I Miss the Mist

It is over. It is done. It is... not actually done because I have to read one more book in one more day. All that drama that evolved in the first two sentences are fake. HA! You totally fell for it.

His wife died! Just like poor old innocent OJ

So in the last hundred or so pages of The Mist, we learn a little more about what caused everything. Apparently, the army was trying something called "Project Arrowhead", opening a gateway to another dimension where these monsters came from. Back in the Supermarket, characters begin to die left and right. Some are convinced it's the apocalypse, some want to kill themselves, and some just want to party harty, cause Fun is on their mind. Drayton makes friends with a young woman and an Old Man and they decide to drive out into the Mist to try and find out what's goin on (As it turns out, they are all listening to Prince Adam). Once safe inside the car, the four of them drive out into the distance, witnessing terrible creatures all around. They find out that Drayton's wife has died, and just as they are driving back, quite depressed, they see a massive five hundred foot tall alien. Having just read At the Mountains of Madness, I'm pretty accustomed this kind of "giant monster roaming around" trope. Luckily, it doesn't step on them, and they ride out into the distance once more, not knowing where they are going. One might say that they Don't know where they've come from, and they don't know where they've been (More music references! MUhahahahahaha).

The 500 foot monster was actually just Andre the Giant

So that's how it ended. They drove out into the distance and it ended. A lot less climactic than the movie. In that, Drayton shoots his companions so that they don't have to die in a worse way. Then, just to put the icing on the cake of sadness, the army shows up and clears away the mist in the area. Though depressing, this was a better ending. It was more bold and more worthy of the rest of the story. To be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed in the ending we got. Then again, Lovin, is what I got (Music reference number... 4? 5?).

So, next up is... I have no idea. Something short. Something sweet. Something easy to read. Either way, you'll still have to hear me (or read me) for another day or two. Keep checking back. It's not over yet laddies!

The Midst of the Mist

When I party, I party harty. Fun is on my miiiind. Put a smile, on your face, leave that problem behind! OH WAIT! THERE'S GIANT MONSTERS RUNNING THROUGH THE STREETS OF NEW ENGLAND KILLING EVERYONE! WHAT THE FLUCK!
That is how I would describe the Mist. One moment, I'm listening to Fun, by Sly and the Family Stone and hearing about David Drayton, the lovable dad and husband who works as an artist, and the next moment, Drayton and his son are holed up in a supermarket hiding from Lovecraft Villains. What the hell?! HOW DID THIS CHANGE SO FAST? WHERE DID ALL OF THE GOOD TIMES GO?! They certainly didn't roll Mr. O'casek.

Spoiler Alert: There's Mist

Basically, we meet David Drayton, a graphic artist, his eight year old son, and his wife. Drayton and his son go out to the market where mysteriously, there is a large number of citizens of their town holed up. We learn that there was storm last night and that sounds have been heard throughout the day. All of a sudden, just when we think, "Oh ok, it's just some random sounds because of trees falling over and stuff", we see a GIANT TENTACLE PULL A BUSBOY OUT OF THE MARKET! HUH? WHAT?
Anyway, A Mist (Shocker) soon develops around the market obscuring all vision. We soon start to meet the other characters in the market, including the manager, two soldiers, a young woman, and an older man. That could be the plot of an adult film. All of these characters start to either form good relationships or conflicts with each other. Tension starts to rise and a few more deaths come about.

Frog and Toad: Straight up G's

That's about where I am right now. On the bright side however, I think I'm going to finish this by tonight. I'm still debating whether or not to read a fifth book, but if I do, it will be really short. Maybe Animal Farm for a second time? Maybe Frog and Toad? Oooh, that one sounds nice. One more post of The Mist and then it's Frog and Toad time!

See ya soon!

The Pissed Mist

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back, for the fourth time. It is time to read The Mist, a novella by Stephen King. Though at first thought, you'd probably say, "Max, what the hell, you're reading a novella? Loser!", think again! Since The Mist is by Stephen King, it is considered a novella, but still weighs in at around 250 pages. Yeah... totally a novella Stephen.

