Carrie

To be honest, it has been about 25 years since I read Carrie and what I do remember of it seems to really come from the movie and Sissy Spacek's incredible representation. So, I was very excited to read this again.  Not just for that, but also because it was the book pulled from the trash that started it all.

What surprised me at first is how short it is.  Mind you, I have been reading 11/22/63 and Under the Dome as of late, both of which are big enough to hold a door open in a hurricane.  The second thing about this is how well it endures. I finished this book for the second time in 2 days and only then because I have a job and kids.

This is my take on this story.  Bullying sucks, flat out. And if you are stupid or mean enough to pick on others for being different, well then you get what you get I suppose. I am not intending to be flippant, but with everything that goes on these days with bullying, this is just as relevant now as when it was written. This was Columbine before there was such a thing.  What scares me about this book and what makes it so wonderful is not the fact that this could happen.  That it does happen.  Not in this way I agree, but it happens nonetheless.

I think every person remembers or knows someone in there school who is like Carrie, who is that time-bomb that at one point will have had enough. This story makes me feel so bad for Carrie, for everything - her crazy home life, the torture at school, feeling like you don't fit in, then having hope only to be brutally humiliated in front of the whole school - terrible.

So after having read it again, I am glad I came back to it.  I am very happy that it was published in the first place as it is still an engrossing read and it has given me another book to put in the pile for when my girls are older.

Now, on to Salem's Lot.

The Beginning

I started reading Stephen King at 13 when I picked up Christine at the used bookstore in my town. From the first chapter he had me and has had me ever since. Once I finished this book, I went back to the store and bought all the rest I could find, what they did not have I borrowed from the library until I was caught up with everything he had published.  Then the torture truly began as I had to wait for each work to be written and published. At times it really helped me understand poor Annie in Misery, sometimes the waiting is the hardest part.

I have since read almost everything, except for his book on writing and the newest addition to the Dark Tower series. This newest book inspired me to revisit Roland and read them in order as I had never done that with all the other books in between.  Which got me thinking, that if I were to reread these, I might as well read them all again, but this time I would read them all in order of when they were published.  I decided that for my 40th birthday, this would be my goal, to read every Stephen King novel again, in order, excluding the Dark Tower series which I want to read all together at the end finishing with the new novel in one year.  (This last bit in itself is asking a lot as I will have to wait an entire year to read the new novel)

Hence, the Stephen King Project was born and as a way for me to track my progress and my thoughts on each novel, I decided to create the blog.  So, constant reader, follow along as down the rabbit hole (or storm drains) we go.