StephenKingman

An hour less in bed, great.....today i plan to read a big chunk of Duma Key so i can get on to my next book, 1984, which im looking forward to as i have heard many things over the years both good and bad but i would like to make up my own mind.

Yes, i agree with the scene with Suzie returning to earth for her kiss, but i think they managed it better in the film than the book, which described it in a very clumbsy manner. I did enjoy the film but it had a tad too much CGI visions of the Afterlife for comfort and also, its hard to believe that nobody saw Stanley Gucci lead Suzie down his underground playroom under the cornfield in broad daylight...

Yes, science has an answer to everything and to be fair, in a huge amount of cases, they have effectively answered a lot of mysteries that were previously attributed to the supernatural. But there are eternal mysteries to life that nobody has definitive answers for, including many hauntings in houses, hotels etc.

I had a surprise purchase today, i bought the book of "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis, i had no idea this was a book!! Sandra Bullock recently won an Oscar for this movie and from trailers i have seen it looks quite good. I have decided that i wont be surprised anymore if i see the book version of an excellent movie starting out at me on a book shelf. I also didnt know that Precious was based on a novel but it was a nice surprise as i get to read more excellent books. Whats next, The Exorcist as a book?? Oh wait.......

Ireland and England have almost completely been 'Americanised' in the past decade and i blame the rise of popular shows like Friends, Hannah Montana and The Simpsons. When i was growing up, nobody EVER used the word ''dude" when describing someone else- it was exclusive to the americans and their skateboard-grinding youth. Now everyone over here says it, whilst downing a double mocca latte or some other american beverage that has sprung up all over these isles. I dont mind a lot of American culture and phrases but its not a good thing to be using more and more of their words and grammar as we will soon lose our national identity and start thinking and acting just like the Yanks and a lot of what makes us so unique (castles, scenery, Royal Family, Guinness etc) will fade away and the excess of American culture will take its place. Doesnt help that garbage shows like The Hills dominate many of your channels-whatever

Great reply, Rawr. I would absolutely believe your accounts of supernatural. Now i am and can be a very cynical and skeptical person and certainly i think a good 98% of hauntings are reported by attention seekers or mentally ill people. And many more have perfectly rational explanations. But there are a few cases where i believe negative energy can reside and absorb some of its environment and you have spirits and eternal energy inhabiting the same area and a lot of these disturbances are caused by these restless souls who cant move on and many houses have terrible histories, a few of which are bound to remain with the area....

Frankie, i love Stephen King and he remains my favorite author but im not afraid to wear the critics hat either and see his shortcomings. His novels tend to fall into three categories: Fast paced, spine chilling isolation tales (Shining, Misery, The Stand, Under the Dome, Misery, Gerards Game, Tom Gordon, Bag of Bones), slow paced and sluggish tales which go nowhere (Insomnia, Tommyknockers, Hearts in Atlantis, From a Buick 80 and the rest....which would comprise of non-horror fiction like Apt Pupil and then he has his dabble into sci fi and fantasy with the Dark Tower series. King's critics have all been in agreement that his most obvious downfalls are: 1. Ending a story weakly 2. Far too much attention to detail when describing places and structures 3, Sudden changes in pace from lightning fast to plodding It makes the readin of a book all the more enjoyable when you realize that none of the above faults are in many of his books. Oh, and dont kill me Frankie, but i actually also liked the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, i liked the story and the many obstacles faced by the little girl (runs for cover). Now if i could only get well paid for being a critic i would be sorted

Yeah i heard that the other day, very original! I am still very much looking forward to the finale but i think the whole show could have been wrapped up in 3 seasons and no need for all this time travel malarkey, oh well not lone till the end now...

I normally get my books from The Book Center in Waterford when they are at reduced price or else rent from the library. But im avoiding the library at the moment as i have Duma Key out 6 weeks now and the limit is 3 weeks but it totally slipped my mind!

Absolutely. My favorite ever book is The Stand, and Stephen King has had me thrilled, entranced and downright terrified by other masterpieces like The Shining, Misery and Under the Dome. And yet the very same author releases utter tripe like Bag of Bones, Tommyknockers and Hearts in Atlantis, all books which i found excruciatingly boring and sluggishly paced (in the case of Bag of Bones, nothing at all happens!). But his ratio of good to bad is still very much in favor of good so i forgive his mistakes. Another example is Dan Brown, i really enjoyed Digital Fortress and Angels and Demons, but found Deception Point a real chore to read, its hard to believe that its even the same author with the difference in writing and grammar style. Also, The Lost Symbol i found very average.

Books that i read years ago i only have a general recollection of the plot and some of the characters and some specific parts but a lot of books i have read in the past two years i can recall with a lot of detail. I generally find that if i read a book slowly and at a pace that takes in all the subtle details that the author originally intended, rather than race through it as just another list on my TBR pile, then many of the details and characters sink into my memory longer.

My first job was packing games in a factory on 3 shifts, days evenings and nights. I was 17 and was looking for summer work before college. Previously i had got money from doing odd jobs around the house or else pocket money, and even that only came to a few pounds so when i was in the induction training room at the first day of my job and i heard the words "Average take home pay will be around the 290pound mark", I had a silent stroke! Inside, i was thinking "what the hell will i do with ALL that money?" First thing i treated myself to was a big CD player

Doesnt anyone here from Ireland watch Lost the final season! It was on lastnight on RTE2 and i can say, hand on heart, that it was the most fantastic episode of Lost i have ever seen. It was brutal, bloody and genuinely frightening at times as the backstory of Ricardo was explored in staggering detail. Many, many themes and answers were given lastnight, especially the jaw dropping revelation that . THAT knocked me sideways, and with only 7 episodes left we are in for one hell of a ride.

