THE STAND

My introduction to Stephen King came with his collection of short stories entitled Skeleton Crew (the collection left such an indelible imprint on my life, the title has become a common figure of speech in my daily talk). The first story was The Mist, about a heavy fog that settled over a small town in Maine, and out of the fog came none other than monsters from some other dimension. The majority of the story took place in a grocery store, with some scenes in the shopping plaza, and I couldn't put the story down. At the time I worked twenty hours a week at our local I.G.A., whose bay windows mirrored those in the the story. The I.G.A. sat in a plaza reminiscent of King's tale, so the story came to life for me. Ever since then I've been a fan of Stephen King, though I've read only a handful of his novels (my favorites being Cujo and Skeleton Crew).

Now I can add The Stand to the list.

And I've got the miniseries on DVD.

It's six hours long, so it'll take me a while to plow through it.

Next up: The Shining.

(And then Mandy and I are going to watch the movie together!)

I was sitting on the leather sofa in the cafe sipping an iced soy mocha and reading The Shining when Josh (one of the workers at Fusian Sushi next door) plopped down beside me. I told him I hadn't seen the movie and that my girlfriend and I were going to watch it together once I finished the novel. He told me that's the way to do it, otherwise I'd be imagining Jack Nicholson on every page. I politely replied that I imagined Jack Nicholson in everything I read, from historical treatises to fiction novels, and I told him that's been the case since As Good As It Gets. Best Nicholson movie ever.