Light My Kindle

CNet News reports that you can get three free Stephen King novels for your Kindle for jumping through only a few hoops. Carrie, The Shining, and Night Shift are all available on Fictionwise, and you can get them for free by depositing money into a Micropay account. Once the money is in your account, buy those three books (or only one or two of them), and the money will be automatically refunded. Of course, the catch is that you then need to use that money to buy other e-books on Fictionwise, or you lose it.

As someone who has filled my Kindle with a high percentage of Stephen King books, this is a very tempting offer. Judging from the Fictionwise site, this is a promotion they run often, with different authors and genres, so you should check back occasionally to see if they feature your favorite author.

As a Stephen King fan, I was surprised to find I had never read his 1980 novella The Mist. Then again, it was published four years before I was born. I read it over a couple of days while visiting my parents, and I spent a few nights reading into the wee hours trying to finish this terrifying tale.

The novella starts innocently enough with a thunderstorm on a lake in Maine. After the storm, the residents discover the power has been knocked out, several trees have fallen, and there’s a thick mist moving in over the lake. David Drayton and his son set out to pick up some groceries and they let their neighbor Brent Norton tag along despite their heated disagreements in the past.

The store is very crowded, as one might expect, and everyone gets set on edge when a man comes running through the parking lot shouting that there are things in the mist and they attacked someone out there. His nose is bloodied and he insists they shut the doors of the store. The people do so, as the thick mist settles around the store. Shortly after there’s a loud event, like an earthquake, that shakes the store and furthers the feelings of unease in the store.

This being a supernatural thriller, the creatures in the mist start to show themselves quickly. The creatures are quite terrifying, especially since there are so many different kinds of them. There’s the tentacle creature that grabs Norm right at the beginning. Plus huge bug-type things, huge bird-type things, and a monster whose size would put a blue whale to shame.

The novella hits on interesting territory by not only relying on the supernatural to scare the reader and the characters. The element of mob mentality is brought into the story through the character of Mrs. Carmody. Mrs. Carmody is known about town as a little bit of a crazy, and when the creatures begin appearing through the mist she starts to preach about the wrath of God. She tells the people that the creatures are a sign of end-times and that they must repent for their sins. Her crazy-babble starts to draw more people to her as the days pass and more people die. Her little mob shows just how far people will go when confined and helpless.

The Mist was a quick read, but a scary one. The paranoia and constant on-edgeness I felt while reading it was seriously intense. As someone who is prone to nightmares (I know, I probably shouldn’t read Stephen King before bed), this novella had me on edge waiting to see what would happen to David and his young son. I highly recommend the novella to fans of supernatural horror. I also recommend reading it before checking out the recent movie adaptation starring Thomas Jane. The movie is mostly faithful to the novella and actually complements it quite nicely.

You can get it for your Kindle or in paperback.

According to a WENN report from this morning, there are plans in the works to introduce an age-based rating system for books as there is for movies, TV, and video games.

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy that the recent move The Golden Compass was based on, is fighting the plans. He says the rating system would be damaging to young readers.

I happen to agree. As someone who skipped straight from the kid-friendly Goosebumps series to the teen series Fear Street when I was only about 8- or 9-years-old, and then skipped right up to Stephen King novels at eleven, I believe my reading skills would have suffered if I was prevented from reading the books I chose. Granted, I pulled most of these books from my mother’s bookshelf or the library with her permission, but my point still stands. It’s hard enough to get children interested in reading in the first place. Preventing them access to certain content would only make things worse.

For example, what rating do you suppose the first Harry Potter novel would have had? Safe for all ages? How about the seventh Harry Potter novel? Surely it would at least get a PG-13-equivalent. How many of the devoted Harry Potter fans would be prevented from reading the last few installments until they were older?

Worse, what if this ratings system were to be applied to non-fiction books as well? Would children be prevented from learning about the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II because the content is too mature?

As an avid reader, I feel that a ratings system for books would be as bad as the banned books list we see every year. Of course young kids should read certain content (and sometimes I think I shouldn’t have been reading King novels at such an early age, but I turned out okay), but it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the library or the local Barnes & Noble to police what kids are reading.

What do you think - should publishers put ratings on books? Should there be laws that require bookstores and libraries to comply?

I am a huge fan of Stephen King’s writing. I’ve been reading his novels since I was eleven-years-old, far too young to be reading them, actually. I started with the novella The Langoliers and continued on with the rest of the Four Past Midnight compilation and on to Carrie, IT, and more recently Duma Key and Black House. His articles in Entertainment Weekly are always my favorite of the last page stories (although I’ve really been enjoying Diablo Cody’s contributions as well).

