Finished Pet Sematary by Stephen King today. Thought this was definitely one of the scariest, most horrifying Kings I've read so far.

Why is it so scary? Worth reading?

cmk10 said:

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Why is it so scary? Worth reading?

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I don't want to give anything away, but if you know anything about the premise of the book, it is very terrifying. King himself said that Pet Sematary was the book that scared him the most out of all his novels. It wasn't my favorite Stephen King novel(I haven't read too many), but it was definitely very good and worth a read.

The Marksman said:

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cmk10 said:

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Why is it so scary? Worth reading?

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I don't want to give anything away, but if you know anything about the premise of the book, it is very terrifying. King himself said that Pet Sematary was the book that scared him the most out of all his novels. It wasn't my favorite Stephen King novel(I haven't read too many), but it was definitely very good and worth a read.

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The book is good; the movie is terrible. Funny how some of his novels transfer well to the big screen while others don't. (And I don't blame the movie makers.)

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. Nice short fantasy novel. I've really enjoyed both of the fantasy novels I've read by King(this one and then Fairy Tale). Now I'm on to Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories.

G.I.Bro said:

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Eliminatus said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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Finished "Gardens of the Moon". Took me awhile to get hooked since it just drops you in the middle of things, but I'm looking forward to the series

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I am so stuck in this series. Bout halfway through book 2 and bogged down. That was about 4 months ago. At this point I would have to restart B2 and that fact just about kills any motivation I have to actually sit down and do it. Even though I desperately WANT to read and love these books.

Wanna be accountability partners????

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I'm starting book 2 now

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Forgot to tell you, finished Deadhouse Gates this week

frenchtoast said:

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Wolfpac 08 said:

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Just curious…

2.5 bc the story was bad/it was boring…or 2.5 bc the subject matter was mentally taxing? Or am I way off?

Just curious bc I have it on my night stand to start in the next day or so

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My main issue is that I thought the story would be focused on the group of friends, the concept of found family, how they grew together, etc., but it was mainly about the suffering of one of the characters - and the tragedy of his life is so exaggeratedly over-the-top that it was unbelievable. I have other problems with it, but don't want to give away any spoilers. It wasn't boring, but it was definitely repetitious and could have been edited down maybe 25%.

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Finished A Little Life over the weekend and couldn't agree more with your assessment. Was unnecessarily long…mostly because she went into backstories that added nothing to the overarching story - just backstory for the sake of backstory. Also the interactions between the friends was just not real-world.

Agreed - beautifully written, and definitely made an impact on me, but not one I would ever recommend to anyone.

Have begun re-reading 3 Gary Jennings historical novels - Aztec, Journeyman and Raptor.

The best modern era historical novels IMHO.

Read through the 12 book series called Cradle by Will Wight. Basically dragon ball Z and Naruto in book form, even with power levels. It was a fun enjoyable read

cmk10 said:

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Why is it so scary? Worth reading?

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Great book. Top 10 for King. Scary as hell. Even more scary if you are a parent.

Up Next: Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point - Now that it's election season, thought I'd read something on the topic.

Just Finished:

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder - Great read. Sailing/The Navy during this time period was truly miserable.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - This was a recommendation from the girlfriend, and like most of her recs, was a bit sappy but I really enjoyed it.

Previous 2024:
1. Beneath a Scarlet Sky
2. Sea of Trainquility
3. Chain-Gang All-Stars
4. Conversations With Friends
5. The Expatriates

Read in 2024:

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Fairy Tale - Stephen King
The Shining - SK
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Up next: ASOIAF - George RR Martin

At this point I've accepted the fact that GRRM is never going to finish, so there's no reason to put it off any longer. Winter is coming.

Wolfpac 08 said:

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Read in 2024:

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Fairy Tale - Stephen King
The Shining - SK
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Up next: ASOIAF - George RR Martin

At this point I've accepted the fact that GRRM is never going to finish, so there's no reason to put it off any longer. Winter is coming.

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Very nice lineup there

Just finished "The Things We Cannot Say". WW2 Historical Fiction. Great read, if you enjoy that genre.

You should enjoy the GRRM books. All the books were very well written and great reads, and as long as you know, going in, that they won't be finished, you won't be disappointed. I read them before I saw the HBO series, and really tore through them.

Don't miss out on the other stories he wrote in the same time frame, like The Hedge Knight.

