Why I Love To Read

Hello,

"Hearts In Atlantis" is a series of five interconnected narratives. Some are short and some are a bit longer. For instance "Low Men In Yellow Coats" takes up nearly half of the book. The five narratives are as follows:

1) "Low Men In Yellow Coats", it's both extremely creepy and also a great coming of age story that King is so good at. Read "The Body", it's the basis for the excellent movie "Stand By Me". This same combination can also be found in "It" and the amazing "Christine".

2) "Hearts In Atlantis" Last night I finished reading the actual "Hearts In Atlantis" narrative where the title of the book comes from. I love how King has interconnected all these stories together. Carol Gerber is a main character in the first two stories, although the protagonists are completely different. Carol Gerber also plays a small role in the third story.

Anyway I just want to share a bit of the magic of King's writing. To truly appreciate this sentence you have to read the actual story. However this sentence shows how good of a writer King is. I know he doesn't get much credit from critics.

Here's the amazing sentence:

"And sometimes, in my dreams and memories (the older I get the more they seem to be the same), I smell the place where I spoke that language with such easy authority: a whiff of earth, a scent of oranges, and the fading smell of flowers".

3) "Blind Willie" I'm about half way through the 3rd story, "Blind Willie" now. It's an interesting story

4) "Why We're In Vietnam"

5) "Heavenly Shades of Nights Are Falling" is the fifth and final narrative. I can't wait to get to this story, as it's the what happened following the events in the book's first story.

Anyway this blog isn't meant to be about Stephen King's writing, it's about why I love to read. I'm currently reading "Atlantis" so it's very much on my mind. I once read a book's intro where someone wrote that they would go through life again just so they could read the book again for the first time. I can't remember the actual book where I saw that line, but doesn't that capture the greatness of reading? I love that I can be anywhere in the world just by opening a book. I've never understood how people don't absolutely love reading. I have "Hearts In Atlantis" right next to me and I can't wait to finish it. But I have responsibilities to take care of first and other things I want to do.

Another thing I like about King's books is that the majority of them are very long. That gives one a chance to get completely lost in his world and yet the world doesn't end after 300 pages. With some books I read, I have to make myself stop reading. The reason why is if I give my brain a chance to think things through, insights and thoughts come to me. These thoughts may not have come to me if I rushed through the book. And I may have missed some of other things that made the book so good.

I also want to list some of the books that I would live my life over again just to read for the first time.

1) "Christine" is above, but seriously it's such an amazing book. (The movie isn't very good.) In high school I was a Stephen King snob, which just makes me laugh now. I can't remember the details of why I decided to give one of his books a chance. The book I chose is "Christine", what an amazing book. I actually was looking through my books last night and saw the copy of that book that I read all those years ago. I picked it up and held it in my hand. I had to stop myself from jumping back into this book.

2) John Irving's "A Prayer For Owen Meany". Again this is a book I discovered at school, SLCC. I was at SLCC and looking to kill some time. I went to the school bookstore and they had "Owen Meany". I picked it up randomly and absolutely loved it. Easily one of the best books I've ever read in my life.

3) Tom Clancy's "The Hunt For Red October", another book I discovered at a school. I came across this book at Ricks College. Again I was just looking for a book to read. I read this book way before Tom Clancy was a household name. It's a book I just randomly picked up. Honestly I was blown away. This also happens to be one of the very few books where the movie is actually better. That's mainly because the ending of the movie ("You killed us!") is so much better than the ending of the book.

4) James Michener's "Chesapeake".
5) Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes". An extremely well written book about McCourt's devastating life growing up.
6) Dave Eggers "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". See above. (Although his "The Wild Things" is brutally boring.) I found it especially poignant when Eggers went back to visit his childhood home.

Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me":



7) Dean Koontz's "Lightning". I'm sort of lukewarm on Koontz, but this book was fantastic.
8) Neal Stephenson "Anathem". This is for those of you who think that science fiction can't make great literature.
9) Garth Stein's "The Art of Racing In The Rain".
10) John Grogan's "Marley and Me". The movie wasn't as good as the book. However the movie had me in tears the final 15 minutes.
11) Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air".
12) Ursula Hegi "Stones From The River". Yes, this is Oprah Winfrey's first book club selection. And yes she has badly missed on some of the books she picked, but Hegi's novel is a classic.
13) Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabuiscuit".
14) Ivan Doig's "Dancing At The Rascal Fair". It's the first book of a trilogy, but can be read by itself.
15) Stieg Larson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" trilogy, yes all three books.
16) Neil Strauss's "The Dirt", yes it's that good. Nikki Sixx's "The Heroin Diaries" is good, but very heartbreaking. Anthony Kiedis' "Scar Tissue" is virtually unreadable. I was glad I was able to donate my copy, hopefully someone enjoyed it.
17) Stephen Davis' "Hammer of the Gods", his Led Zeppelin biography. His biography of Jim Morrison, "Life, Death, Legend" is decent but not quite as good.

You'll notice about half of these books are split between fiction and non-fiction. It's more about the writing than the subject matter.

I'll be adding books that have meant a lot to me over my lifetime as I think of them.

themusicaddict