The season 3 casting of “Game of Thrones”, is looking great so far, but still they are missing a few very important characters. Where is Mance Rayder, and Ramsay Bolton? Hopefully, they’re not gonna leave those characters out.
Check out this great video that was shown at SDCC during the “Game of Thrones” panel.
Kev
Today I took a bike trip up to Schuylerville, which is a small town not too far from where I live, so I went to this used bookshop called, “Old Saratoga Books”, and walked out with 5 Stephen King books. I picked up “The Gungslinger”, “Dark Tower II: Drawing of Three”, “Cell”, “The Regulators (as Richard Bachman)”, and “Thinner (as Richard Bachman)”. They all costed me about $11 total and most of them are hardcover! “Old Saratoga Books” is a cool little store, so I’ll go there a lot more often.
Just last Monday, I picked up “Blockade Billy” by King from the Bargain section at Barnes & Noble in Saratoga Springs. So I can cross off 6 Stephen King books off my list.
I got 11 more books to go, almost done completing his entire body of work! See? I’m a die hard fan. Have been for years. Now I have all 7 Dark Tower books, I’m planning to start re-reading them all soon. Can’t wait to complete his collection.
I do like other authors, don’t get me wrong, but I won’t collect other authors entire body of books, just Stephen King. Whenever I get done completing King’s book collection, I’ll do a videoblog of it to show it off.
Kev
After all the internet buzz about this book, “50 Shades of Grey” by E.L. James, I just had to give it a read for myself. While I refuse to get into details about my personal life and sex life, I would say however, that I do enjoy porn and enjoy reading “erotica” fiction. I just had to give this book a read myself, just out of curiosity. For the past few months, women all over the internet has been going crazy over this book. Saying this book is addicting to them and pretty “steamy”. There are mixed opinions on this book, some say that this book is terribly written. So whose side am I on, the fans or the haters? Sorry, but I’m going to side with the haters on this one and agree that this book was terribly written.
Throughout the entire book, I felt like the book was written by a teenage girl. You know the way a teenage girl talks? Well, that’s how the narrator talks throughout this entire book. The main character, Anastasia Steele, will talk like this throughout most of the book: “Holy Fuck”, “Oh shit”, “Oh no”, etc. You get the deal. The way she wrote Christian Grey was kind of silly as well.
Now let’s talk about the topic of this book of what made it so popular. All the sex and “Bondage”. Was it steamy that some said it was? No. It wasn’t all that steamy, in my opinion. Most of the sex was boring. Maybe like one or two sex scenes in the book were pretty good, but could have been hotter. Plus, most of the sex was all repetitive bullcrap, nothing new going on. I appreciate E.L. James trying to promote “Bondage S & M” (aka, BDSM for short) and trying to get people interested but even the bondage stuff in the book was pretty silly. She did an okay job making the “BDSM” stuff realistic, the written agreement was real, the safewords were real, and the equipment used were real. If you did research on bondage, it can be more disturbing and a little risky than the stuff you’ve read in the novel. I never did any, BDSM. No lie. I don’t think I’ll ever be into it but I’ve read about that stuff on the internet, so I know some stuff about it.
EL James wasn’t the first to bring BDSM into novel fiction. Stephen King did it with his book, “Gerald’s Game”, and Anne Rice did it with the Sleeping Beauty novels. If you’re interested in “erotic” stories and want to read more, “BDSM” fiction, there is plenty of that everywhere. Go to your adult book stores in town that sells porn books, and I’m sure you can find plenty there. Also, if you have good spyware/virus protection, the internet can have better “BDSM” stories too. The point is, forget the overrated “50 Shades of Grey”. Look else where for porn. The one thing that I am impressed with this novel is that it got most women to show that they are interested in sex more than anything. I also respect EL James for trying to bring BDSM, into the mainstream and get more people interested.
With all this being said, this book was okay. Some of it can be entertaining but most of it was boring. I don’t think I’ll bother reading the other two books. Now if Hollywood is planning to do movies on this series, good luck on trying not to get an NC-17 rating, which is going to be kind of hard. I don’t care who plays Anastasia Steele or Christian Grey. This film is going to be a hard movie to make and I’m not sure if they’ll be able to pull it off even with a simple R rating. Thumbs down on “50 Shades”, I wouldn’t recommend it. Yes, I did feel like reading a young adults “Twilight” book.
Kev
I would say so, yes! When was the last book you’ve seen Stephen King do that was horror? He hasn’t done a horror novel in a long time. He’s been concentrating on other genres like science fiction, fantasy, mystery, etc. You don’t see other book authors writing horror anymore either. Dean Koontz has also been staying away from the genre a lot. Well, Stephanie Meyer released the “Twilight” series in books, but I don’t consider them horror, in my opinion.
As for the movie industry, the genre is pretty much dead there too. Most so called horror films these days are nothing but blood, gore, and naked women. Plus, most horror films of today’s are mostly popcorn action flicks anyway.
The horror genre was really big back in the 1930’s to the early 90’s, but the genre seemed to have slowly vanished in the 2000’s years. I’m a real big fan of horror. Always have been. Well, the “Saw” series sort of made horror a comeback, but I never liked the “Saw” series though, I only enjoyed the first one, not the sequels.
