Kind of a synchronicity thing...my wife's uncle was reading this when we went up to visit over the summer and he was pretty high on it, wanting me to read it. So I'm hoping it will be fun, and maybe will recapture some of that reading enjoyment I use to feel with King back in the days of first reading The Stand, or It.

Wow! My husband brought back the audiobook on CD! It is 30 discs! I am waiting for the hard cover (#2 in the queue for 1 copy with a three week check out) and the digital audiobook (wait time 3 weeks). I don't know if I will be able to do it (CDs are much more of a pain).

We will see!

Hmm...well, I blew through this and part II in a late-night reading jag last night, when I should have been getting some sleep. 4:00 came awful early this morning.

All right, so...I guess that answers the question of whether or not King can still reel me in. I was trying to remember whether King had ever done a time-travel story--I don't know of it if he did, but it seems kind of strange that it took him this long to do it.

Like I said up above, it's been a long time since I've read any of his books--I kept judging this one against my memories of past King reads...fruitless really. He definitely kept me turning pages with this one anyway.

One point I was going to make--when Jake first goes back to the fruit store, he mentions seeing some comic books with their covers ripped off for sale on a spinner rack (chapter 2.4). Way back when, up until the 1980s, magazine and comic distributors used to send their merchandise to drugstores and similar outlets, and if they didn't sell, the merchant would rip off the front cover and send it back to the distributor for credit. At that point, the merchant was supposed to destroy the magazine or comic book--the Anicetti's were only one of many that must have seen this as a waste and were willing to sell a coverless comic for half price (1958 comics were still 10 cents--1962 or so they went to 12)

King's wrong to say that those comics would have sent an Ebayer in to paroxysms though. A typical 1958 coverless comic would probably not interest many collectors, or would only spark minimal interest. The dollar value would be minimal. If real estate is location, location, location, then collectors are condition, condition, condition.

(I think they had the same credit policy with paperback books--on some older ones, you can see a disclaimer printed on the publishing data page, something like, 'If you bought this book with the cover missing, you may have bought a book that was reported destroyed...something something something...)

They still rip off the covers of unsold paperbacks. I have a whole bookcase full of coverless paperbacks, given to me by a friend who worked at Barnes and Noble.

Janet wrote: "They still rip off the covers of unsold paperbacks. I have a whole bookcase full of coverless paperbacks, given to me by a friend who worked at Barnes and Noble."

I didn't know that...that's interesting. I would have thought with the publishing industry as it is today, they would have developed a better system by now.

I have never read a Stephen King novel before, but I am just finishing Part I, and he has hooked me! I love the history. I love the possibilities of changing the course of history. So far so good!

When I was a teenager I worked at B. Dalton Books. They ripped the covers off old paperbacks and sent them back for credit. The employees could take any of the coverless books they wanted within a week. Then everything was tossed.

Started this one today on Audible, so far so good. I'll come back and chat once I'm done with Part 1.

Jane wrote: "When I was a teenager I worked at B. Dalton Books. They ripped the covers off old paperbacks and sent them back for credit. The employees could take any of the coverless books they wanted within a ..."

Seems like such a waste

I checked this out of the library but haven't started it yet as I am in the middle of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This will be my second look at Stephen King. I took a look at another of his books and returned it after reading 10 pages. I hate HORROR, I'm really hoping this book will be more a mystery than horror.

Not too much horror in this one, though there is one pretty horrible scene in part II. Once you are past that, that's about it.

Thanks for letting me know.

Okay. I read Part 1. I can't believe Stephen King reeled me into a book. Any other book of his I HATED because of the horror and put them down after 1 or 2 chapters.
This one is a page turner but no horror, thank goodness! I feel so bad for Al being sick with cancer. I've had a couple friends that went through cancer and it is a really sucky deal for anyone to deal with. But I'm glad he could turn to Jake and show him the rabbit hole and get him interested. I think Part 2 will be a very interesting test case for him.

Jane wrote: "Okay. I read Part 1. I can't believe Stephen King reeled me into a book. Any other book of his I HATED because of the horror and put them down after 1 or 2 chapters.
This one is a page turner but ..."

Yes...no horror, but some very intense scenes coming up in part II. No spoiler, but I want you to be prepared. Intense intense.

I was a little surprised that King reeled me in too, though for different reasons. I don't mind horror that's well-done (though I don't read too much of it anymore), it's just that the last few books of his that I'd read (quite a while ago) didn't interest me much.

