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What am I doing?

Being a true Mainer, while my mother was pregnant with me, she was reading a book by Stephen King. Specifically she was reading The Dark Half by Stephen King. In that book there is a character named Shayla and that is where my name came from. Growing up in Maine already gives you a sense of closeness with Mr. King but having him be the reason for my namesake always drew me even closer to him. In fact, for my 23rd birthday I was gifted with Stephen King’s personal copy of The Dark Half that he signed for me.  I grew up watching many Stephen King shows and movies and read a few books. My favorite book of all time being The Long Walk by Stephen King, himself. All in all, however, I’ve only read about 5 of Mr. King’s books in total. I feel like this weird connection and fascination I have with him has ultimately only led me to one place. And that place is right here, preparing to read all his books. With all honesty, I get crazy ideas like this all the time but only seldom do I see anyt
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The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla (2003)

Before reading: I'm going to keep this short because I just want to get into reading. This is the beginning of the end. The fifth book in the Dark Tower series and the last two published directly afterwards. Once I start, I will be going on to the end. I'm both excited and terrified so let's go.  After reading: I am also going to keep this short...you're welcome! I am just so deep into my DT journey right now that I honestly don't have too much to say and didn't take too many notes. Obviously it was amazing. It is always so great to be with these characters and in this story. We got some great new characters and events as well as catching up with some old characters and rehashing some previous tales.  Spoilers-ish ahead...Firstly, I clocked it involving Harry Potter right away. The font is literally the same. There are no coincidences. As I mentioned, we caught up with some familiar characters dating all the way back to ' Salem's Lot . We also got some s
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Everything's Eventual (2002)

Before reading:  Here we go again with more short stories. As we have seen time and time before, these are not my jam. I am familiar with two of the stories in this collection ( 1408  and  The Little Sisters of Eluria)  and am excited to read at least those. Same as always I will give overall thoughts as well as thoughts on each individual story. Let's jump right in! After reading: I am happy to report that this was my favorite short story collection. I don't think I really disliked a single story and there were a few that I quite enjoyed. A pleasant surprise. Now I still don't love this format but I actually had a good time reading this collection. :)  Autopsy Room Four:  Immediately, first sentence, I said "oh God." Also, this is set in Derry so that's fun. That was almost a really good story until the end. It was legitimately scary but the end was silly and stupid. I know King does this on purpose and has a certain sense of humor, but I wish it was just a s
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From a Buick 8 (2002)

Before reading: Here we are again...getting ready to read a book about a car. Even though I have read car books by King that I enjoyed, I just cannot get excited about starting one. I've heard both good and bad things about this book, I am going in expecting it to be mid. However, as always, I am open-minded and will wait until I finish it to make any decisions. I don't know much about this book except that it is basically a Christine re-do and there was a little introduction to it in On Writing but that is as far as my knowledge on this one goes. Let's give it a whirl! After reading: Per usual, I was pleasantly surprised. I somehow managed not to take any notes while reading this one so this review should be short and sweet. Of course I should've known a SK story "about a car" wasn't going to be about a car. It was a story about people and uncertainties. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times again, writing about people is what Stephe
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Black House (2001)

Before reading: I have been pumped for this one, you guys. I really hope I'm not let down! This is the sequel to The Talisman  and it is again co-written with the late Peter Straub. I have a few reasons I've been looking forward to this one. The first is that we don't get too many sequels so that is exciting! Also, I've heard this is the better of the two books and I love me some King fantasy. Apparently this book helps us on the way to The Dark Tower , which I always welcome. Additionally, word on the street is that there may be a third installment on the way. I really hope I'm not hyping it up too much, so let's find out! After reading: As with all my favorites, this blog will be short and sweet. Yes, this was absolutely one of my favorite books that I have read. It is so different from The Talisman  but still has all the same fantastical and magical elements. It feels like a grown up version. I cannot talk enough about how much I love the writing style of thi
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Dreamcatcher (2001)

Before reading: I'm nervous, guys. This book is known for being pretty...mid. It is also about aliens and we all know how I felt about his last alien book. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again, I am not a very critical reader. I'm hoping that fact about me allows me to blissfully read through this book without feeling some type of way. I mean, there are people who LOVE this book (there are also people who love The Tommyknockers so that isn't very comforting) so there's gotta be something good about it. I'm going in with an open mind and pretending I don't know that this is known for not being a good book...ignorance is bliss and I'll see ya on the other side! After reading: You know, maybe I just don't like sci-fi? Was this book horrible? No. Was it my favorite? Absolutely not. However, to its credit, the last half of the book was quite enjoyable and an easy read. The beginning really dragged for me--a lot of it felt unnecessary.
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