However, there were a few new horror films that came out that I thought was actual “horror”. Films like, “The Strangers”, “Quarantine”, and “Insidious”. I thought those three films were absolutely amazing and those films were scary as hell. I also love, “The Paranormal Activity” franchise. So good horror does come out once in a while.
I just watched the original, “I Spit On Your Grave” (the 1978) version on Netflix tonight and kept thinking to myself, this is how today’s horror films should be!
Freddy, Jason, Chucky, Hellbound, Michael Myers, all came and gone already. Now the industry is concentrating on reboots for all those characters. It would be nice if the horror genre made a comeback in a huge way. It tries to make a comeback but it fails in the box office. Seems that no one is interested in horror anymore. I just love the genre. Why do I love the genre so much? I just love the creativity of the writing. The unpredictability of the storytelling. The characters, and the intelligent writing. I just love the feeling of being dark and scary. Horror helps me become more confident in life and makes me a much stronger person. It helps makes me not get scared of anything. I’ve been reading horror novels and watching horror movies my whole life, so I’m used to the gross outs and scares.
If I was to ever become a book author myself, the horror genre is probably what I would mostly write. When I was a kid in school, all I would mostly write is short horror stories. I would write, blood, guts, and the nastiest murders you can think of. I would love to get back into horror fiction writing, but I would need to improve my writing skills and go to school for it, and all.
Horror fiction is awesome. The only time people would get interested in horror again is, if another “Paranormal Activity” or another “Saw” movie comes out, but everyone would ignore everything else. Sad really.
Kev
If I can’t find the earlier Stephen King books anywhere else at the Used bookstores, I think I’ll just get the rest of them from Ebay. I actually need 18 books left to get. I did a recount and noticed there was a few Richard Bachman books, I needed to get as well.
I also have a few S.K. hardcover books, that don’t have the original jacket covers, but I will re-buy them so I can have the original cover on them.
I was never a big Ebay user, but I’ll use it just to collect the last of the S.K. books that I need left. I desperately want his entire collection of work. I want the original editions of his books, not the newer versions.
Kev
Not only that digital music has taken over CD’s, digital novels has also taken over the world of hardcover/paperbacks. Ever wonder why more and more bookstores have been going out of business as of late? It’s because everyone has been reading books digitally these days. With stuff like the Nook, Ipad, etc. I prefer reading books on paper instead of a screen. I like old school style of reading. I like to buy hardcover/paperbacks ’cause it’s nice to have a book collection and to support the author as well, most importantly.
The only time I’ll read a book on Ibooks for the Ipad, is when I want to read something that I refuse to buy at the store. For example, that’s why I bought “50 Shades of Grey” for the Ipad instead of getting it on Hardcover/Paperback.
I love used books. I love going to used bookstores, and stuff like that. Reading has always been one of my favorite hobbies other than music ’cause reading books keep me inspired.
Today, I just went to a used bookstore called, “The Owl Pen” in Greenwich, which is a great little book store out of town. Took a long bike ride to get out there. Picked up 4 hardcovers today: Stephen King’s “Four Past Midnight”, Ray Bradbury “Fahrenheit 451”, William Golding “Lord of the Flies”, and James Fenimore Cooper, “The Last of the Mohicans”. I went to that store to see what they have for Stephen King hardcovers. They had several of them, but I already owned most of them. I already did own “Four Past Midnight”, but the one I had before didn’t have that cover jacket, now I do!
I’ll go back to the “Owl Pen” later this summer.
Yep, it’s pretty sad how the book industry is today. You can’t get old books in new bookstores anymore. If you want to get the old books, the best places to get them are at used bookstores, library book sales, yard sales, flea markets, etc.
The only reason, “Barnes & Noble”, is still alive and kicking is because of the Nook, period. The Nook is a best selling thing going right now. I don’t own a Nook and probably will never get one. I’ll just use my Ipad to read on Ibooks.
Kev
Today, I just finished reading Dee Snider’s rock memoir, “Shut Up and Give Me the Mic”. You see, the 80’s hair metal band, Twisted Sister, was a huge inspiration for me. When I was a kid, I would play their vinyl album, “Stay Hungry”, pretty religiously. Yep, I was pretty addicted to that album. Dee Snider’s look and image, the long curly hair, makeup, and weird looking costume. That look is very cool. That look on the album cover of “Stay Hungry”, is what made me want to get the album and what made me want to get into the band, Twisted Sister. Every time, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” or, “I Wanna Rock” played on MTV back in the day, I would crank it up, sing along with it and play air guitar. I truly believe that was the beginning of my love for rock music. It started from there. That’s how big Twisted Sister was back in the day.
If you think Dee Snider, was into drugs, alcohol, hard partying and fucking multiple women. Think again. He did none of those things. Most rock memoirs are about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. Dee Snider’s book is not. If you’re expecting to read about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll in this book, then move along. This book strictly focus’s on Dee’s life and music career. The main focus of this book is to tell the true story of how he created the rock character we all loved and has been inspired by. His famous look in the photo below:
The book also focuses on how he created the two iconic hit songs everyone knows, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, and “I Wanna Rock”.