As a huge fan of horror, i think the haunted house genre has been sadly wiped out in recent times, with the possible exception of Paranormal Activity, which injected a modern spin into the classic scenario. The greatest haunted house movie remains The Haunting by Robert Wise in 1963, based on Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House. Its the oldest cliche in the book ( a group of misfits move into a big old house with an ominous past to search for evidence of the paranormal) and yet it simply works on all levels, thanks to superb audio and acting. The movie terrified viewers by unleashing their own imaginations upon them as their minds conjured up images from the ever-teasing events unfolding before their eyes as Something hideous pounded on the bedroom door and banged up and down the corridors with horrifying regularity and purpose, but its an entity that Wise chooses not to ultimately reveal, unlike the impatient and tactless movies these days who pull the curtain away within the first 10 minutes and evaporate any sense of tension. Im aware of the 'Haunting' series on Discovery Science, which documents true-life cases of hauntings, many of which involve a house, but the genre needs a shot in the arm badly. Any members of the forum read a great haunted house book or even have a true life experience? My only experience of a haunted house was when a mate of mine and me broke into an old abandoned hotel/house called Loftus Hall in Wexford. It was bright daylight but by blood ran cold as we went through the place room by room, i felt watched at all times and just wanted out of there. i will never return. The house has been haunted for centuries ever since the Devil himself called in one stormy night in the 1700s. What happened was so horrific i cant even tell it (Google it) but lets just say it involved a pair of hooves, a pack of cards and a flaming roof..... Here is a picture of Loftus Hall.........

I learned the ins and outs of my wage slip today after buying a book all about the various different taxes and how your outgoings are deducted from your salary. I was a bit clueless before with all that tax credits and outgoings information, just assuming i was being paid the correct amount every month but i know a lot more about the many types of relief out there and how to claim them and i would advise anyone to read up on them. I have already received money back from the revenue for bin charges and union fees and plan to claim for medical expenses this year, too. They will never tell you of any reliefs so its up to you to read up on it!

Know what you mean. i usually like to get rid of coins when paying for items but its usually 50 cents or euros so its not that long and i dont fancy breaking 10 or 20euro notes when i dont have to. Shops and mannerisms in shops can drive the most placid person insane. I have respect for people who work in the public eye as it cant be easy to deal with arrogant or rude people daily but having said that there are plenty of rude people working in the shops and if i get any grief off any worker then they get it straight back.

So i wasnt just being paranoid then, its a hated activity. Oh well, on behalf of frustrated shoppers everywhere, im sorry people

A quick question for you and it wont work unless you are honest! Were you ever stuck behind a person in a queue in a shop and you just wanted to pay for your few items and go but the person ahead of you was paying for their item with lots of coins just to "get rid of the change", so this delayed you and everyone else as the small change was counted out individually until the price was reached! Now i was often stuck behind such a person and am ashamed to say it annoyed me lots, i was just thinking "for Gods sake just hand her a tenner and be done!" and today i was in the situation where i wanted rid of all my petty cash and i sensed the annoyance of my fellow customers but i cant be sure. Question is: would this annoy you or would you just be thinking "he has cash to get rid of him, fair enough"? Honesty, people!!

Horrible quality as in pages falling apart? That is very shoddy service and im not surprised they waived the fee for that book

So, Lost has only 9 episodes left until, after 6 years and millions of "WTF" moments, the series will conclude. So far, i have not been hugely impressed with the final series because of the tedious parallel world storylines where the main characters make it off the plane, but having said that the action on the island has been relatively satisfying. How do you reckon it will end then??

I think i have given up on seeing Precious in the cinema, its not listed in most Irish cinemas so i will wait for the dvd, i love quirky and different movies, they are often the diamonds in the rough, shame about the lack of mainstream appeal

I saw that last week and share your view on the confusion part! It was a clever and twisty thriller but you need to watch it a few times and pause a few scenes to totally understand the plot, thats is you have the patience

Saw Paranormal Activity on dvd lastnight, it is truly a terrifying movie, i already saw it in the cinema and it was shocking at the time but i thought the small screen would have diluted the affect but no! A genuinely scary tale all the more scary for its simplicity.

1. I am addicted to Sour Cream and Onion Pringles, and have been for nearly 20 years 2. I have a Masters Degree in Applied Chemistry 3. I love cheesy dance songs 4. I still read the odd Point Horror book 5. I rarely wear bright colors

VERY bleh! When i think back to how fantastic and exciting the first and second season was, with all the revelations of Other people and scientists who lived on the island, not to mention to mysterious power of the Island itself, it was top notch tv and every episode left you clambering for more, and then after season 3 it simply lost its way. I am not one of the people who liked the time travel at all, it felt totally unnecessary and was so obviously a last minute attempt to 'pad out' the story between its original conclusion to another 3 seasons. The producers have been quoted as saying that the original story was only meant to be 3 seasons long but it became such a monster they had to drag it out another few years and this obviously diluted the effect of the story, not to mention was a very lazy way to explain Danielles time on the island, via the time travel flashes And now with the parallel world thing im at breaking point here- i dont care what MIGHT have happened to Jin, Claire etc had they not crashed, it adds nothing to the story. Get them all on the island in one live timeline and start answering some core mysteries like the exact origin of the island, the real reason they crashed on the island, why cant people die etc etc. Get on with it there are only 9 episodes left.