Needless to say, I was thrilled to see that Amazon has a dedicated Stephen King store. There’s a King discussion board, spotlights on some of his more recent novels, and even a video of King discussing the origins of Duma Key (”I started to imagine a little dead girl standing on that road–twin dead girls, with their hands linked. The image came from nowhere…”).

While there are links to Stephen King hardcovers, paperbacks (at a 4-for-3 deal), and audiobooks, there’s no dedicated link to buy Kindle versions of King’s novels. It’s a shame, because the first books I bought on the Kindle have been King books. The reason is simple - I know I’ll re-read them someday, so having them saved on the Kindle is great.

Click here to visit the Stephen King store or click here to search for Kindle versions of Stephen King books

I first read The Talisman when I was about 12 or 13-years old, about the same age as Jack Sawyer, the protagonist in the novel. The book fascinated me in ways that kids couldn’t imagine before Harry Potter. It had fantasy, danger, and an added element that I always loved in books as a kid – a young protagonist facing the world on his/her own. Books like The Talisman and A Wrinkle In Time made reading my number one childhood activity.

I decided to finally re-read The Talisman after I found a sequel while browsing the Kindle store. Naturally, I wanted to refresh my memory before diving back into Jack Sawyer’s story. The Talisman is a tale of a young man, a child really, on a dangerous mission. He sets out to find the talisman, a mysterious object on the opposite coast of the country. He travels in both the real world, and an alternate reality he calls The Territories. The Territories are an idyllic place – clean air, no cars, simple clothing and homes. The physical description of The Territories most resembles medieval times.

Jack’s mission is to get the talisman to heal both his mother (who is dying from cancer on the east coast) and Queen Laura, the ruler of The Territories (who is dying from some unknown Territories disease). We are with Jack every step of the way. He has help along the way from a handyman named Speedy, a wolf named Wolf, and others.

I absolutely love this book. I loved it as a child (reading Stephen King novels far too early for my age) and I loved it while reading it for a second time. It flawlessly moves from “the American Territories” to “The Territories” (as Jack calls them) and back. The imagery is so powerful that you almost start to believe in The Territories yourself. The length of the book isn’t a problem, and in fact once you near the end, you don’t want it to end. (Luckily there’s a sequel titled Black House.) I would absolutely read it again, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy/mystery novel. You can grab the paperback on Amazon, or get it for your Kindle at the Kindle store.

On Writing was a wonderful read for me as both a Stephen King fan and a writer. The book is divided into three sections. The first covers King’s early years up through when he sold Carrie. The middle section has tips and advice on how to improve your own writing. The last section deals with King’s accident and how the recovery affected his writing.

It’s a book with true personality. For fans of King’s writing style, you almost feel as though you’re having a conversation with the man. Much as his Entertainment Weekly columns give you a glance into the real Stephen King (behind all the monsters and ghoulies), On Writing feels like a very personal piece.

Parts I and III are fascinating glimpses into King’s personal life. We learn all about his childhood, how he met his wife, and, most importantly, how he started writing professionally. It’s almost a mini-autobiography.

Part II gives practical advice on how to improve your own writing. Rule #1 is, of course, to read more. Coming from a man who reads at Red Sox games (I’ve seen him on TV reading books in the stands.), this is a suggestion every writer should take to heart.

I wholeheartedly recommend On Writing to any writer or Stephen King fan. It’s a great read, and one that I’m happy to keep around for future re-reads.

You can buy On Writing at the Kindle Store or pick up the paperback.

Welcome to LightMyKindle.com. This is my way of exploring all the wonderful things about the Amazon Kindle e-reader. I wanted to write a review of the Kindle, but I kept putting it off because I learned new things about my Kindle just about every time I used it.

I received my Kindle as a wedding present from my husband in February. We’re gadget geeks, so it was an extremely thoughtful gift. It arrived just after we got back from our honeymoon since it was sold out and on back order until extremely recently. I liked it as soon as I opened the Amazon box. The Kindle was packaged in a fake book which perfectly illustrated the difference in size between the Kindle and a real book.

The second thing I liked about the Kindle was that the instruction book was on the Kindle in digital form. Who needs a bulky instruction manual when you can browse and even search it on the device itself?

The first Kindle book I purchased was On Writing by Stephen King. Reading a book on the Kindle is a wonderful experience. You don’t notice you’re reading on an electronic device. You melt right into the story just as if you were reading a typical book. The first thing I noticed that was noticeably better than reading a traditional book was the weight. I love reading while lounging on the couch, but that was impossible with books like the Harry Potter series (at least the latter books) and a lot of Stephen King novels.

As I read more on my Kindle and spend more time with it, I learn new things it can do. Light My Kindle is my way of sharing that with other Kindle owners and people thinking about buying their own Kindle (which is highly recommended!). Feel free to ask me a question about the Kindle by emailing cj@lightmykindle.com.