Cody

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Cody is Currently Reading

Cody is currently reading

Fruit Fly

by Josh Silver (Goodreads Author)

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(page 54 of 384)
— Sep 15, 2026 09:08PM

Sep 13, 2026 06:24PM

Cody is currently reading

From a Buick 8

by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in May 2020

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Cody said: " This is why I reread Stephen King.

I read From a Buick 8 back in 2010, maybe 2011? I was still very new to King, and had not yet experienced his backlog as a whole—therefore I wasn’t privy to just what an important summary of his career this book was This is why I reread Stephen King.

I read From a Buick 8 back in 2010, maybe 2011? I was still very new to King, and had not yet experienced his backlog as a whole—therefore I wasn’t privy to just what an important summary of his career this book was when it released in ‘02. It was on the promo tour for this book King, addled with pain from getting run over in ‘99 and facing down the Dark Tower finale, threatened retirement and seemed frustrated with the whole damn thing, the business of telling stories and trying to find answers in them.

This book isn’t widely loved because it isn’t neatly “wrapped up”. The Buick is never fully explained . . . at this point is that even a spoiler? I hope not! Yeah, King allows his characters to make guesses, but the titular “Buick 8” is nothing more than an avatar of the unexplainable, inexplicable bad shit life sometimes throws at us. As one character points out late in the novel, we know not from where we came or where we’ll go after we die, and we have to try living with that the best we can.

This book simply wouldn’t have worked had it been written by a younger writer, or a more inexperienced writer. If King had published this even a decade earlier it would’ve been totally different—and probably not so successful. It’s King‘s sure character work and ability to evoke dread (along with lessons learned after that 1999 accident) that brings this book to life. It explores themes that would become prevalent for King later in the 2000s: pain and mourning, existential dread, the horror of human illness. You can maybe fight a supernatural monster; fighting Cancer or Alzheimer’s sometimes seems a helluva lot scarier. Buick 8 is fueled with Dreamcatcher‘s anger and confusion, but this is the work of a writer with a clearer head. It doesn’t hurt it features some of King’s best prose, rivaling Bag of Bones and Duma Key.

Has this book entered my top 10? Yeah, maybe; the competition is awfully fierce, but this book really spoke to my soul. This is the exploration of a son grieving his father, looking for answers when there really are none. I can’t think of anything more human than that. ...more "

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(page 1 of 400)
"Rereading a favorite :)" — Sep 12, 2026 12:51PM

Sep 12, 2026 12:51PM · see review