A Review Of "This Book Is Full Of Spiders" by David Wong

The sequel to John Dies At The End, This Book Is Full Of Spiders, starts out much as the entire first book was. That being, it is kind of crazy, kind of dirty, kind of silly, and full of dick and fart jokes. In fact, the first roughly 100 pages is this way. And I loved it. Then something happened and changed that we didn't see happen in the first book. I don't want to give anything away, as this is not mentioned in the blurbs for the book and really the only way you'd know of it was if you read other people's reviews, but suffice it to say that the book becomes not at all like the first one. For wont of a better way to describe it spoiler free, This Book Is Full Of Spiders becomes a bit more mature. This holds true until roughly the last 80 pages when it reverts to the zany, crazy, dirty, dick and fart jokes oddness of the first book and the first 100ish pages of this book. 

Confused? Don't be. The book makes perfect sense, it's just that the flow of the book is a major issue for me. It is not confusing but it really feels like two very different books merged and melded and forced to co-exist in one. As such, it feels a little out of sync with itself at points. But that's a minor quibble really, and one that did not massively affect my enjoyment.

And that's it, I guess. I really enjoyed the book. It was very good, it was just kind of not what I was expecting at all. That's not bad, in fact in some ways that is great. Not all great here though. I went into this wanting something very distinct, and what I got was not quite what I wanted. That was jarring, and as such I think it affected my OVERALL enjoyment of the book. 

If you read the first book then there are no spoilers here. John, Amy, Molly, and of course (not) Dave are all back for another round of adventures. Along the way we meet Anna, Carlos, Detective Falconer, Dr. Tenet, and a host of other characters, some as memorable as the bunch in JDATE and some who are forgettable five minutes after you meet them. You'll have that with any book (or movie) though. The ones that matter, the ones that you come/came to care about are well fleshed out, and in some cases more fleshed out that they ever were (or could have been) in JDATE. 

The plot to TBIFOS is far simpler in many ways to the convoluted, rolling, mess of a plot in JDATE. This one has a more standard plot versus the free range all over the place many smaller stories building into a major plot of JDATE, and that's maybe a good thing. 

If you've never read the first book, don't fret, this book is very accessible and easy to follow, and any and all pertinent data you need from book one is revealed, but for the most part the book is very stand alone. 

All in all, I enjoyed This Book Is Full Of Spiders far less than I enjoyed John Dies At The End, but I heartily recommend them both to people who are not super uptight and can enjoy madcap zaniness, dick and fart jokes (always dick and fart jokes), and surreal Lovecraftian types of horror mixed with insane levels of silliness.

Progress Again

95,377

That's where Jupiter Mars currently stands.  It also, I think, currently stands at just about finished.  Well, the first draft at least.  I think I know where I plan to stop it (and that's the more correct way of saying it.  It's not so much an ending as an ending to this book, I guess.  If that makes sense to anyone other than myself?)

I'm excited and scared and nervous and happy all wrapped into one.  This will be a tremendous place to be, once it is wrapped up, but it's also a damn scary place to be.  After this comes a mild rewrite, nothing too major just cleaning up some issues I know exist, and then I will find and hire an editor and go from there.  I've never been this far into the process before, and so much of me is screaming inside to stop and scrap it because it can't be any good and it must suck.  I am fighting that with all I have though.  Jupiter Mars will be completed, it will move forward to the next steps, and it will see the light of published day.  I've come to far to stop.

I give it a year TOPS before I can sit here at this keyboard and use this blog to announce a release date.

Progress

I obsess over shit.  It's what I do a lot of the time.  I can't help it, it's just part of who I am and how I'm wired I guess.

87,931

That is the total number of words thus far on Jupiter Mars (which does once again have a working title other than just the name of the character).  The characters in this novel are speaking to me again and that is good.  Realizing that if I want this first novel to be what it was originally intended to be it will be massively too massive and not sure what to do about is not so good.  I'd have to say that if I go with my original ending I had planned then I am looking at a book that is going to be 150,000 words more or less.  That's too long.  As such, obsessing I was/am over how to get this thing at a more reasonable 100,000-110,000 words.  I think I have it almost worked out (I THINK) but who the hell knows.

I obsess over shit way too much.

It's 2:45am (in the many a long months since I properly updated this thing regularly I have found myself back on a night shift) and it is time to go to bed methinks.  I might read a little more on This Book Is Full Of Spiders by David Wong (the sequel to John Dies At The End), but more than Likely I will go crawl into bed and obsess some more.  It's what I do and I think it's just a part of who I am and how I'm wired.

Night.

More Or Less A Review Of The Dark Tower IV: Wizard And Glass

Ever since I watched The Stand miniseries, my favorite adaptation of any of King's works, I've had the voice and look of Jamey Sheridan in my head whenever I read or think of Randall Flagg. I think that will always be the case until the day that I die. That's not necessary for this, I just felt like sharing.

