So, I said I need to start reading books again and reading I have done. This time it was Stephen King's 1996 drama/fantasy/thriller the Green Mile, and what a book it was.
WARNING: Spoilers follow
The story tells of a giant who is convicted for killing two children who, the guards soon find out, has some sort of God-like healing power. Throughout the book the man displays this healing power which causes some characters to have second thoughts about who committed the crime which John Coffey the giant is on death row for.
The book is written from the memory of Paul Edgecombe (played by Tom Hanks in the film of the same name) from the old peoples' home in which he now lives/d. It tells the story of Paul in the death row block in 1932 but is written by him in the year of publication: 1996.
Reading through the story you/the reader feel/s sort of emotional towards the characters as King manages to write with description and in a way that makes them seem real, like the story really happened. Sort of in a biographical way, if you will.
This is definitely one of Stephen King's better books out of the seemingly hundreds he's written and the few I've read and definitely one people who are into fantasy and thriller mixed should pick up. It's a thick book at almost 500 pages but not that hard a read. A good one for a first-time reader of Stephen King.
I don't know if I'll be reading this again any time soon (I have a HUGE pile to read yet, including more Stephen King) but I might pick it up in a year or so as I tend to do with Simon Kernick books. We'll see but in the meantime I'll give this book a rare 5 out of 5 and a BIG recommendation to anyone who reads.
Coming next: I have no idea, need to select something out of 1000+ books.
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Monday, 4 July 2011
Friday, 4 March 2011
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (e-book)
Everyone's favourite stoner Disney movie (why doesn't Google Chrome recognise this word?) now has a review on this blog.
For a story that began as an improvisation told to three children on a river trip, Alice in Wonderland is a very good book filled with sheesha-smoking caterpillars, permanently-smiling cats and mock/false turtles. Not forgetting a King and Queen of hearts and pelicans used for croquet mallets.
The story, of course, begins with Alice spotting a white rabbit in a waistcoat which runs down a rabbit hole and she just HAS to follow this curious rabbit, doesn't she?
What follows is a story of a girl who goes from standard size to mega-small to long-necked who explores this Wonderland of the aforementioned animals. She gets to hear stories of turtles who danced with lobsters, meet children who transform into pigs and a Cheshire cat which has the ability to appear and disappear upon its will.
As the story goes on, things just seem to get weirder until the climax in which Alice finds herself at a trial against an unnamed character which has written some strange verse when the full pack of cards rises into the air and falls onto her.
This was a book I'd wanted to read for some time, and when I found the free e-book of it, I felt obliged to download it.
Although this was originally told/written for children, I reckon adults would also take pleasure in reading such a story (Wikipedia does say that adults enjoy it also). It's like some sort of legal acid trip put into words (let's face it, when have you EVER seen a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, puffing away on a hookah when sober?)
Certainly worth the 9kb and short amount of time it took to download, AIW is one for everyone. It also read very well on the e-reader. Download was legal as Carroll is now dead and copyright has since disappeared.
Total rating: 4 out of 5
Downloaded at: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ where you can thousands of ebooks available to print, PDF and epub formats.
For a story that began as an improvisation told to three children on a river trip, Alice in Wonderland is a very good book filled with sheesha-smoking caterpillars, permanently-smiling cats and mock/false turtles. Not forgetting a King and Queen of hearts and pelicans used for croquet mallets.
The story, of course, begins with Alice spotting a white rabbit in a waistcoat which runs down a rabbit hole and she just HAS to follow this curious rabbit, doesn't she?
What follows is a story of a girl who goes from standard size to mega-small to long-necked who explores this Wonderland of the aforementioned animals. She gets to hear stories of turtles who danced with lobsters, meet children who transform into pigs and a Cheshire cat which has the ability to appear and disappear upon its will.
As the story goes on, things just seem to get weirder until the climax in which Alice finds herself at a trial against an unnamed character which has written some strange verse when the full pack of cards rises into the air and falls onto her.
This was a book I'd wanted to read for some time, and when I found the free e-book of it, I felt obliged to download it.
Although this was originally told/written for children, I reckon adults would also take pleasure in reading such a story (Wikipedia does say that adults enjoy it also). It's like some sort of legal acid trip put into words (let's face it, when have you EVER seen a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, puffing away on a hookah when sober?)
Certainly worth the 9kb and short amount of time it took to download, AIW is one for everyone. It also read very well on the e-reader. Download was legal as Carroll is now dead and copyright has since disappeared.
Total rating: 4 out of 5
Downloaded at: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ where you can thousands of ebooks available to print, PDF and epub formats.
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