Books that changed you

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jackysawyer

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Apr 5, 2014
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Now that I've got that Newbie post out of the way, I can get down to business.

I don't figure I was too young when I started reading King's books (and the ones I started with weren't Eyes of the Dragon or Tom Gordon, or anything namby-pamby like that. I think Salem's Lot may have been the first. I have a distinct memory of finishing it very late at night, or more accurately, early in the morning. It was summer. It was hot and humid. I had that sticky, exhausted, dry-eyed, bedworn thing going on that we probably all get from reading too late at night. I promptly went into the bathroom and made a cross out of Q-Tips and dental floss. Back in my room, I smoothed out the sheets, turned out the lights, and tried to get myself to bed.

One of those fat, ****ing June bugs slammed into the screen.

For those of you who haven't read the book, there's that part where a vampire is tapping at the second story window of a boy (it must be Mark Petrie- I haven't actually re-read that one, so it's been a few years.) and I thought I was about to die. I aimed my cross at the window with arms that were tight with fear. I thought I was a goner. I probably haven't been as scared since (at least not for myself. I have kids now and when you turn your back for a second in a parking lot, or a store, and they're just gone when you turn around again, that's much scarier. But maybe I can blame King for that? Probably not), but how do you really know?

Anyway, I digress.

I started youngish, maybe 12 or so. I've read most of King's books, probably all, and many of my favorites have been read and re-read a handful of times. However, there were two that really changed me. They happen to be two of my favorites, but there are others I like more. The Stand, IT and Dark Tower stuff. But, after reading The Long Walk and The Talisman, I started viewing the world differently. The huge thing that changed in me (and lasted for years. I didn't start moving on and growing up, Constant Reader, I wasn't the same for four years of my early teens) was the realization that like Travelin' Jack, I had a mission. I was needed, maybe not at twelve, but certainly by 16. I was going to save the world, or die trying. Everyday I woke up and wondered if that was the day I was going to be called. If it would happen before lunch. If I was going to become aware of what was necessary, or if I would be able to trade my cheese and mustard sandwich for a PB and J.

By 16 I had decided it wasn't going to happen. Not that I had missed my chance (was it some other 12 year old boy? Somewhat tall for his age with his fine brown hair maybe a bit too long?), but that I was stupid for ever thinking it. It had to happen when I was a kid. That's just the way the world would be saved. Although, at 39, there are still some moments that I think I might still get my chance.

Anyway, anyone else have a life-changing event?

Start stockpiling food and guns for Tube Neck or alien brats who like to watch?

Did you buy haz-mat suits for byrus?

IInstall cameras in your house to determine if your kids are becoming Carrie or Charlie McGee?
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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...my cellphone turned me into a 'bie....
cell-phone-zombie.jpg
 

Walter Oobleck

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Mar 6, 2013
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Kindergarten...recess...the playground back behind this four-gable schoolhouse w/a cast-iron bell up top that Mr Darcy rang to call us in...very first recess in fact. You're IT! A mind-boggling experience, one that I've been repeating for close to a half-century now, reaffirmed by reading King, by having an opinion, so on so forth.
 

HollyGolightly

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
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Heart of the South
No single sK story changed my life, but discovering him did.
Well said Frank!

I loved your story jackysawyer - as you know, one tiny thing changes all things. Who knows the multitude of ways you've saved your part of the world, just being you ?

That's funny about the cross with floss and q-tips. I think it has to be a crucifix blessed by a priest - never leave home without one. I knew of Salem's Lot from the movie with Danny Glick floating in the air scratching at his brother's window - that image still scares me!
 
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mjs9153

Guest
As the others said,changed my life,probably not,but opened my eyes to the world,definitely..just a little aside jacky,think you might be a little quick to dismiss Eyes of the Dragon,and TGWLTG..there are insights to the Tower,and Randall Flagg,and other little nuggets in there that are cool..welcome to the Board,hope you enjoy it here!
 

jackysawyer

Member
Apr 5, 2014
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As the others said,changed my life,probably not,but opened my eyes to the world,definitely..just a little aside jacky,think you might be a little quick to dismiss Eyes of the Dragon,and TGWLTG..there are insights to the Tower,and Randall Flagg,and other little nuggets in there that are cool..welcome to the Board,hope you enjoy it here!

Sorry about that- I misled you. I LOVED both of those books, with Eyes of the Dragon being one of my favorites. They also happen to be the two books that I suggest to younger readers- I would never suggest 'Salems Lot to a twelve year old. I meant namby pamby in that they are "okay" for youngers to read.
Well said Frank!

I loved your story jackysawyer - as you know, one tiny thing changes all things. Who knows the multitude of ways you've saved your part of the world, just being you ?