In the book, he explained how he got into music and how he joined, Twisted Sister. Dee didn’t form the band himself, he joined them. Twisted Sister, was Jay Jay French’s band. Dee just wrote all the songs and sang them. He explained that the Dee Snider image we all know, didn’t happen right away. It happened pretty slowly. Dee had different costumes before the one we all know. His wife, Suzette, is a costume designer and she was the one who created the image for him. Everything about Dee’s life and the career of Twisted Sister is in there. He also talked a lot about family life and how he met Suzette and married her. Things like that. Even Twisted Sister’s career slump after the “Stay Hungry” album was all in there too. I was actually pretty surprised on how intelligent Dee Snider is. He’s also pretty comical and told a lot of funny stories. There will be a few parts in there that will get you laughing out loud for no reason.
The part that grabbed me the most about the book was the part about Dee’s battle against the PMRC. As you can see in that link, Dee testified in that court battle, to defend Twisted Sister’s music ’cause Tipper Gore accused the band of promoting violence and obscene things. John Denver and Frank Zappa both tried to help defend the 1st Amendment in music too. While these three guys tried their best to destroy the PMRC, they lost the battle of course. Which is why we still see those, “Parental Advisory” warnings on albums even to this day. I agree that there is nothing violent about Twisted Sister’s music at all. Their music has always been positive, and family friendly, yet they’re always getting wrongfully accused of promoting violence, drugs, etc. The song, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is about venting out your frustrations. I don’t see anything in the lyrics about beating people up.
Other than that, this was an entertaining read. Dee says he plans on writing a sequel to this book, so that should be good too. This book focused on the past of his career. I’m sure the sequel will focus on the present time of his career (like the Twisted Sister reunion, the Christmas album, Celebrity Apprentice, etc.). I’ve read a lot of rock memoirs, but I think this is one of the best ones I’ve ever read. Like Dee Snider or not, he is a heavy metal pioneer. He was the one who started the 80’s hair metal trend. This was a great read. Check it out.
Kev
EDIT TO ADD: While we’re on the subject of Twisted Sister, they deserve an induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame too.
When it comes to buying Stephen King books on hardcover, what ones do I look for? I could collect the rest of the old titles from amazon or barnes&noble, but they won’t have the original classic editions of the Stephen King books. If you buy the old titles from bookstores, you’re just going to get the new editions with a new cover and all. I don’t want those kind of Stephen King books. I want the original ones when they were first published. You’re not going to find the original classic editions at the bookstores anymore. So where you do find the old editions?
Your best bet, is that you’ll find ’em at yard sales, book sales at Libraries, or bookstores where they sell used books, flea markets too. That’s where I’ve been getting most of them.
I’m planning on going to the Owl Pen Bookstore in Greenwich ’cause that’s a store that sells used books. Never been to that place before, want to check it out to see what they have. Hopefully, they have older S.K. books, I don’t have on my bookshelf yet. I’m sure they do.
Kev
Here is a list of books that I need to get left ’til I complete his entire collection of work, I still need to get these on hardcover:
I believe that’s pretty much it! Yep, I pretty much own most of his entire collection of work. Why do I feel the need to own every book he has ever published? Well, no. 1, I want to appreciate him as his biggest fan. 2., Hardcovers will be something valuable sometime down the road, and they last longer than paperbacks.
Stephen really changed my life over the years with his writing. I started reading his books underage, when I was a teenager, and have been addicted to his writing ever since.
Of course, I like his classic novels more than his new stuff. His new stuff, he has been staying away from the horror genre. I like him better being the horror writer. I miss him writing horror novels, ya know? I think after his accident when he got hit by a van, that was when he changed his style of writing. He kind of moved away from the horror genre after that. I do like his new stuff, but the best new books he has ever written were, “Under the Dome”, “11/22/63”, and “Lisey’s Story”.
Plus, I think all of the Dark Tower books are just amazing as well.
And no, I have never met Stephen himself in person yet, but I’m hoping I get lucky to meet him someday before he gets too old and die. I wouldn’t care to get an autograph or a photo with him, I just want to shake his hand and thank him for the inspiration.
Kev
Some of you may know that I’m a really big Stephen King fan. I’m pretty much a die-hard fanatic, as a matter of fact. I’ve collected most of his books on hardcover over the years. Today at a book sale at the Public Library in Greenwich, I bought, “The Talisman” and “Misery” on hardcover to add to my growing collection. I love Stephen King’s work. He’s been such a huge inspiration to me my whole life, and have been reading his books ever since I was a kid.
King has another new book coming out, called, “Joyland”, and it’s not coming out until June of 2013.
Read the plot and details about the book, here.
Before I became a musician, I originally was a fiction writer myself. I gave it up, ’cause I thought I was no good at it. So since I started playing music back then, I thought it was pretty cool to tell fiction stories in song instead. Fiction writing was something I did back in high school.
I still have dreams in writing a novel someday though.
Kev
K'Brocking 
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