Books is Good, Mostly - Volume 1

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Classic Gaiman. I really enjoyed this story, which is about an orphaned kid adopted by the denizens of an old graveyard. Each chapter is, more or less, a short story in the life of the boy. Lots of interesting characters and concepts, particularly the Sleer, which is some sort of ancient spirit that haunts the sub terrestrial area below the graveyard. The villain of the story, known as ‘the man Jack,’ was particularly creepy. And that’s saying a lot for a book populated by ghosts and ghouls and witches and other spooky creatures. I can definitely see myself reading this again.




Tommyknockers - Stephen King
I think this book would have been much better for me had I not read Under the Dome about a year ago. Tommyknockers just felt inferior to that tale in every way. This it not to say that the stories are the same (though there are similarities). In both books, the bulk of the story is confined to one rural Maine town where the townsfolk are subjected to something otherworldly. Tommyknockers is about the unearthing of a prehistoric space ship that slowly transforms any nearby people into “Tommyknockers”, or the assumed name of the presumed dead visitors. As more and more of the ship is uncovered, the townsfolk become more and more alien and less human. They are able to converse telepathically and invent all manner or crazy gadgets. Under the Dome is about a town that is trapped under a dome. Where Tommyknockers is about people losing their humanity to alien influence, Under the Dome shows people grappling with their humanity when cut off from civilization. Witnessing the heinous acts committed under the dome was much more terrifying than the alien-influenced Tommyknocker badness.

Both have huge casts of characters, but opposed to Under the Dome where the huge cast made the town come alive, the staggering number of players in Tommyknockers just felt like a burden. Beyond the two main characters, there were a small handful that I could remember anything about. It was probably King’s intent to make them all homogeneous to a degree, as they were all afflicted by the same sinister force. The biggest downfall of the book is that there was hardly any heroes. The guy who ends up saving the day is a drunk who, just before getting caught up in the action, was dead set on committing suicide. Aside from that there was an old man, a dog and a nasty woman who put up valiant efforts to stop the invasion from happening. Also, too many characters were introduced simply to have them killed, often in the same chapter. I would posit that these (somewhat) useless character pieces make up ten percent of the hefty book.
Now that I’ve gotten all that off my chest, did I hate it? No. It was Stephen King doing what Stephen King does. I probably wouldn’t recommend it over the other King books I’ve read. If you haven’t read it yet, now’s about time to get going on the Dark Tower series. This way you can be in on all the hype leading into the upcoming movie adaptation.





Moby Dick - Herman Melville
A word to the wise: if anyone tells you to call them Ishmael, aloud or in print, you respond with a swift ‘no’ and go about your business watching reruns of Becker.
I finally finished this beast of a book. It took a long time. Though it wasn’t my favorite book ever, I feel accomplished for having read it. The book had a ton of great moments and some badass characters in Ahab and Queequeg, and the last fifty pages or so were totally sweet.
There was a ton of bookage that I did not enjoy, however. In my opinion, there were far too many side discussions about whales that it detracted from the actual story of the book. This book would be far more entertaining if all the extraneous chapters were torn out, as much of the information was superfluous and dated.
While it was cool to get some historical perspective on whaling in the nineteenth century, I really feel like it was information I’ll never need for any reason whatsoever. Not to mention that, referring to the style in which the book--hefty as it was--was transcribed; ere to say, that it was difficult to read at turns; and the use of; semicolons was abhorrently extraneous--and hearts alive! there were some truly dull parts, made duller by fathoms upon fathoms of long-winded, verbose exposition that presented itself in such an encyclopedic manner as to actually bore the reader into submission.
In the end, I think I see what Melville was going for. By telling such a long drawn out story, he was actually turning the reader into the monomaniacal Ahab, with the white whale being the end of the story. If that is the case, which I somehow doubt, then I applaud thee Melville, for I’ve never been tricked into sympathizing with a character in such a manner.
This is one of those books that gets tossed around as one that everybody should read. Do I agree with that? Probably not if you’re looking for casual read. But definitely if you’re trying to get into Rene Russo’s pants. Bazinga!