What Not To Read on a Fourteen Hour Flight

Last updated on: November 16, 2013 at 3:44 am by willduquette

What Not To Read on a Fourteen Hour Flight 2013-11-15T20:06:15-05:00 willduquette

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I wrote this review of Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual in March of 2013.

Reading this book was a mistake.

You almost certainly misunderstood that last statement.

I like Stephen King. He’s a darn good story teller, and he’s darn good at evoking just the response he wants (which, it seems to me, isn’t quite the same thing). I use to buy all of his books as they came out, until I got to Insomnia, which was frankly a waste of time. He told the story well, but the story itself was too silly for words. After that I more or less stopped buying him, and even got rid of all but my favorite books by him.

I kept all of his short story collections. He’s a darn good story teller. So when I saw Everything’s Eventual at the bookstore and realized it was a new collection, I almost bought it. Almost, but not quite. I wasn’t in a buying mood, and I wasn’t in a Stephen King mood.

Well, then came the day when I was to leave for Australia. I didn’t much want to go, so I was in a foul mood. And then I came across this book again, at the airport, and thought it would distract me a bit, and so I bought it and started reading it in lieu of the book I’d brought for the trip.

That was the mistake.

See, when you write a horror novel you can make it as scary and awful as you like, and still provide a bit of a happy ending after all of that catharsis. When you write a short story in the same genre, you mostly can’t–there’s not time or space. Reading a short horror story is something like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer, because it feels so good when you stop. The horrible thing happened to someone else, someone you don’t know, someone who isn’t even real.

If you read a horror anthology straight through in one sitting, it doesn’t stop. You just keep getting hit with that hammer through story after story. It’s enough to make a guy feel really lousy, and indeed that’s usually the effect a Stephen King collection has on me if I’m stupid enough (after all this time) to read it that way.

I started reading Everything’s Eventual in the terminal. I continued reading it on the plane. And when I finished a story, I was still on the plane, with many hours to go (it was a fourteen-and-a-half-hour flight) before I got to Australia, feeling cramped, confined, and really out-of-sorts about leaving my family.

I guess you could say that the book fit my mood…but on the whole I’d have been better off with something cheerful. At the very least, I didn’t do the stories justice, reading them that way.

Which is a pity, because it’s really a rather good book, if you like that sort of thing.

Blasts from the Past

Woof Guide to Literature

books

horror

travel

Previous Post

November 15, 2013

Woof Guide to Popular Music: Thomas Aquinas

Next Post

November 17, 2013 Bootstrapping the Interior Life: Direction

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Admin App o' the Morning Ask the Dogmat Believing Thomas Bits of Fiction Blasts from the Past Bootstrapping the Interior Life Catholic Mom Christian Living Deep Thoughts from the Doghouse Dominicana Evangelii Gaudium Interviews It Was A Dark and Stormy Night Links to This and That Lumen Fidei Meme Watch On Writing Operation Gratitude Pedant Errant Photography Quill Random Barkings S'Mary's World Shakers of Salt Software Development The Dog Whistler The Dogmat Sez Third Orders Thomas Aquinas Uncategorized Vikings at Dinos Woof Guide to Cinema Woof Guide to History Woof Guide to Literature Woof Guide to Obscure Catholic Music Woof Guide to Philosophy Woof Guide to Popular Music Woof Guide to Technology Woof Guide to Theology Words I Wish I'd Written Works For Me

Select a Month September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which feast was reinstituted with great joy, reading the Law daily for seven days?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Day of Atonement Passover Feast of Tabernacles Purim