Lilja's Library (43 page)

Lilja’s final words about
Faithful
 

So, should you read this one? Well, I think that you should, but if you don’t understand baseball you’ll have a bit of a hard time getting through it. Please don’t give up though. Even though it’s not my favorite book, I’m really glad I finished it. 

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McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories 

Posted: February 2, 2005  

McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories
is a collection of fifteen stories from fifteen different authors and is edited by Michael Chabon. Since Lilja’s Library is a Stephen King site, my review will be focusing on King’s story, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t enjoy the other stories as well. You have stories from people like Peter Straub, Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King and ten other authors. King’s story has the title “Lisey and the Madman,” is thirty pages long and is an excerpt from a new book called
Lisey’s Story
(no, I don’t know when it’s being released). 

In “Lisey and the Madman” we get to meet Lisey (Lisa) Landon and her husband, the famous writer Scott Landon. When we meet up with them they are at the Shipman Library construction site. Scott is there to get it all started by taking the ceremonial first shovel of dirt.  

What happens during this ceremony is what seems to be the start of something going terribly wrong. Scott is attacked by a madman (hence, the name of the story) and ends up being shot. Because of King’s writing style, in which he usually gives us a taste of what’s to come, we know he will survive, so that’s not the main story (even though it is in this excerpt).  

My guess, and it’s just a guess since this is actually an excerpt from a longer book, is that the main plot is something else. Something that has to do with The Long Boy… 

We don’t really know what or who The Long Boy is, but it’s a creature that Scott seems very familiar with. You can see him by looking through a dirty water glass…if you look through it just the right way and in the hours after midnight.  

Lilja’s final words about
McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories
 

I feel that, based on reading “Lisey and the Madman,” this upcoming book,
Lisey’s Story
, will be very good. So, Stephen, please get it out soon! And in the meantime, you should definitely get yourself a copy of
McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories
today! 

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’Salem’s Lot - Limited edition 

Posted: February 6, 2005  

The Centipede Press edition of
’Salem’s Lot
is a big book; it’s probably the biggest book I have seen. It weighs more than thirteen pounds, is 9 x 13 inches and more than 4 1/4” thick. The nice thing with it is that it’s like the entire book has been sized up. The font is bigger, so it almost feels like you have shrunk when you read it. It’s not a book you’re going to read lying on your back; you will need to sit up when reading it. It’s really that BIG! 

The book contains
’Salem’s Lot
(of course), but also “Jerusalem’s Lot” and “One for the Road” (as they are related to the
’Salem’s Lot
story) as well as King’s introduction from the Pocket Books edition of
’Salem’s Lot.
And, as if that weren’t enough, this book has something unique; it has some extra material. Just like a DVD, we get fifty (yes, you heard me: fifty) pages of deleted scenes from the original manuscript, which have never before been published.  

This is something unique. The only other time this has happened is with the extended version of
The Stand
. In
The Stand
, the new material is incorporated into the book, and with
’Salem’s Lot
it’s collected in the back of the book. The positive thing about having it all at the back is that you can easily see what material is new; when it’s incorporated into the book it becomes harder to see all the new stuff.  

Anyhow, it’s really cool to see what King had in store from the beginning, and if you first read the book and then the new material you can easily see how it would (or would not) have worked in the book. All the new parts are explained at the beginning of each section, telling us where they are from in the book. Nice!  

The book also contains beautiful photos by Jerry Uelsmann. And, even though they aren’t taken for this book (they’re from Uelsmann’s personal archive), they contribute in giving the book a nice feel.  

All in all this is a very nice book. The only thing that I’m skeptical about is the material (Japanese cloth on the edition I got) used for the cover and the traycase. It’s a dust magnet. And, as all of you probably know, a bookcase is where all the dust lives and breathes, right? Other than that, I think it’s a beautiful book!  

Here is some information about each of the three editions of this book:  

25 leather (15 for sale) $950 

Bound in leather (real leather, non-bonded) with photos in a traycase.  

Roman numerals. Signed.  

Printed on Saunders paper.  

380 cloth (300 for sale) $470 

Bound in Japanese cloth with photos in a slipcase.  

Arabic numerals. Signed.  

Printed on Mohawk Paper.  

600 cloth (all for sale) $95 

Bound in Italian cloth. Only one photo used. No slipcase.  

Not numbered or signed.  

Printed on Finch paper.  

Lilja’s final words about
’Salem’s Lot - Limited edition
 

If you get a chance to get this book at a fair price (see the different editions and their original price above) you should definitely get it; just make sure that you have a big bookcase. As I said, it’s a really, really BIG book!  