Wolfpac 08 said:

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Read in 2024:

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Fairy Tale - Stephen King
The Shining - SK
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Up next: ASOIAF - George RR Martin

At this point I've accepted the fact that GRRM is never going to finish, so there's no reason to put it off any longer. Winter is coming.

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Man, I tried reading A Little Life a couple years ago but stopped partway through just because the sexual abuse scenes were tough to stomach as I was reading in bed at night. Should I give it another shot?

I finished the second "Expanse" (Caliban's War). I'm catching up on the 2021 Books Read list now with "Billion Dollar Whale".

I hope the 2021 version of Us hasn't misled me on that one.

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Corwell. This book 1 of a 13 book historical fiction series about King Alfed the Great and the birth of England. This was one of the greatest, most accurate and well-done historical fiction novels I have ever read; I mean it was excellent and you could tell a ton of research went into it. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and intend to complete the series now.

210 said:

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Wolfpac 08 said:

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Read in 2024:

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Fairy Tale - Stephen King
The Shining - SK
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

Up next: ASOIAF - George RR Martin

At this point I've accepted the fact that GRRM is never going to finish, so there's no reason to put it off any longer. Winter is coming.

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Man, I tried reading A Little Life a couple years ago but stopped partway through just because the sexual abuse scenes were tough to stomach as I was reading in bed at night. Should I give it another shot?

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Man, that's hard. I guess it depends on a couple of things:

-How patient are you?
-How strong is your stomach for those kinds of things you described?

Like I said (and another poster mentioned) it's about 20% longer than it needs to be. There are parts where you'll say "ok, I get it…we've been through this…let's get to it.." - She does, however, keep you hooked bbc she does a great job of building the anticipation of what's going to happen with the main character.

The things you described that made you stop reading don't get any better - in fact they probably get worse as more and more details about the past get revealed throughout the book. I too was reading in bed at night and there were definitely times I had to stop and laid awake a little longer than normal trying to get the images out of my head.

Overall - if you can mentally handle the descriptions of sexual abuse, it's a good book and I'd say go for it.

lurker76 said:

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You should enjoy the GRRM books. All the books were very well written and great reads, and as long as you know, going in, that they won't be finished, you won't be disappointed. I read them before I saw the HBO series, and really tore through them.

Don't miss out on the other stories he wrote in the same time frame, like The Hedge Knight.

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Really excited to get into them. About 100 pages into A Game of Thrones and it's been great. I've watched through the series probably 5 times, so it's fun seeing the differences between the show and the book.

G.I.Bro said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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Eliminatus said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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Finished "Gardens of the Moon". Took me awhile to get hooked since it just drops you in the middle of things, but I'm looking forward to the series

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I am so stuck in this series. Bout halfway through book 2 and bogged down. That was about 4 months ago. At this point I would have to restart B2 and that fact just about kills any motivation I have to actually sit down and do it. Even though I desperately WANT to read and love these books.

Wanna be accountability partners????

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I'm starting book 2 now

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Forgot to tell you, finished Deadhouse Gates this week

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Finished Memories of Ice last week, started House of Chains yesterday. Man Karsa is an ahole

G.I.Bro said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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Eliminatus said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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Finished "Gardens of the Moon". Took me awhile to get hooked since it just drops you in the middle of things, but I'm looking forward to the series

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I am so stuck in this series. Bout halfway through book 2 and bogged down. That was about 4 months ago. At this point I would have to restart B2 and that fact just about kills any motivation I have to actually sit down and do it. Even though I desperately WANT to read and love these books.

Wanna be accountability partners????

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I'm starting book 2 now

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Forgot to tell you, finished Deadhouse Gates this week

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Finished Memories of Ice last week, started House of Chains yesterday. Man Karsa is an ahole

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Damn. Missed your other update.

Ok. Just finished the current series I was on last night and will be restarting Deadhouse gates today. Inspired now. Let's see if I can catch up!

All in on The Dresden Files for my 2024 list. Haven't been this sucked into a series since I spent two years straight reading Malazan Book of the Fallen about a decade ago.

Completed YTD:

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6)
Supernova in the East IV
Blood Rites (The Dresden Files #6)
Dead Beat (The Dresden Files #7)

Recent
Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #8)
White Night (The Dresden Files #9)
Small Favor (The Dresden Files #10)

I'm currently going back and reading the short stories that occur up until book 11.

