What I’m Reading – September
I finished Kitchen Confidential earlier this month, and although my love for Anthony Bourdain runs deeply… my fondness for that book did not. I do like his writing style, which I figured I would since I enjoy his narration of the TV show. I like to write non-fiction type essays, and even when I write fiction I have this conversational tone that rambles on in different directions but (hopefully) keeps it engaging and flavorful. He has a very similar style. Colloquial, conversational, and easy to read. So that I did enjoy, however 400 pages of kitchen and chef stuff… not so much. Reading KC did affirm one thing for me though, that I do not want to become a chef or anything chef-like. Sure, I can cook at home for us when I feel like it but that’s about it. Of course, when culinary school came up in my “what is my passion in life” search I’ve been having for the past few months, Tim immediately shut it down with a simple “You don’t want to work in a kitchen. That’s a really hard life. Me being me, I didn’t believe him – but 400 pages of Anthony Bourdain sealed the deal for me.
Since Kitchen Confidential and the craptastic Giant Shark Book, I’ve stuck with the horror drama with Stephen King’s Under the Dome. The only Stephen King book I’ve read before is his non-fiction / auto-biography On Writing which I enjoyed quite a bit. That being said, it’s not the typical Stephen King book. I’ve only seen typical Stephen plots on the screen, where I can cover my eyes when needed and later ask Tim to tell me what happened when I was too squeamish or scared to watch a scene. What I immediately realized when starting Dome was that you can’t exactly close your eyes and look away while reading a book.. not unless you’re just acting like a moron and willing to lose the entire plot (and yes: I realize the same argument could be said of me shutting my eyes during a movie… but I digress).
Within a hundred pages, we have bodies being torn apart by airplane crashes, severed limbs, woodchucks sawed in half, and a brutal beating and killing of a teenage girl – woohoo. A great literary treasure it is not, but I have to say the plot and writing style were better than I would have expected out of ‘ol six books a year Stephen King. Just kidding I had to google that. Stephen King actually writes 1.24 books a year. 49 published novels since 1973 when Carrie was accepted.
The only thing that annoys me is the plot shifts character point of views almost erratically, and there are a TON of characters – though they’re dropping like flies. Tim assures me this will get better (he read the book first), but we’ll see. Should have more to report after a day of flying home to NC this week.