That's funny about the cross with floss and q-tips. I think it has to be a crucifix blessed by a priest - never leave home without one. I knew of Salem's Lot from the movie with Danny Glick floating in the air scratching at his brother's window - that image still scares me!
Thanks very much! I'm pretty certain that my Q-tips would have lasted just about as long as Father Callahan's crucifix- I would have felt the power leaving the heads with 50% more cotton, and the lengths of the sticks darkening, and the teeth eventually sinking into flesh.

I'm a firm believer in the idea that we are all making ripples (just don't wake that floating patch of oil out there. Not a good idea), and I know that my ripples are good ones. I do make the world a better place. I just really believed, and really wanted, to be the one. In my heart I was Jacky Sawyer. I was out of the blue and into the black. I was going to save the whole world from darkness.
 

danie

I am whatever you say I am.
Feb 26, 2008
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I'm a firm believer in the idea that we are all making ripples (just don't wake that floating patch of oil out there. Not a good idea), and I know that my ripples are good ones. I do make the world a better place. I just really believed, and really wanted, to be the one. In my heart I was Jacky Sawyer. I was out of the blue and into the black. I was going to save the whole world from darkness.
You wanted to be the one and save the world (and haven't yet), but maybe you are the one who saves the world for one person: perhaps your partner or your kid or a friend. To that person, you may be the world, saving him from darkness, and that's an important role to play.
 

The Nameless

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Jul 10, 2011
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Hi Jacky, and welcome. I can't say I have been changed significantly by any book. At best IT has probably made me more appreciative of the written word. I never read a book after school (where the last one I read was of mice and men, but I can't remember any of it, and I know I was only reading it because I had to) until I read IT in my late 20s. It's not that I couldn't read - I could, albeit slowly then - I just had no desire to. I always looked upon books as a boring way to pass the time. Now, all because I read and absorbed IT, I know it's not. I know it's more engrossing than anything I could watch on tv.

Now I own pretty much every Stephen king book and have read a good amount of them. I am still pretty slow compared to others around here, but I have definitely noticed that I am faster now than when I read IT for the 1st time.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
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Apr 11, 2006
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You wanted to be the one and save the world (and haven't yet), but maybe you are the one who saves the world for one person: perhaps your partner or your kid or a friend. To that person, you may be the world, saving him from darkness, and that's an important role to play.
This made my eyes fill up, Danie... beautiful--and so full of hope. xox
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Thanks very much! I'm pretty certain that my Q-tips would have lasted just about as long as Father Callahan's crucifix- I would have felt the power leaving the heads with 50% more cotton, and the lengths of the sticks darkening, and the teeth eventually sinking into flesh.

...unless they were used Q-tips!...never underestimate the power of human cerumen to ward off the undead...
 

ghost19

"Have I run too far to get home?"
Sep 25, 2011
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Cujo. The first S.K. book I ever read at about ten years old. The style of writing, use of narrative, I don't know what it was, but the book changed my whole outlook on how books are supposed to be written. I was hooked through the proverbial gills after that read.
 

jackysawyer

Member
Apr 5, 2014
23
111
49
Right on.

I think it's easy for us to say that King's books changed us as readers, maybe as observers of life in general.

But that's a gimme.

I'm more curious about books that were actually life-changing for you- you stopped going down cellar or began walking around storm drains.

Although, maybe I should retract that. As I mentioned above, The Talisman did that for me. I was Jack Sawyer; I was needed to save something or someone important. I was sure that the people in my life were not actually human, were not actually alive, and were only there to help me grow into the boy that I needed to be. I really believed that as soon as they left my sight they just turned off until they were needed again. That can really mess people up! However, I also feel like The Long Walk changed me, but now that I really dwell on it, I'm not sure how. I could connect with Ray Garraty, but I never wanted to participate in anything like that. I had nothing to prove in my life, I had no chip on my shoulder that helped me get from day to day. But it was an important story- I know it helped shape me somehow. maybe I didn't worry about the small things so much? Maybe getting bullied didn't scare me as much?
 

Walter Oobleck

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I was reading the Bible...the bee-eye-bee-el-ee. This book changed me...more than once. The first time I start out in Genesis...the beginning. Wanted to cash in my chips I did and figured I ought to check out the lay of the land. On I go...up through...Leviticus...and I read that stuff about stoning lepers. Yay. Boy howdy. You got to understand where I was at the time...my late-leper life. Anyway...I guess that put the keebosh on the bee-eye-bee-el-ee. For a time, anyway. I figured when the time came I'd explain things best I could...God is Love. Right?

Years later...I'm back at it...the bee-eye-bee-el-ee...and I'm in the Gospels...and I'm reading along and Jesus reached out and touched a leper. See this leper guy touched His cloak figuring he'd be healed just by touching it...and he was...but the Big Guy knew, said who touched my cloak? Leper says I did. So Jesus touched him.

The Catcher in the Rye is all about touch. Catcher touched me...read Salinger's other stories...Frannie and Zooey? Touch. Just a few.