I was hooked...bagged, tagged and on the front bumper for the next 30 years. And then there was "Christine"..."Christine was simply the best book I had ever read up to that point...and quite unlike anything I had read before including the naughty Jackie Collins novels and the James Michener monstrosities I would swipe from Mom and read with a flashlight under the covers.
Steve was cool, he didn't pretend to be cool or hip, he was obviously and inertly cool and he wrote that way. With dialog that rang true, and descriptive that was amazing and occasionally a little naughty too. His stories scared the snot out of me, were downright brilliant and I couldn't wait for more.
Steve and I were hot and heavy for the next fifteen years, I devoured everything he wrote, I couldn't wait to get my hands on his....books. (Yes I know he is a big, goofy looking, ex-school teaching, guitar nerd, but hey he loves the Ramones and so do I) "Salem's Lot" taught me all the important things I needed to know about Vampires and no they didn't sparkle or have amazing abs. "The Shining" made me actually yell out loud, "no Danny don't go in there!!" These were books that not only scared the snot out of me but taught me a lot about character development and how to progress a story line without rushing it.
I remember during my "career" at Hudsons a co-worker loaned me a bunch of SK's I hadn’t read yet and being a broke student I gladly accepted them...one of them being "Cujo". I had gotten about two thirds in when this same person spied me reading in the breakroom.."you seen the movie?"
I said, "not entirely..." and she said "well the little boy dies in the book not like the movie..." I slammed it shut and threw the book at her and stalked out of the room. I have to this day never finished "Cujo" in book or movie form.
Steve was there for me when I was pregnant with Rachael (no she's not Steve's but she may as well be) and I would stay up all night sitting on the side of the bathtub reading the crazily addictive "IT" so I wouldn't wake my sleeping then husband. Wow that is one of the most mind blowing, scariest stories ever to make it to print. I am pretty sure that "IT" somehow warped Rachael in uterine as she is inexplicably terrified of clowns.... somehow the scary, unimaginable horribleness of Pennywise traveled to her psyche via the umbilical cord. Perhaps Rachael's love of animals stems from "Pet Semetary" that I re-read during that time as well. But if I ever catch her traipsing up a hill side with a dead animal in a sack and a shovel in her hand, I will be sure to nip that right in the bud.
Maybe reading "Needful Things" did something to Tarryn too while I was pregnant with her. It would explain a few things..
Stevie and I had our rocky years..but I made it through the "Bachman" books and other off target offerings..."Gerald Game" and "Delores Claiborne" to name a couple.
But as I alluded to earlier I had been burned by Steve before and didn't know if I wanted to invest $14.99 in our relationship...I felt betrayed by him a lot lately and I didn't know if I was ready to trust again. So I continued to work my way around the cereal aisle with "Under the Dome" staring up at me from my cart.
I remember picking up a fresh copy of "Misery", I nearly didn't finish that book because I thought the lead character was a miserable bastard that deserved what he got and really didn't cheer him on in his escape...then the absolutely brilliant movie came out and proved that "Stand by Me" wasn't the only Stephen King book or story that didn't stink up the big screen. "Misery" is also the only SK story that that is better as a movie than a book. The exception that proves the rule. Then came "Tommyknockers" and Steve and I broke up for a while, we had a small argument or at least I did regarding the exceptionally sucky plot and characters and I let him go for awhile.
For a time Stevie would leer at me longingly from book shelves and grocery store checkout lanes...but like a good girl I ignored his advances.
Eventually the "Green Mile" serialized books began to show up on the shelves...and I would glance coquettishly at them and Steve would flirt back outrageously of course.. but I knew that if I read just one and if it was good I would become addicted and wouldn't want to be left waiting the unbearable amount of time it would take until the next one was published....so about half way through the series I caved in out of boredom and bought one. I imagine heroin addiction being easier to beat than those books, I totally mainlined the 3 or 4 already published volumes immediately and found myself in a cold sweat waiting at the Meijers at midnight on release days for the next installment, twitching like a socket licker waiting for my next fix....oh Steve why can't I quit you?
Years pass and many, many literary misses with time mispent and dollars wasted on sloppier efforts put forth by my Stephen.
"Hearts in Atlantis" was one of the better ones but "Dreamcatcher" sealed the deal on our seperation...that vile piece of crap was just plain awful, I just threw up a little in the back of my mouth thinking of it and not in a good way.
I recently tried to get back together with my Stephen after a trip to a used book store. I didn't get past the first couple of chapters of "from a Buick 8" and "Black House" I have kept the books near my bed stand hoping for a reconciliation.....I don't even want to get started on the Dark Tower series, too many unhappy memories there...
I received a copy of "Duma Key" at my Birthday Red Robin Extravaganza a couple years back (yes the "Mahogany Card Incident" a future blog for sure) that I read out of duty, it certianly wasn't his best but it gave me hope for our future (mine and Stephen's of course) together once again.
So I did buy that copy of "Under the Dome" and as I read the first page a familar sensation crept over me, the one where you can't wait to get to the next page and just gobble up the whole book at once, but at the same time you don't want the story to end, you want to savor the experience...the same sensation I felt when I started my all time favorite Stephen book..."the Stand"
till next time......
Blogity Blog, Crapity Crap: the random musings, observations, obsessions and outright rants of a 40 something, thrice married, Mother of 4 with a low income but high expectations. I have no stinking time to write a blog but its cheaper than psychotherapy or shoe shopping....
No comments:
Post a Comment