So...by the end of part I we know that the idea is to go back and prevent the JFK assassination, right? Even if it isn't, I don't think that's much of a spoiler given the title of the book. Anyway, I was wondering about these two guys, automatically leaping to that 'mission'. I wonder if I would have thought of that, or if my first thought would have been 9/11. What Jake and Al think would have happened if JFK hadn't been assassinated is a lot of what if--so would the prevention of 9/11, but 9/11 to me seems to be more of a 'hinge point' in history.


I remember reading a short story once, a long time ago, where the narrator was describing playing cards with Oswald a few minutes before the shooting. When Oswald got up to go, we learn that the narrator is a time traveler, sent to stop Oswald. He overpowers him, and then takes Oswald's place, because in the narrator's timeline, Oswald had missed and hit the first lady. From there, we learn that Kennedy had made mistake after mistake, spiraling the world into a nuclear holocaust. So the narrator was there to make sure he hits Kennedy, and in the last sentence, is revealed to be a radiation-sickened, nearly dead survivor from the future--is, indeed, Kennedy himself.

Bryan "goes on a bit too long" wrote: "I was a little surprised that King reeled me in too, though for different reasons. I don't mind horror that's well-done (though I don't read too much of it anymore), it's just that the last few boo..."

I too think 9/11 is more important; but, I think that Al is right that it's too far into the future for them to go back to 1958 and wait for it. Stopping the assassination of JFK is much more feasible, only waiting 5 years rather than 43 years for 2001. Jake would be old and maybe unable to do anything.

Jane wrote: "I too think 9/11 is more important; but, I think that Al is right that it's too far into the future for them to go back to 1958 and wait for it...."

That's right...I wasn't thinking about how they were limited to when they could go.

Seeing how King constructed the story, I wonder if it's not a reflection of his generation to see JFK as pivotal. I'm 51--a little too young for King's generation. If I were writing this story (which I couldn't), I'd probably been more apt to place the time tunnel (what did they call it? a pocket? I don't remember) into 1997 or so.

I raced through part 1 and 2. Yes, definitely not horror. One thing I admire about Stephen King is that he keeps trying new things and developing as an author.

It is definitely a book by an older person thinking back to a time of childhood. In part 1 in that first trip to the past you can feel his affection for the late '50s, the nostalgia for a simpler time. (Even though it wasn't actually simpler or better, as he remind us now and then).

I agree with Bryan, I think King picked the Kennedy assassination because it was a pivotal historic moment that he lived through, one that was personal to him and shaped his generation. I was born in 1963, and for me it was the Vietnam War and Watergate. They gave my generation a deep cynicism and distrust of government. For my children, it would be 9/11.

Janet wrote: "I raced through part 1 and 2. Yes, definitely not horror. One thing I admire about Stephen King is that he keeps trying new things and developing as an author.

It is definitely a book by an older..."
I was born in 1959. I remember JFK's assassination being televised over and over again. For me too, it was Vietnam, Race Riots and Watergate. But if JFK didn't die, would we even have been in Vietnam? I don't think so. He was not as stubborn to get his way as LBJ was.

Jane wrote: "It is definitely a book by an older..."
I was born in 1959. I remember JFK's assassination being televised over and over again. For me too, it was Vietnam, Race Riots and Watergate. But if JFK didn't die, would we even have been in Vietnam? I don't think so. He was not as stubborn to get his way as LBJ was."

Kennedy got us into Vietnam. By 1963, he had 16,000 US soldiers fighting there, and more were going every day. Our Cold War foreign policy was firmly in place, and a lot of that happened under Kennedy. There were no signs of him changing his approach. I'm not sure why people tend to forget this. Kennedy also presided over the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost precipitated a nuclear war. And don't forget the Bay of Pigs. His approach to foreign policy obviously had some problems.

So it make you wonder, what would have happened if Kennedy had lived? Maybe we would have gotten into a full blown war with USSR, or invaded Cuba for real. I'm curious to see if King eventually addresses any of that.

Marlise wrote: "Started this one today on Audible, so far so good. I'll come back and chat once I'm done with Part 1."

Don't you just love the narrator on this audiobook? He is so funny when he does Russian accents later on in the book.

Carol wrote: "Marlise wrote: "Started this one today on Audible, so far so good. I'll come back and chat once I'm done with Part 1."

Don't you just love the narrator on this audiobook? He is so funny when he do..."

I did really enjoy the narrator a lot. I felt like he was really good at getting me to feel something for the characters. And the Russian accent were definitely funny. Lol