Day 575
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It's a glorious day when I get to take the next step in my multi-year Stephen King journey.

Today I reach the ninth book in the grand plan: Cujo!

I believe this is also one of the very few SK books that I've not read before. I saw the movie as a kid, but it didn't leave much of an impression and I recall little about it.

Now, turning to page 1. Good boy!

#Cujo #StephenKing

A good man named John Smith uncovered his name by a kind of magic, but before he could be captured - perhaps it was just as well - Frank Dodd killed himself.
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Right off the bat, a direct reference to The Dead Zone. I like it! Let's me know what universe I'm in.

#Cujo #StephenKing

He pulled into the Camber dooryard, the back wheel clunking louder than ever. Tad, then three, was sitting on Donna Trenton's lap, laughing up at her; a ride in Daddy's 'no-top' always put him in a fine mood, and Donna was feeling pretty fine herself.
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Ah, the good ole days before those pesky child seats and annoying seatbelts were a thing. Safety schmafety.

#Cujo #StephenKing

Cujo knew he was too old to chase rabbits.

He wasn't old; no, not even for a dog. But at five, he was well past his puppyhood, when even a butterfly had been enough to set off an arduous chase through the woods and meadows behind the house and barn.
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Another great dog pov segment. Best one since Kojak's in The Stand!

#Cujo #StephenKing

His snapping jaws closed on one brown-black wing. Bones thinner than those in a baby's hand crunched. The bat slashed and bit at him, slicing open the skin of the dog's sensitive muzzle in a long, curving wound that was shaped like a question mark... the damage had been done; a bite from a rabid animal is most serious around the head, for rabies is a disease of the central nervous system... And Cujo had never had a single rabies shot in his life.
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And there it is!

#Cujo #StephenKing

He was a Saint Bernard in his prime, five years old, nearly two hundred pounds in weight, and now, on the morning of June 16, 1980, he was pre-rabid.
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200 lbs? Wow.

#Cujo #StephenKing

A party of four at the next table, three in UMP tennis shirts and one wearing a faded T-shirt with the legend DARTH VADER IS GAY written across the front, began to applaud.
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What an odd shirt to wear. But then again, it's more popular of a message than I was even aware!

#Cujo #StephenKing

...the Cereal Professor concept was approved and saturated Saturday morning TV, plus such weekly syndicated programs as Star Blazers, U.S. of Archie, Hogan's Heroes, and Gilligan's Island.
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I regularly watched all those shows, except U.S. of Archie Never heard of that one. Of course I know Archie from the comics but never heard of the TV show.

#Cujo #StephenKing

When he came out he felt a little better. He dressed again, pulling jeans and a faded chambray shirt from the flightbag.
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When I first started listening to The Losers' Club podcasts there was a running joke about "chambray shirts".

Boy, does King ever use that phrase in ALL of his early novels!

#Cujo #StephenKing

@stephenkingjourney oh he still does
@charles222a203 I've read just about all of his works over the course of 40 years and I've never noticed that before. But now that it's been pointed out to me, I can't help but see it everywhere as I go through every novel again!
@stephenkingjourney the ending to this one just wrecks me. Read it before?
@charles222a203 Nope, one of the few SK works I've not read before!

@stephenkingjourney

You're in for a treat! Have fun (though "fun" may not exactly be the most appropriate word).