The Shining: Stephen King.

I finally read The Shining. That’s kind of a big deal for me as I’ve been meaning to read it since high school. When I graduated, my Creative Writing teacher gave me a copy of Stephen King’s On Writing, which remains the best book I’ve read about the craft of writing. I read it the summer before I went to college and to this day retain many of the lessons I learned from it… Granted, it was the first place I heard many bits of advice that are quite common, but I still remember it being the first place I heard this advice. Reading that book was a big deal for me, is what I’m getting at. Weird considering I’ve never been a fan of Stephen King otherwise.

Immediately after reading that book, I read Carrie. Now, as a former student and current teacher I have a totally bizarre-o fascination with school shootings, and Carrie White is the ultimate school shooting, except that guns aren’t involved. I should have loved it, yes? But I didn’t. I thought it was awful.

I always meant to read The Shining, especially after reading what Stephen King had to say about it in On Writing, but Carrie really left a bad taste in my mouth.

This school year, however, I am trying to be more diligent about reading what I want to read rather than sticking to what I’m teaching. (A new co-worker has helped me to get inspired in this regard – nevermind that that all centered around a reading of Water for Elephants.) I’m not going to pretend like I’m going to make it through War and Peace during the school year – if I can’t spend long stretches of time with a book, especially a rather thick one, I get bored by it – but I thought it would be no problem to work my way through The Shining.

I was put in the mood by Eric’s sudden interest in horror due to his own current project so I had a craving. Long story short, I was thoroughly impressed the first three-quarters of the book before I got bored, which is terribly frustrating with a book like The Shining. Right when things are supposed to be exciting, I am banging my head into the wall waiting for it to end. Not Stephen King’s fault.

It’s definitely worth reading. In fact, as soon as I finished it I went out and bought my own copy of Carrie. I intend to read it again before too long, and I’m hopeful. After my long-standing dissatisfaction with almost all things Stephen King-related, that says a lot.

And – I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but – don’t think you know the story if you’ve seen the movie. Not even close.

The case for fingerprinting.

It’s very brief, but the story is very creepy. When you’re as anxious as I am, this is the stuff of nightmares. First, study the mugshots, then check out the eerie coincidence over at Futility Closet.

Amazing street art.

So I’ve decided that for the weekend I’m allowed to post things that are not necessarily directly related to literature or writing or whatever. Street Art Utopia is something I encountered this week that I love. Here are some of my favorites (but there are many more):

They’re all available on Street Art Utopia.

Poe – M.G.

Clicking on the picture of our favorite bird-lover here will take you to an article mentioning a couple of things that are apparently old news but I was not aware of: ABC’s “Poe” and John Cusack in “The Raven.” This is information that I happily encountered by accident after finding this page.

It’s geared toward students or perhaps readers in need of a general introduction to Poe, but within these parameters it is pretty fantastic. It explores Poe’s personal life as well as his work and his legacy, and it includes juicy tidbits from an annotated version of “The Raven” to glimpses of original manuscripts.

Brave New… Whoa.

Much like most people of my generation and location, I was forced to read Huxley’s Brave New World as a “gifted” student of English 10. I must say I haven’t read it since although the mangled paperback is still in the top of my brother’s closet, where it’s been the past seven years, since his own “gifted” English 10 days. (As a current teacher in the very same county where I attended school, I know now that the term “gifted” is used very loosely – don’t get me started.)

I must admit, I didn’t totally appreciate it – the sign of a successful “gifted” selection. If a high school student can even begin to grasp what they’re reading, we have a problem. This is the reasoning. I know. I teach English. This is why I was reading A Tale of Two Cities at 14, Frankenstein at 15, and somehow reverting to The Scarlet Letter at 16 and Native Son at 17.

I swear to you, it is required that you have no understanding or inkling of appreciation whatsoever of literature of any kind in order to create an English curriculum… Perhaps a passion for literature is thought to blind one to the rigorous demands of a secondary school curriculum?

But I digress.

Point being, I obviously wasn’t able to fully appreciate it and only settled ultimately on the decision that I did, in fact, like the book after the final scene in which the suicide is discovered. As a fishnet-clad teen, any story ending in suicide was ruled profound and tragic and therefore appealing to me.

Okay, fine. My taste has made little progress.

But the info I dug up today is exactly the kind of thing that makes me want to get elbow-deep into Brave New World again. If you’re a sci-fi buff – and I’m wishing I was one right about now – or if you just loved this book in particular, I would think that this site would be somewhat of a treat.

Between the Lines.

This is the very cool thing that I came across today: Ariana Boussard-Reifel’s “Between the Lines,” an altered book of sorts. It was apparently completed in 2007 by meticulously removing all traces of black type from a white supremacist tome… rendering it meaningless, of course. Irony!

But seriously, read what the artist has to say about it. I do find this to be a pretty amazing project.

A Mother’s Prayer for Her Child.

Here’s today’s link.

I’ve been a fan of Tina Fey’s since she did “Mean Girls,” which I found to be completely brilliant. I have to admit that I am horribly impressed with this.

When I heard about Bossypants, I didn’t exactly jump for joy – my various interests and likes are a bit compartmentalized, I’m realizing – but this excerpt makes even me, an unconvinced but possible future mother, want to read this book at some point.

While you’re there, though, check out the blog Write in Color in its entirety. I could have just copied the excerpt, but the blog in which I read it is quite nice.

Anyway, the book looks quite nice, the author is nice to look at, and if you haven’t seen “Mean Girls” you don’t know what comedy is.

Go watch it now. In fact, if you already have, if you already did the last time TBS played it twice each night for three nights in a row, even so go watch it again.

“Oh my God, Danny DeVito, I love your work!”

Seriously.

100 Best Acoustic Songs.

I’ll get into the details of my job someday, but I am currently unable to… be the least bit productive with this blog. But I don’t want to lose it, so I’ll post some of my fun tidbits between books I’m reading and other things I’m accomplishing. I’m reading The Shining right now – I know, I don’t want to hear it – and I hope to post quickly about that when I’ve finished, but in the meantime, worthwhile tidbits.

For now, I’m super-excited about this list of the 100 Best Acoustic Songs that I found. It’s the super-raw music that helps me write.

Enjoy!