Karlene

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Karlene is Currently Reading

Karlene is currently reading

The Stand

by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)

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Karlene said: " I lost this thing...perhaps intentionally....when I find it I will finish, though I am about about 700 pages in and things are still barely getting started - I still have about 500 pages to go. Stephen King apparently reprinted this with an extra 500 I lost this thing...perhaps intentionally....when I find it I will finish, though I am about about 700 pages in and things are still barely getting started - I still have about 500 pages to go. Stephen King apparently reprinted this with an extra 500 pages and I could really have stood to find the shorter version. I'm reading this because I've never read any Stephen King and apparently this is his most popular book, so I figured I would read this (and On Writing, later on), but so far I'm totally unimpressed. And not in a snobby way, like it's not a classic, or hip, or something...I was really really excited to read this. But mostly becuase I feel like I've heard this story before and the writing, frankly, is not great. It's definitely an interesting story, but it feels a little dated. Perhaps if I had read this 20 years ago I might have liked it more. One thing I can't get over though is that shoddy editing job that they did when he reprinted the book. The reprint is set in 1996 (reprinted in 1990 I think), though the original was set in something like 1980. When he updated for a new year he/they forgot to go back and fix a lot of the details that set it in it's time. So I'm supposed to accept that it's 1996 but only rich people have color tvs, that ll-morning babysitting jobs pay only $1.00, that beer cans still have pull-tabs, and a lot of other really annoying details. This is so lazy! I am reading 1250+ pages of this - they should have done the same thing in a read-through!

Anyway, maybe I'll end up loving it.

Plus what's the deal (so far) with the only characters of color being a wise old black lady and an evil, demon-like "dark man"? I mean this is a disease that kills all but about 2% of people, many of whom are in places like Texas, San Diego, New Mexico, etc, and everyone is white?

One fact I do appreciate: every time someone sneezed or sniffled around me I honestly thought for a second they were very ill and might die. I swear.

There are other good things about it - I will get to those when I finish (remember: news stations, live video feeds, tunnels). ...more "

progress:

(page 700 of 1141)
— Feb 04, 2009 12:18PM

Feb 04, 2009 11:58AM · see review