The Bazaar of Bad Dreams is Stephen King’s latest collection of stories. It contains several pieces I’ve read before: Mile 81 and Ur were released as stand-alone e-books (and upon revisiting the later, I liked it quite a bit more than I did), and Blockade Billy was published with Morality tacked on. Not every tale… Read more »
Posts Categorized: First Lines
First Lines: The Toll Bridge
A boy, another boy, a girl, another girl, a toll bridge, and a load of teenage “problems”. That’s Aidan Chambers’ The Toll Bridge in a nutshell. While I don’t have problems with so-called Young Adult literature, this book seems to be aimed at a slightly younger target audience. Maybe that’s why it did next to… Read more »
First Lines: Life of Pi
Here be spoilers. The author’s note of Life of Pie Yann Martel sets the book up as not only a true story, but also as a story which will make you believe in God. First, we get the introductory setup, where we learn about how Piscine Molitor Patel came to be known as Pi Patel,… Read more »
First Lines: The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives, with its clear, crisp prose is nothing like the 2004 movie I once saw. And that’s a good thing, as it is much, much better. In fact, forget I even mentioned that. Stepford is just another American suburb: a nice little town, with a cozy center, perfect little houses with… Read more »
First Lines: The Scarlet Letter
Picking up a copy of The Scarlet Letter was a honest mistake: just after finishing my list of 40 books to read before my 40th birthday, I apparently couldn’t quite recall which book made the final cut. Turns out that Lady Chatterley’s Lover did, and this one did not. Sadly, I did not quite enjoy… Read more »