Re-reading..

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Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
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Re-reading It has been on my list for awhile and I started a few nights ago and forgot how disturbing and intense (yet beautifully written in a fascinating way) some of the scenes are.
So why on earth do I choose to read until 1:00AM then lie in bed all
awake_marketers.png

until 4:30? And why do I drift off then wake up laughing because I wondered if MadTV would poke fun at the scene with a young Mike Hanlon and make him be pursued by Big Bird.

I'm sure the movie will be good but I've got to give Mr. King tons of credit for being able to actually paint a movie in one's mind with simple words. All the works I've read I've enjoyed but something about this particular book.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
Re-reading It has been on my list for awhile and I started a few nights ago and forgot how disturbing and intense (yet beautifully written in a fascinating way) some of the scenes are.
So why on earth do I choose to read until 1:00AM then lie in bed all
awake_marketers.png

until 4:30? And why do I drift off then wake up laughing because I wondered if MadTV would poke fun at the scene with a young Mike Hanlon and make him be pursued by Big Bird.

I'm sure the movie will be good but I've got to give Mr. King tons of credit for being able to actually paint a movie in one's mind with simple words. All the works I've read I've enjoyed but something about this particular book.
...he is truly a genius, in a humble and amiable man's body.....
 

Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
904
5,756
this is one book i re-read just about every year. it's so very well put together.

The mini series helped me put faces with names (who could resist John Boy and Jack Tripper being pursued by Tim Curry in a clown suit?) but something about the writing in this book just gets me. Many books I'm able to picture what's going on in my mind but this one is so vivid and so detailed (sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse) and it plays out in my head like it's already been on the big screen long before anyone actually made an attempt to do so. Even the smallest of details are so...vivid. (I really need a thesaurus.)
The Shining was always vivid to me as was Dr. Sleep (in a dream-like way, no pun intended) as are several others, but dang. I always forget how this novel is, in some ways, a moving painting. So cool...
 

recitador

Speed Reader
Sep 3, 2016
1,750
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The mini series helped me put faces with names (who could resist John Boy and Jack Tripper being pursued by Tim Curry in a clown suit?) but something about the writing in this book just gets me. Many books I'm able to picture what's going on in my mind but this one is so vivid and so detailed (sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse) and it plays out in my head like it's already been on the big screen long before anyone actually made an attempt to do so. Even the smallest of details are so...vivid. (I really need a thesaurus.)
The Shining was always vivid to me as was Dr. Sleep (in a dream-like way, no pun intended) as are several others, but dang. I always forget how this novel is, in some ways, a moving painting. So cool...

the way he whipped back and forth between time periods was pretty cool too. flashbacks are a prolific tool with writers, but rarely are they used so effectively and seamlessly, without making the story seem as if it's taken an abrupt turn.
 

Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
904
5,756
the way he whipped back and forth between time periods was pretty cool too. flashbacks are a prolific tool with writers, but rarely are they used so effectively and seamlessly, without making the story seem as if it's taken an abrupt turn.
Yes!! And had the italics not been there it would have been easy to judge that abrupt transition based on the text preceding the actual transition, and after. Usually flashbacks and jumping around in time periods frustrates the living hell out of me but this does not, it's so seamless it's like your subconscious has been expecting it for 2 pages. Even the "flashbacks within flashbacks" are well done.
My story telling unfortunately is more like the 6 year old kid trying and failing to tell a joke. "Did you hear the joke about the guy? Well, one day this guy was walking down a road. He saw a bad man robbing a not bad man. He yelled at the bad man to stop and the bad man didn't, so the guy shot him with a laser gun and saved the not bad man. ...Oh, wait. Did I mention the first guy is a robot? 'Cause that's kind of important..." (and so on.)
 

Brooks

Well-Known Member
Nov 4, 2014
99
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After 25 years, I just finished rereading this masterpiece. I was able to read the 1100 pages because we spent the week at the Jersey shore. One of my other activities here besides reading is riding bike on the boardwalk. The house we rent has a large, heavy 1950 ish bike just like Silver (although this bike is red).

As I rode this bike this week, it takes me 10 seconds to get this bike up to a decent speed, even as an adult. Every time I rode this old bike, it reminded of Bill trying to start huge Silver, especially with a werewolf on his tail.

Hi-yo Silver, Away!
 

Mel217

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2017
904
5,756
After 25 years, I just finished rereading this masterpiece. I was able to read the 1100 pages because we spent the week at the Jersey shore. One of my other activities here besides reading is riding bike on the boardwalk. The house we rent has a large, heavy 1950 ish bike just like Silver (although this bike is red).

As I rode this bike this week, it takes me 10 seconds to get this bike up to a decent speed, even as an adult. Every time I rode this old bike, it reminded of Bill trying to start huge Silver, especially with a werewolf on his tail.

Hi-yo Silver, Away!

I won't lie, reading about Bill and Silver really made me miss having a bike. I might have to fix that...
 

Religiously_Unkind

Well-Known Member
Aug 19, 2017
444
2,264
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I'm chugging along through the Six Phone Calls chapter having a good time and the next thing I know i'm out like a light. I woke up six hours later in my chair with the book in my lap and my dog freaking out because I wasn't in the bed and he couldn't see me. I guess exhaustion caught up with me.
 

Grannie CeeCee

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2017
155
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The Drained Swamp, Ohio, USA
I finished IT while broke down on the side of a deserted, dark, country road during a storm. And had a big yawn at the end.

I've decided to revisit IT, based you all's enthusiam. My real life was pretty frightening when IT first hit the shelves. Perhaps evil alien clowns and giant spiders just couldn't compete.

I'm all fat and happy now.

Bring in the clowns.
 

recitador

Speed Reader
Sep 3, 2016
1,750
8,264
41
I finished IT while broke down on the side of a deserted, dark, country road during a storm. And had a big yawn at the end.

I've decided to revisit IT, based you all's enthusiam. My real life was pretty frightening when IT first hit the shelves. Perhaps evil alien clowns and giant spiders just couldn't compete.

I'm all fat and happy now.

Bring in the clowns.

i can't say i was ever overtly scared, but i'm not easily scared by books. it's more about the storytelling, which as always with king, is pretty masterful.
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
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United States
Upon my recent rereading of this I found a scene that stood out to me this time. Bill and Beverly have decided to sleep together (was anyone disappointed that he was unfaithful to Audra?) and Beverly has a sudden sensory memory: the one where she has sex with all of them as kids. She tells Bill this and Bill says, "Beverly, duh-duh-don't you uh-understand? That was y-y-your way to get us out!"

Anyway, Bill does experience guilt for his actions but maybe he did it because he didn't expect to survive. I don't know.
 
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