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!
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.
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 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!
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!
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.
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!
...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.
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!
You're in for a treat! Have fun (though "fun" may not exactly be the most appropriate word).
Flyspeck
Stephen King Journey
Charles22a203
Aske Kammer