© 2015 Book Chatter | Book Chatter

Misery
By Stephen King
(Signet Book, Mass Market Paperbound, 9780451169525, 352pp.)

The Short of It:

Annie Wilkes is Paul Sheldon’s #1 fan and when she finds her favorite author on the side of the road, injured in a car crash, she takes him home to “nurse” his wounds.

The Rest of It:

It’s King! And this one is a doozy. I’d forgotten the ending even though I’ve read it twice before and seen the movie so reading this book for the third time was like reading it for the first time.

Why did I read it again? This.

#MiseryRAL

I am a total sucker for read alongs involving Uncle Stevie. As long as my eyes are not scratched up by a hair brush, I will say yes. That’s all I’m saying about that. So when Care asked, I of course said yes.

The book. Wow. I had forgotten how intense the story is but I was quickly reminded just a few pages in. I won’t go into details because if you haven’t read it, you really must. Basically, Annie is nuts and when she finds Paul Sheldon on the side of the road, injured and needing help, she steps in and takes it a little too far.

Annie Wilkes is quite the character and King takes great pleasure in sharing all her cockadoodie mannerisms and oogie hygiene habits. Those words are sprinkled throughout the book, numerous times and every time I heard them, I got chills up my back. They are SO Annie.

And Paul, not as helpless as you think but still, what a predicament to be in. Trapped, injured and having to rely on Annie?? Oh my word. Yes, a tough situation to say the very least.

On the gore chart, this one is a little intense. But on the supernatural front, there is nothing really to speak of. What makes this story scary is that it could actually happen.

What’s neat about the book is that there is a story within a story. Paul is writing a book while held captive and King spends a good chunk of time fleshing that story out. Almost to the point where one blogger wanted to read the rest of THAT story! No? Yes!

Overall, this was just too much fun to read as a group. Every time we came across a little gem, we’d hop on Twitter to comment. If you want to check out the comments, search for #MiseryRAL. I guarantee you will want to join in on the next King read along after reading some of those tweets.

To sum this up, I enjoyed the book more this time around than the first two times. I must have been very young when I read it before because I really didn’t remember too many of the details. So glad I decided to read it again.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

I’ve been on a Mad Men kick. I’ve watched seasons 1-5 in a very short time, but a strange thing happened while watching. One of the characters mentioned Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and then a season later it was mentioned again.

Don Draper - Mad Men

So far, I think it’s been mentioned a total of three times. Yes, I paid attention.

I read The Fountainhead years ago but never really had the desire to read this one until now. I casually mentioned it on Facebook and someone said they’d like to read it too and then so on and so on. Without really trying, a read along was born!

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life — from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy — to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction — to the philosopher who becomes a pirate — to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph — to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad — to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

I typically like my read alongs to be a little less formal and fun so I am not asking for mandatory posts or anything like that. The book is nearly 1200 pages long so I would love it if others could join me.

Details:

Runs from July 1-Aug 15, 2015
Use #AtlasRAL to talk about it on Twitter.
I hope to write an update post on my blog after each part (I, II, III) just to see how we are doing.

Suggested Read By Dates:

Part I by July 15 (approx 300 pages)
Part II by July 31 (approx 320 pages)
Part III by August 15 (approx 450 pages)

Are you in? If so, leave me a comment including the following: