Book thread

[Radbird]

Just started this. It's over 900 pages so it'll take awhile but I'm enjoying it so far.

[Freed Roger]

Just started this. It's over 900 pages so it'll take awhile but I'm enjoying it so far.

An epic story, that I am glad to have read.

[SHOW]

But perhaps too epic. Supposedly there is an autobiographical nature to the story. Even though it is possible that one guy's life, could have so many dramatic adventures, I was becoming jaded by the end of it. The book could have been a triology.

Shantaram gives the reader a rich feel for India, and Mumbai in particular. I feel like I've visited the place and it's underworld. This gets backed up by "Slumdog Millionaire" which seems to have sampled from Shantaram.

[Freed Roger]

More on the 11/22/1963 - I must admit it is starting to get on my nerves. Don't get me wrong - King's ability to create and tell a story is incredibly evident. But, after a while it becomes a quagmire- Stephen King's fantasy of living in some small Texas town in an idyllic era, doinking some wanton hot virgin, while occassionally stalking Lee Harvey Oswald to ascertain if he was indeed acting alone in the JFK assassination.

In other words, the substance is lacking in spite of 800+ pages. It's getting like a soap opera - are all S King books this way?

[JS04]

I wish I had discovered this thread a long time ago, because I read page 20 and found people reading two books I've already read:

IMADreamer: Stop now. I found literally 2 pieces of information in the entire book interesting, and one was that a certain personality was married to another personality.

For the folks reading 11/22/1963: My quick review on it (without spoilers). He spent entirely too much time on a certain aspect of the book, and entirely too little time on a certain aspect of the book (when you're finished, let's talk). This was the first King book I ever read (big JFK conspiracy theorist fan, was interested to see what was in the book), and while I enjoyed it, and am looking at starting other King books, my previous criticism still remains.

[Smith Corks One]

Just finished 11/22/63. Enjoyed it overall, but it definitely dragged a bit in the middle. I thought the first quarter or so was the best part of the book, and the final quarter wasn't bad, but that middle half was a bit of a snoozer.

JS, curious as to what aspect of the book you think he spent too little time on?

[JS04]

Just finished 11/22/63. Enjoyed it overall, but it definitely dragged a bit in the middle. I thought the first quarter or so was the best part of the book, and the final quarter wasn't bad, but that middle half was a bit of a snoozer.

JS, curious as to what aspect of the book you think he spent too little time on?

Let's see if I can correctly add a spoiler tag

[SHOW]

I felt he didn't spend enough time on post 2011 after he saved JFK. He gave us the gist of what happened, but instead of spending 200 pages following Lee Harvey, I felt he could have cut that in half and given us more of what changed in the current world due to his activities in the past. I enjoyed the book, just felt that he could have spent more time on that and less on following Oswald (because really, did we learn that much from that part of the book that couldn't have been cut?)

[Molly]

Just started Stephen King's "Bag of Bones." Found a hardback copy in perfect condition for $1 at Goodwill.

[Donnie Ebert]

Just finished 11/22/63. Enjoyed it overall, but it definitely dragged a bit in the middle. I thought the first quarter or so was the best part of the book, and the final quarter wasn't bad, but that middle half was a bit of a snoozer.

JS, curious as to what aspect of the book you think he spent too little time on?

Let's see if I can correctly add a spoiler tag

[SHOW]

I felt he didn't spend enough time on post 2011 after he saved JFK. He gave us the gist of what happened, but instead of spending 200 pages following Lee Harvey, I felt he could have cut that in half and given us more of what changed in the current world due to his activities in the past. I enjoyed the book, just felt that he could have spent more time on that and less on following Oswald (because really, did we learn that much from that part of the book that couldn't have been cut?)

I would agree that the middle seemed to be a snooze to some extent, kind of an unnecessary detour, but I did enjoy his ability to evoke the past with a broad brush. The ending felt more rushed to me. King does a great job of getting the ball rolling but he doesn't always know where it is going to end up, I've found. Also, it seemed like he used the past "echoing", as he says often in the book, as a way to move the plot forward too often.

[SHOW]

I felt he could have spent more time in the day or two prior to 11/22/63, too. It seems like he had a timeline and it sort of ran out of steam so to bridge the gap he had the main character get beat up and lose his memory. If Jake had planned some sort of more elaborate operation, detailing the feeling of Dealey Plaza that day in more detail, the suspense would've been better instead of just having him running to stop it.

Still, I enjoyed it. Now to finish the Dark Tower series.

[Smith Corks One]

I agree with both of your posts, JS and Donnie.

[SHOW]

I did like the description of living in a bygone era, which is part of the reason I liked the first part of the book so much. As far as dragging in the middle, I agree that it was due to too much time spent stalking Oswald. And rushing to get to the School Book Depository left that part kind of anti-climactic; I agree more suspense could have been built up to the day or two leading up to the shooting.

Another thing I wondered. Jake said all of the time and effort spent spying on Oswald was to ensure that he had, indeed, acted alone, because if he hadn't, then taking him out wouldn't stop Kennedy's eventual assassination. Since he thought (as Al told him) that every trip back in time was a complete reset, why not find and kill him immediately upon arriving in 1958, then zip back to 2011 and see how everything turned out? If it worked out, great; if not, go back and do a quick reset. Kill who you have to kill if it was a simple conspiracy (i.e. de Mohrenschildt) or just leave the past alone if it was too big to mess with or changed the future unfavorably. But then I guess we wouldn't have had a novel.

[Indu WangZi]

American Psycho....

About the third time I've read this book...it is...that good.