One copy of the leatherbound edition went for $7,675.00 (the original price was $950.00) on eBay recently, and that is a bit too much… 

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Carrie (audio) 

Posted: March 10, 2005  

I have just listened to
Carrie
on audio and I must admit that I was blown away. Not only is King’s first book a really good book, but also Sissy Spacek (who played Carrie in the movie version from 1976) narrates the book extremely well. I’m not sure if she has narrated other books, but here she does a superb job. 

She really brings the story of Carrie to life, and the way she reads it is just so good. I’m sorry that I keep saying that, but it is just that good. It also gives the CD an extra dimension when you know that the actress who played Carrie in the movie now narrates the book, almost thirty years later! A very good move by whoever it was who decided it was a good idea to have Sissy narrate the audio.  

As most of you know,
Carrie
is a rather short book, and the audio edition is on seven CDs (which only lasts 7.5 hours), so you should be able to listen to it in a couple of days depending on how much time you have on your hands. Personally, I was surprised by how much I liked it. I have read the book before, but it was quite a while ago, and listening to it now was like meeting an old friend again from the time when I was just starting to explore King’s books.  

Another great thing about this audio edition is that it contains a brand new introduction by King that, according to the publisher, hasn’t been published before
and
the introduction is narrated by King himself, so…all you collectors out there need to buy this one as well! And remember, that is a good thing!  

Lilja’s final words about
Carrie (audio)
 

OK, this time it’s easy to sum it up. If you haven’t already bought this audio, run out and do it now.
Carrie
on audio is just that good! 

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The Things They Left Behind 

Posted: June 14, 2005  

“The Things They Left Behind” is King’s latest short story, and you can find it in the collection
Transgressions
edited by Ed McBain. King’s contribution is the shortest in the collection (twenty-seven pages), but it’s a good one. It’s King’s 9/11 story… 

“The Things They Left Behind” is about Scott Staley who, after avoiding the 9/11 disaster, starts receiving items that belonged to his fellow co-workers, co-workers who worked in the Twin Towers when the planes came. They are things that they had on their desks or around the office. Things that were special to them.  

At night he can hear the items talk and tell the story of what happened to their owners that day—horrific things. He tries to get rid of them but every time he does they come back. He even tries to give them to a neighbor, but she soon returns them, unable to stand what the items tell her. More and more items show up until he finally understands why they keep coming back…and what he has to do with them! 

Lilja’s final words about
The Things They Left Behind
 

“The Things They Left Behind” is a nice story about a terrible thing. I don’t know if it’s King’s way to process his feelings about what happened, but it sure could be. It’s interesting to see how King puts this terrible event in a story and gets a really nice one out of it. “The Things They Left Behind” is about a nice way to handle a terrible thing. Read it! 

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The Shining (audio) 

Posted: August 2, 2005  

So, another early King book is out as an audiobook. This time it’s
The Shining
, and I have to tell you, this one you definitely need to listen to. The narrator, Campbell Scott, does a really good job both when he tells the story and when he takes on the different characters, especially the Jack Torrence character. It’s very believable. 

I’m not sure if Campbell has narrated before, but you might have seen him in the films
Off the Map
or
Roger Dodger
. After listening to
The Shining
, I hope he will be hired again to narrate another of King’s books. I think he would be perfect for
The Stand
if that one is ever turned into an audiobook.  

As most of you probably know,
The Shining
is about the Torrence family, who is hired to care for the remote mountain resort The Overlook Hotel for the winter. They will be cut off from everyone and everything for most of the winter and once they are, things start to happen.
The Shining
is definitely one of the books that made King the writer he is today, if you ask me.  

The audio is on fourteen CDs and is about sixteen hours, so you have a good chunk of time in front of you. I listened to most of it while painting parts of my house and this time even painting was fun. I found myself wanting to get out there so I could listen to yet another chapter.  

Lilja’s final words about
The Shining (audio)
 

So, as with
Carrie
, the previously released audiobook, you will definitely need this one in your collection. And, you don’t even have to take my word for it; you can listen to a clip online before getting it. How about that? 

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The Colorado Kid 

Posted: September 13, 2005  

The story of
The Colorado Kid
isn’t actually a story at all. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
The Colorado Kid
has no ending…and that’s the point made throughout the entire book…that not all stories have an ending. In
The Colorado Kid
, King tells the story of two old newspapermen, Vince Teague and David Bowie (yes, you read that last name right), who tell Stephanie McCann, an intern at the newspaper, the story of the Colorado Kid.