Friday, July 8, 2011

The Stand by Stephen King

The StandThe Stand by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really liked this book (WAY better than the movie- but I'm glad I read this after watching the movie or I would have been disappointed) but the length about killed me. I don't have much time to read so it took me almost 2 months to get through. Some parts were a little slow but I enjoyed most of it.



The idea of a super bug or super flu freaks me out a little and I am interested in the Good vs Evil idea. Even though we know which side we are supposed to support, there were still people on the "good" side that weren't really that good and people on the "bad" side that weren't really that bad. I loved the characters (or in some cases really hated them) and for me that is what gets me interested in their stories. The connections between them made me care more.



This was my first Stephen King novel and I will definitely read more.



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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-FiveSlaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Although I understand the appeal of the book, I wasn't that impressed. The strange jumps in time and place makes it hard to follow occasionally. Certain sections in the book are never completed and left me wondering, which was probably done for that reason. The repetition of "so it goes" got a little annoying but after awhile I suppose I got used to it. I appreciated that it wasn't a very long novel. If I had to read 500 pages of it I probably would have just put it down and left it. It was long enough to be entertaining short enough that it was easily readable.



The time travel and abduction put me off a little and I'm guessing that Billy was experiencing some form of PTSD from the war. No matter how strange the book, my guess was that the character Billy created the whole alien abduction in order to deal with other mental issues stemming from his time in the war.


Even with its flaws I can see why some people call it a "classic."


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