200 page book, 3 three hour movies. Yeah, that makes sense

Anyway, I haven't actually picked up the book yet (Probably going to start as soon as I finish this AP euro essay and write this post... so at like 3:00 AM), but I've actually seen the movie made by Frank Darabont based on the Novel(la). First off, I'll preface by saying that I am a major Stephen King fan (It is in my humble opinion that The Dark Tower series are the greatest books ever). In addition, I really enjoyed the movie, so much so that I thought it would be fun to actually read the book to find out exactly how accurate the movie is, and whether it fits the mold of always being worse than the book (Cough, The Hobbit, Cough).
Essentially, the plot of the story is that a mysterious gate to another world is opened up in a small town, and a gang on survivors hole up in a market to try and find safety from the monsters roaming outside. A gaggle of characters are introduced and many of them die from varying circumstances. It is kind of a classic horror movie formula (lots of characters, pick them off one by one), but with King's twist on things, they are not at all cliches, and most of the characters are highly intriguing, instead of the same old paradigm that most horror movies fit into.

I want to finish two books in three days! And people in hell want Ice Water...

Since this project ends on Friday, I really have a lot of reading to do. Ideally, I'd have five books done by that point (right now I have three done), so getting there is going to be an uphill battle. I'll definitely have The Mist done by that point, but whether I read another is still up in the air. Either way, keep checking back for the last posts!

Until next time!

At the Mountains of Sadness

It is done. I gotta say, not only am I sad to be finished with that book, but I am also sad to realize that as good as I have been about reading, I still have TWO MORE BOOKS. SHIITES! Hence, I am officially at the mountains of sadness. For some reason I imagine them looking like Mount Rushmore except with all of the presidents being goth. Maybe Washington dyed his hair black and is wearing red contacts? Or maybe they're all just crying. I wanted to put that joke as a caption under a picture, but I couldn't find anything that would represent what I was looking for. Ah, the struggles of the First World.

Drawing of a Shoggoth - looks like a friendly guy

Anyway, now that we've gone into the struggles of the first world, let's get into the Lovecraftian struggles of the First world. That is, the world that came before our own. The world of... The Mountains of Madness!
So, where we left off, our characters had just seen their friends slaughtered and then were let into the ancient city. Wow, that seems like such a distant memory even though it only happened 100 pages ago. Once inside the city, they begin to learn about the history of the place. They learn that the Old Ones had inhabited this place after finding shrines to the Old God Nyarlathotep and Dagon. As their servants, the Old Ones had created Shoggoths, old spawns of the Gods that had eventually gone rogue and killed those who once lived here. Then, Dagon himself came down and covered the city in snow, leaving it behind forever. As they learn this, they go into a dark tunnel where there is another of the mysterious rocks from the beginning. They lean forward to touch it and it comes alive, revealing itself to be none other than a Shoggoth. The main character's companions are quickly killed, but he escapes back outside to try and find his helicopter. Once he finds it, he realizes that it is out of fuel and that he is out of food. Looking back at the abandoned city, he starts to slowly lose sanity as the book comes to a close.

Drawing of Nyarlathotep - looks like he's wearing a mickey mouse wizard  hat

GODDAM! WHAT AN AWESOME WAY TO END A BOOK TITLED "AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS!" I LOVE LOVECRAFT!
Okay, sorry, I am fangirling over Lovecraft now. But seriously, that book was awesome. 4.9/5 or 9.8/10 or whatever. Super high rating. What an awesome story.



Luv u Luvcrft! 3> <3 (Wait how do i make the heart?)

I'll be starting Stephen King's The Mist pretty soon!

See you soon!

At the Mountains of Rad-ness

That's right, the book is pretty Rad.

What a beautiful man he was

At the moment, I am about 100 pages into At the Mountains of Madness. I have to say, as strange as Lovecraft's writing style is, there is truly no author like him. Lovecraft has a way to make the reader feel as though they are looking out at a wasteland once inhabited by Elder Gods just by creating a mood. He is not really a talented writer of dialogue but he is an expert of themes and moods. He can make the reader feel scared and forlorn. He can make the reader feel as though they are in a world where danger is really all around us. This effect is totally unique to Lovecraft, as no other author actually was as crazy in real life and no other author has such an elongated mythos as Lovecraft.