I'm Going To Finish A Book Part One: Setting Myself An Achievable Goal

1000 words a day.  That has become my new goal.  When I gave myself a pep talk mentally this last week and decided I was going to write everyday (or at least the equivalent of everyday) I decided 2000 words a day was to be my goal.  I felt that 14000 words a week was an achievable goal.  As the week went on I came to the clear realization that if I haven't been able to write 100 words a day then 2000 was asking far too much of myself.  1000, however, is certainly well within my reach so long as I force myself to do it.  This doesn't mean that I will definitely sit down on a daily basis and force 1000 words out, there are and will be days when I simply won't be able to, but what it does mean is that I can and will get 7000 words a week out.  Which means the following:

• 1000 words a day equals 7000 words a week
• 7000 words a week equals 28,000 words a month on average
• The "average" book length is around 70,000 words, and as such the it would take 10 weeks or just about two and a half months for me to finish the novel I just started.

Last night, April 12th 2013, I began work on my newest novel.  My goal is then to finish the first draft of this book on or around June 21st of this year.  Knowing I have a few things happening in May that will make some days impossible to write, probably about 6 to 7 days total, I have as such decided that this novel should have its first draft completed by realistically by July 8th 2013.  As such, that is my goal date.  I do not have a goal for getting through the first rewrite/editing process as of yet, but that's not necessary to have today.  Nor is when I am going to get the final editing done, when I will have it ready for upload, when/if I am going to query agents, and so on.  My problem (one of about 99) is that I keep looking at the finish line when I'm about 1/4th of the way through the run.  Bad idea.  I've winded myself far too many times and far more times than I can count.  I psyche myself out too much.  My simple and attainable goal is to simply get myself 1000 words a day and move towards this July 8th finish goal.  One I am sure I can achieve with a little discipline.

I wrote 1050 last night.  Only 950 more to get done for today.

What I Read Part 1: 2011

I love to read.  There I said it.  Books, comics, articles, useless stuff on the internet, it doesn't matter.  For fun, for learning, to kill time, it doesn't matter.  I love to read.  Today I'm going to post about books and how much I've read over the last few years.

Ooops

Know what happens when you forget to renew a domain?  What happened here.  Ooops indeed.

I'm back, and I will strive to be ever more vigilant when it comes to updating this thing again.  I sort of almost promise.  Until I do that, however, allow me to insist that you leave this blog after reading this post and go open a book.  Whether it be paper or electronic (I am currently preferring reading via my Kindle) I urge you to take some time and read.  It's good for you.

Now I am going to watch an episode of Supernatural, read some about this disease I have, and then go lay in bed and READ.  Reliquary to be exact.  Damn good book.

Night.

John Dies At The End (A Book Review)

John Dies At The End by David Wong is something I stumbled across.  I forget exactly when or how I realized this book existed, but I think it was from Facebook telling me about the upcoming movie in the fall of 2012.  A little research, and I realized the movie was based on the book.  Fast forward to Christmas 2012, and I recieved this book as a present from my girlfriend's parents.  I was excited.  In the months between learning it existed and getting it I had wanted to read it more than anything.  Finally I had it and could devour it whole!

So I waited about 3 weeks until I finished 11-22-63 by Stephen King.

Me and 2012

I turned 41 a few weeks ago.  Last year I wrote a less than cheery blog post about turning 40.  You can read it here if you feel up to it.  Last year I felt as I always felt upon the arrival of my birthday.  That being down, sad, alone, and depressed.  This year as my birthday approached I felt some of the same things, but on the actual day itself I felt pretty okay.  Maybe it was hearing from the people that matter the most in my life, maybe it was spending that evening with someone I love, maybe it was being okay and good with who I am and where I am in my life for the first time in 41 years, or maybe it was all of the above combined.  I can't say for sure.  All I know is that this year December 12th was not the end of the world for me.

On a side note I am happy to say the world did not end at all.  At least I don't think it did.  If it did and I am in some limbo or other phase of existence, well, I failed to notice it happen and as such I am a little disappointed.

Nashville, Arrow, 21 Jump Street, and more: Reviews Of Sorts

I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to watch 21 Jump Street on Saturday Night.  We did.  I laughed my ass off.  Seriously, what a funny film.  Far funnier than it really had any right to be at all, considering it is an update on a kind of lame 80's Fox TV Show, but funny it was.  Very funny.  Laugh out loud had me in tears more than once funny as a matter of fact.  It even takes a moment for the Ice Cube character to mock the fact that this is in fact a movie version of the show and make commentary on how Hollywood might be without new ideas and keeps regurgitating older ideas and trying to pass them off as something brand new as if we, the consumers, are complete morons and idiots.  Channing Tatum had a hell of a year at the box office with this, his romantic comedy with Rachel McAdams (I forget the title but I actually quite enjoyed it as well), and Magic Mike (which I have yet to see but have a feeling I will be forced to watch whether I really want to or not), even though he is not that great of an actor.  I can say, in this at least, he was very good.  All in all, a great movie that I recommend highly.  Be warned however, it is about as adult as you can get with language.