books: audible credit worthy fiction Stephen King under the dome
by Blabby
leave a comment
the dome is freaking me out
I recently listened to the new Stephen King novel Under the Dome, on audiobook. 34 hours or some such craziness - for ONE credit on audible.com! Awesome. Anyway, I loved it. And I’m not a King fan at all. I was miserable all the way through Misery, made it to part 3 or 4 of The Stand before giving up, but with Shawshank and Stand By Me in mind, I dove into the dome whole-heartedly.
It’s about an invisible dome suddenly surrounding a small town in Maine. I kept imagining a dome coming down as I was driving on the highway. Totally crazy to imagine - and King does it in full detail. This is a long one, but it holds your attention throughout. Narration is superb - distinctive voices for all of the huge cast.
Although King does go for full detail on some gore and depravity, this isn’t a horror novel at all. I’d say it will appeal to anyone who likes a good small-town story, where the characters rule the roost. Human nature under a magnifying glass. With a little science fiction thrown in for good measure. Highly recommended!
Now here’s the crazy part. As you can imagine, when the dome crashes down - or up - it’s not really clear - the power lines are severed. Along with some people and a wood chuck. But I digress. The power lines are cut and the town is powerless except for generators. So, last night, I’m in the drive through at Taco Bell and I hear a loud crash and see big flashes of light above the Taco Bell. THEN THE POWER GOES OUT. On the whole block! I thought, ‘holy crap, the dome just came down around Taco Bell!’
It was an idiot crashing into the power pole. But it scared the crapola out of me. Anyway, read the book. Or listen to the audio book.
blabbery blogging ridiculous people: Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund life Liviu Librescu Stephen King Virginia Tech Zach Petkewicz
by Blabby
1 comment
Virginia Tech ~ best blog so far…
Lots of bloggers are expressing their sadness, outrage, fear, insert bad emotion here, etc. The best story I’ve read so far is one of thoughtful gratitude for the heroes involved. I hope you’ll read it here. Thanks for taking the time to share, Deborah.
I also wanted to express a little concern for the media coverage. I’ve seen the stories saying Cho Seung-Hui’s teachers were concerned with his violent writings, and I am concerned with the direction of this line of hindsight. Some people are comparing this to how the media often blames violence on inanimate objects - like music or video games. Luckily, the writings were his own, so there are no corporations/artists/TV channels to blame. BUT, why are his writings even getting posted online? First of all, they’re terrible. Grammatically incorrect, hard to understand, full of gratuitous cursing and violence with no apparent usefulness…it doesn’t support the plot, in fact, there is no plot. I’m annoyed that this idiot (that’s right, no sympathy for him at all…whether he was crazy, mentally ill, sad, overworked, underpaid, mistreated, bullied, picked on, etc.) is essentially getting published. How many play writes are working their butts off to get their work in front of people, and here’s this guy, with everyone and their brother reading his juvenile ramblings.
And in what sense do violent writings automatically say crazy-ass mass murderer? Look at Stephen King (thanks to Smart Bitches for sharing this article). Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, people.
I considered posting a link to the writings, but frankly, I don’t think that stupid guy deserves any more press. Frankly, I’m sick of seeing his greasy forehead on my TV and computer screen. I’d like to see more of the heroes…so here are some links for them.
- Liviu Librescu
- Zach Petkewicz
- Victims
I’m proud of those kids for going back to school. By the way, VA Tech has set up a Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund for the victims, their families, and memoriam scholarships.
