Jluy 2012's SK Flavor of the Month - The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Hey guys, sorry this is late. We had house guests.

So this month's flavor is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Another King book I haven't yet read. I remember when I worked at Barnes and Noble that a pop-up version of the book was released. Anyone have it?

I had a gift certificate with maybe $5 left on it and the pop-up version was marked way down so I bought it. I had already read the bookm and thought it was a pretty decent little story. The pop-up has some pretty cool artwork in it. I think I looked at it once, then packaged it back up and put it away in hopes it will be worth something some day. Probably not.

I started the book yesterday. My ebook version lists it as somewhere around 160-ish pages. For King, that's practically a short story!

I don't know how busy my weekend will be yet, but I'm already thinking I could conceivably have it finished by Monday.

I'm already to Top of the Fourth and am so far enjoying the simplicity of the story. King did manage to make me feel panicky right along with Trisha and as I read about her wandering further and further from the trail, dread set in.

I finished the book yesterday at lunch. I zipped through that thing!

Right up until the end, I wasn't sure the 'presence' was adding anything to the story. It did justify itself then though.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is one of my favorite King book. I am a big Red Sox fan, and also have spent a lot of time in the Maine outdoors (almost getting lost once) and related to the story. Too bad I didn't read it when Gordon was pitching for the 'Sox - he was actaully a Yankee (booo!!!!) when I read the book.

I'm going to start rereading it today...

I never should have gotten rid of my Walkman.

Going back to some I've read ages ago but never got around to commenting on... I thought this one was great, the more realistic King is in his stories the better I think, although I agree with the earlier comment about the "presence." I didn't think it was totally necessary, as it was scary enough without it, but it did tie into the ending nicely enough.

I'm a fan of King's earlier fiction, and frankly think he hasn't written anything great since the mid-90s. But this little gem is the exception. It was just a wonderful novel about getting lost in the woods- realistic and quite plausible. The 'bear which may have been more than a bear' kind of ruined it, a little. I wish he'd left that out. But still, my favourite recent King, by a long shot.

>7 PaperbackPirate: I still have mine!