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Title: On Writing

Author: Stephen King

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 368

Rating: 5*/5

Stephen King – On Writing

I’ve been a fan of Stephen King for the best part of ten years now, and while I’ve known about this book for a while I’ve been putting it off. I think it’s because it seems like such an obvious choice for me to read that the fact that I hadn’t was somehow offputting and I just left it until the problem got worse and worse and eventually I could no longer ignore it.

I ahouldn’t have waited so long. This book is weird but in a good way, a fascinating cross between a how-to book on the subject of writing from the master himself and a memoir that details how many of his most well-known books came about. In many ways, I’m glad that I waited a while to read it because it meant that I’d read a lot of the books that he talks about writing, and that made this one feel much more exciting and engaging.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is only of interest to those who have an interest in both writing and the work of Stephen King, though. You could pick this up as your first book of his and still enjoy it whether you’re a writer or not, but you’re going to enjoy it so much more if you’re a writer or even if you just have a passion for the English language. In fact, it could even work well if you’re a film maker or in some other related art. Anything to do with telling a story.

All in all then, I still can’t believe that I waited so long to read this but I’m happy that I finally got to it. I had a kind of fear that I’d read this and it would so fundamentally change my approach to writing that it would make everything I’ve done in the past irrelevant. It didn’t do that, which is good, but it has given me plenty of ideas that I’m looking forward to putting it into practice. I feel like the stuff on agents is less relevant now, though.

Stephen King

Click here to buy On Writing.

Becky Albertalli – Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda | Review

Title: Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Author: Becky Albertalli

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 312

Rating: 3.75*/5

Becky Albertalli – Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

I feel a little let down by this one, because I was expecting to absolutely love it and I ended up thinking it was just okay. The core story line was pretty good and everything I expected it would be, but I found it difficult to relate to the characters because the whole thing felt so American. Simon’s school and the culture inside it is nothing like the school I went to when I grew up, and there were a bunch of cultural references that I didn’t get and that made me feel more like an outsider.

Still, there was plenty of stuff that I did like as well, and I saw Simon very much as a flawed character. Not because he’s homosexual, of course, but because of some of the decisions that he makes and the ways that he acts. He complained about his teachers for following the syllabus and about his parents when he got in trouble for getting drunk. I was also confused by a scene at a gay restaurant that was pumping bass and freely serving alcohol to what appeared to be an entire room full of underage people.

All in all, this book made me feel kind of old. I related to the grownups more than the kids and couldn’t really tie it back to when I was a kid. But then, an ex-pupil burned down my school and I remember watching someone else get hit in the eye with a metal pole by another kid who didn’t like them. But it does have a positive message and I can see why you might find it relatable if you were born after the turn of the century somewhere in America.