Being...Sparky

Well, so much for keeping you updated lots this week- cannot believe the week has gone already! Shingles is better but still getting shooting nerve pain in the form of twinges in my left side so on regular doses of Co-Codemol and Ibruprofen to keep them at bay. Apart from that, not been up to much except sorting through the house a bit and trying to post a few reviews on Dooyoo. Bit gutted that I didn't get through more books this week but think I did okay considering that nowadays I also have Emilie to contend with. Not that shes demanding (much) but she does crave a lot of attention and really thats no bad thing as I don't see a lot of her in an average working week. It's kind of nice to be the centre of her world and actually be able to enjoy it while it lasts. Gawd knows, in a few years when she's a teenager she's probably not gonna wanna know so in some ways better make these moments last while they're here! lol!

Also caught the first episode of BEING ERICA tonight; a Canadian show that has been floating around on E4 for a few months now and have heard rave reviews about. This girl, Erica, feels as though her life is a mess then meets this mysterious Therapist who promises to put right the things that are wrong in her life. He asks her to make a list of some of the points in her life where she felt things went wrong and then, each week, she finds herself reliving different episodes of her past and being given a chance to change their outcome. Hearing the premise, I was suitably intrigued ~ being a big fan of time travel stories and all ~ and I can honestly say it's actually really good! It's not too chick-flick like and really fun, especially getting to relive some of the music that was about when I was growing up! (Erica as an adult is 32 so theres not much difference between our ages!)

This is without question a show I am going to have to catch again next week. Especially as the whole Therapist idea has yet to be fully explained. How can he send Erica seemingly back in time and what is his purpose in doing so? Hopefully if I keep watching, I might get some answers but not too quickly one hopes....

My third choice for my 1001 books you really need to read before you die is : (3)Stephen King's From A Buick 8. Basically a traditional haunted house ghost story without the house, the plot revolves around a mysterious Buick Roadmaster that is discovered abandoned at a gas station by Pennslyvania Police Troopers responding to a call. The Buick gets towed back to the Troopers State Barracks and is then stored in Shed B where it resides for the next few decades. Years later when Trooper Curtis Wilcox is killed by a drunk driver, his son starts hanging around the barracks in a bid to get to know some of the people his father worked alongside. Seeing the Buick hidden away, he begins to ask questions and the last surviving Troopers who were there on the day the car was found, all take it in turns to finally tell the story of all that has occurred over the last thirty years. For the Buick is an anomally that really doesn't make any sense; a car that really shouldn't be able to be driven with lots of imperfections and perculiarities and is a secret that Troop D have been keeping all this while.

At it's most basic, the Buick 8 is a conduit to another reality, a parallel dimension as it were, but the car also seems to be able to exert some kind of influence over the lives and the people who surround it. As the Troopers tell its tale, Ned Wilcox finds himself being drawn closer and closer into some kind of inner circle and slowly comes to realise that the Buick also has a hold over him...

This is a controversial novel in some ways for King because not only is it not set in Maine where all his books are set but also because it is a book ultimately that doesn't have any answers and, for that reason, there are as many fans who hate this book as there are love it. I come into the latter category obviously and it is one of my favourites of all his works but it doesn't feel sometimes like a Stephen King novel if that makes any sense. Its restropective narrative is similar in style to his writing in The Green Mile but it is a fairly light and easy read also in the style of someone like Dean Koontz. My best way of describing it is by saying that, for me, it is King's version of House Of Leaves (which I will come to at a later stage) but less complicated in the way it is set out (which I will also explain at a later date!). That too is a book without any real answers but the difference here is that there is no doubt over the veracity of the narrators. It is a disturbing novel and there are some quite nasty moments (especially for anyone who is a dog-lover) towards the end and yet it is also a very compelling read! Some have linked it to Stephen King's Dark Tower mythos but any links are tenuous at best and I think anyone who truly believes it to be part of that ongoing story arc are trying too hard to see paterns where there are none. Nonetheless, it is definetly in my top 5 Stephen King books of all time and that is why it is included!