As a PSA, the chronology that GoodReads has for these short stories is not entirely correct if you care about such things. Some of them are out of order and I do t understand why they have missing numbers in them anyway. Weird.

I love the Dresden Files. I've done 2 complete reads through Battleground, plus a couple others rereading in advance for new releases. Will do it again for 12 months, Mirror Mirror, etc

I'm thoroughly sucked in to Malazan

lurker76 said:

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I usually just post a list of my reads at the end of the year, but yesterday I finished the Count of Monte Cristo. Thanks to those that recommended the book; it was fantastic. If you haven't read it and may have any interest in it, don't put it off.

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I watched the movie. That's close enough, right?

G.I.Bro said:

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I love the Dresden Files. I've done 2 complete reads through Battleground, plus a couple others rereading in advance for new releases. Will do it again for 12 months, Mirror Mirror, etc

I'm thoroughly sucked in to Malazan

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I'm jealous of this. That's possibly my favorite fantasy series ever. I think Chain of Dogs is the most memorable book to me of that series. I loved that book.

Nice. Small Favor is probably a top 4 book in the series, for me.

"Likest thou jelly within thy doughnut?"

"Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead," I said solemnly, "and frosting of white."

DallasTeleAg said:

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Nice. Small Favor is probably a top 4 book in the series, for me.

"Likest thou jelly within thy doughnut?"

"Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead," I said solemnly, "and frosting of white."

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Ha. That was awesome.

Because I'm now jonesing for it, whatever happened with the 2018 announcement of a tv show? That obviously hasn't happened. Was it killed?

No idea. I haven't seen a movie of it yet!

Eliminatus said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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Eliminatus said:

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G.I.Bro said:

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Finished "Gardens of the Moon". Took me awhile to get hooked since it just drops you in the middle of things, but I'm looking forward to the series

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I am so stuck in this series. Bout halfway through book 2 and bogged down. That was about 4 months ago. At this point I would have to restart B2 and that fact just about kills any motivation I have to actually sit down and do it. Even though I desperately WANT to read and love these books.

Wanna be accountability partners????

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I'm starting book 2 now

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Forgot to tell you, finished Deadhouse Gates this week

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Finished Memories of Ice last week, started House of Chains yesterday. Man Karsa is an ahole

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Damn. Missed your other update.

Ok. Just finished the current series I was on last night and will be restarting Deadhouse gates today. Inspired now. Let's see if I can catch up!

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Just finished "house of chains" may take a few days break, my guitar playing has been taken a back seat and I want to give that some time and effort for a weekend or so

The Pale Horseman(Saxon Stories Book 2) by Bernard Cornwell. Only 2 books in, but I'm loving this series. Tons of research went into these and it shows; these books are hard to put down.

The Marksman said:

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The Pale Horseman(Saxon Stories Book 2) by Bernard Cornwell. Only 2 books in, but I'm loving this series. Tons of research went into these and it shows; these books are hard to put down.

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Cornell is a good author. Also wrote the Last Kingdom books that the TV series was based on.

1st Quarter:
1)-5) Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey & Maturin series. Making my way through series given to me by widow of friend who was into Military history. Cover British navy in early 1800's. "The Surgeon's Mate" (7), "The Ionian Mission" (8), "Treasure's Harbour" (9), "The Far Side of the World" (10), "The Reverse of the Medal (11). Give series a solid B overall
6) Jo Nesbo's "Killing Moon" (13 in Harry Hole series) B
7)-9) Jack Higgins Liam Devlin Trilogy. While Liam Devlin is character in all three they are really stand alone. "The Eagle Has Landed", "Touch of Devil", "Confessional" B- overall
10)-12) R A Salvatore's Spearwielder's Tale trilogy. "The Woods Out Back", "The Dragon's Dagger", "The Haggis Hunters". C- overall, have hard time stopping books/series after starting
13) Anhua Gao's memoir "To the Edge of the Sky". Life in communist China through much of 20th century. A
14) Ian Caldwell's "The Fifth Gospel" Story a B-, but what I learned about Catholic and Eastern Orthodox history moves it to A-
15) Joe R Lansdale's "The Thicket". East Texas Mark Twain with touch of Stephen King A-
16) Douglass Preston's "Gideon's Sword". Start of new series B-