What was I thinking!?

[CarrieJo]

I think I tried to start this book like 3 or 4 times in the past. I have no idea why but whenever I did I kept thinking the movie Secret Window was based off of The Dark Half. And since I had seen Secret Window I assumed (yeah we all know what that means) that I already knew the gist of the story so I never really got passed the first couple chapters.

Well I started reading it again a couple days ago and I'm so glad I got that whole Secret Window stuff figured out because I cannot put it down. I have a horrible habit of staying up until the wee hours of the morning reading even if I can barely keep my eyes open (I know I can't be alone on that one) and I think I read just over half the book last night alone. I'll more than likely finish it tonight. It's a great read!

P.S. I do appreciate that King was able to put his own problems with the Richard Bachman deal in writing and make a story out of it. While I do love the Bachman books I'm glad that he was able to turn some part of it into something that worked for him.

[blunthead]

Now, maybe read Secret Window, Secret Garden (it's better than the movie and the movie was good).

[Daniel Lee Severn]

I can see why you would get The Dark Half and Secret Window, Secret Garden mixed up, they both have somewhat of the same premise. Both are great in their own way but out of the two, I enjoyed The Dark Half better.

[GNTLGNT]

It's amazing the amount of catharsis King has woven into his novels...it's his own therapy and we pay HIM to do it...what a shrewd feller...

[CarrieJo]

I'm definitely going to be reading Secret Window, Secret Garden. I'm (obviously) liking The Dark Half a lot.

Well, his catharsis is our gain...and his as you said, but we get part of that!

[CarrieJo]

I finished it! It was a very good book. I loved it!

I only wish we knew what ended up happening with the investigation but...oh well. Still a good book.

[DeathStalker]

Needful Things will give you a revisit to The Dark Half . Needful Things , book was excellent, movie missed it.

[CarrieJo]

I've read Needful Things. I was kind of bummed about that because it kind of gives some of The Dark Half away while you're reading it (TDH).
Reading Needful Things was the reason I started reading King books in the order they were published. I think the only 'Castle Rock' story I had read before that was The Dead Zone. So it kind of gave away some stuff on some of the other CR books.

[omm poppa mow mow]

I for one can't wait to see the wife when she gets back from work as I'm going to lay catharsis on her. I like the sound of it. Had to look it up and I'm still in doubt, but she'll understand, completely.

Like I was wondering about that story, "Herman Wouk is Still Alive" and how that story seems like that one from Full Dark...Big Driver? The story where the one travels to another place and reads, etc.

I wonder if King at times, say he's out and about walking, and he has this idea for another story, or maybe the story he is working on...there's two paths up ahead. Like this thread, Secret Window Secret Garden and Dark Half. And too, there's that scene in Bag of Bones...you know, where two characters are standing there, talking, and in that one, one of them, Mike, knows that the talk down at the diner is going to go just so. And like in one of these...doesn't something like that happen? In the Dark Half. Or Secret Garden?

That must have happened, though, dontcha think? A writer gets one idea and the idea splits like a cell and both begin to grow, etc. ?

[Silhouette86]

The Dark Half was a great example of mental imagery being way better than seeing what Alexis Machine looks like in the movie. In the book, his face falling apart seemed really gruesome and creepy. The movie...well, it was just weak in the makeup for Machine.