Reading Update: Brain Tumors, Meth Cooks and Hobbits

The last time I posted regarding my reading schedule I was trying to plow through The Dark Half.  Since then I've finished it along with Needful Things and Under the Dome.  First off I'll say I was very underwhelmed with the ending of The Dark Half, and the book as a whole, even.  I guess that's probably why most people don't rank it very high on their lists of King favorites. I eventually had time to watch the film adaptation and it's right on par with the book: underwhelming.  Though I did admire how true to the written work the screen adaptation was.  I only wish they'd used the same Sheriff Pangborn in both Dark Half and Needful Things film adaptations.  Ah well.  I'll make separate posts for both Needful Things and Under the Dome as they were both quite excellent reading and deserve more than just a snippet.  

Once I'd finished the magnum opus Under the Dome I blasted quickly through Cell and it too, was sort of disappointing.  The story is nice but the ending has an unsatisfying Bachman-esque quality.  If you've read any of the Bachman books you'll know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, I decided to bear down and attack It after I'd finished Cell and so far, I'm loving It.  (McDonalds pun so not intended.)

I'm about 600 pages in and I'm taking a break.  Not at any fault of the book, though.  Honestly the way the two time frames in the book are woven together is amazing.  I can't imagine anyone, even SK having written the book the way it is.  It almost would've have to have been written as a 'then' story and a 'now' story and then split up and woven together.  Then again I'm not the best selling fiction author of all time, so maybe the ability to write in such a manner is beyond the scope of my understanding.  Anyway, I've unfortunately already seen the movie so it sort of dulled my expectations for the book, but I'm being pleasantly surprised by the depth of the characters and all the 'flashback' moments there've been so far.

The reason for taking a break in the late middle of It?  I blame the hobbits.  My wife and I went to the library and I picked up The Fellowship of the Ring only to get home and realize that I have a cheap copy of The Hobbit that I've never read. (For shame, I know)  So last week I read quickly through The Hobbit to sort of get a small dose of back story on Bagginses and Middle-Earth, hobbits, dwarves, elves, trolls, goblins and all that.  And now I'm maybe... 50 pages into the first Lord of the Rings book.

From all this it might seem like I read a lot but if you'll notice the last post regarding books was made oh.. a long time ago.  I really need to pick up the pace.  Especially because the LotR book is a library book.  Once I finish it I'll have a more detailed writeup on it.