What if the rock was... The Rock?

So far, the plot has been quite mysterious. A group of explorers are investigating a long lost mountain range far away from any society. They don't give huge details as to where this location is, but it is said to be in a snowy area. This leads me to thinking of some lost place in the Appalachian mountains. As soon as they park their helicopter, things begin to get strange. A couple of the explorers and scientists stay back to investigate a strange rock, while the main character and a couple others go to explore an old gate.
They are unable to open the gate at first, so they go back to their friends. When they return, the rock is gone and all of the men there are cut up in a gruesome fashion. Nightfall is coming so our protagonists go back toward the gate to try and make shelter. Strangely enough, the gate opens, giving way to an ancient city covered mostly by snow.

Honestly, I cannot wait to read more. I assume that the rock was not what it appeared to be and that the city will have something to do with the Old Gods, but I have no real predictions otherwise.

I look forward to reading and posting more!

At The Mountains of Being Mad

For the third time... we're back in action. Back to bloggin'. Back to swiggity swag.

If only the Gods were more like good ol' Morgan

For my third book, I have chosen "At The Mountains of Madness", by H.P. Lovecraft, one of the most creative and cryptic fantasy/horror writers of the 20th century. Lovecraft died in 1936 after producing a number of short stories and novels on the shorter side. Though he perhaps best known for the short story The Call of Cthulhu, "Madness" is one of his more popular novels that explored the macabre, dark, mythos that Lovecraft created in his stories.

I guess the Christian God is old too... "W-When's bingo?"

I have been a fan of Lovecraft's work for a long time, but never got around to reading this particular work of his. What I love about Lovecraft (sounds like the name of a romantic comedy I know) is the creepy feeling and connection that all of his short stories and novels create. All of them revolve around things called "old gods", ancient beings that lived millions of years before us, who wish to come back out of the darkness to take over the world once again. Most notably of these are Cthulhu, whom the entire mythos is named after, Nyarlathotep, a common old god featured in multiple stories, and Randolph Carter, a popular protagonist for Lovecraft to use.
After reading a little bit about the plot, it seems that this particular story will deal with a new set of characters but probably touch on at least one or more of the "Old gods".

This next book is rather short, so I will be able to finish it rather quickly and get on to my last book or two. Hopefully the mid-post should come out tomorrow!

See ya soon!

Born Finishing Born Standing Up

It's done.
Mr. Martin, good job, you've written a pretty decent book. Overall, I must say, as a person who mostly reads fiction, I really did enjoy this nonfiction book.

The book is a lot like Juicy fruit - Happy one moment and sad the next.

Overall, what really stood out as interesting was the fact that Martin delved into how comedy is a craft and an art form. He discussed how different audiences could react to different jokes and how different lights could effect each audience. He continues to say how depending on the audience, the location, the area that the comedy club was in, and other factors made the jokes he told different. Martin had a variation on his jokes for literally every variation of audience.

But, more than the actual information, I loved Martin's writing style. He was able to mix comedy and seriousness all at the same time (just like this blog!). One could laugh, learn, and feel for Martin all in the same page. Wow, I feel like I'm advertising a new documentary on the Civil Rights Movement.

TV ≥ My Grades

So, with Born Standing Up now standing behind me, I will continue on to bigger and more plot driven things. Bigger meaning smaller in this situation. Seriously, I am so goddamn behind on this project, I have to read three more books and post on here nine more times in roughly a week. I'm not used to this kind of work! I'm only used to this kind of procrastination!

Though I would really have liked to read A Clockwork Orange, it is around five hundred pages, and with another fifty or so pages of AP Euro to read, that's just not happening (Also, come on, I have to catch up on Walking Dead, Archer, Legit, and others). So next up is a haunting classic by Mr. Howard Phillip Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness. Being that I'm already around fifty pages in, a post should be coming up soon enough.

Read future posts to see the darkness that Lovecraft creates have comedic light shined upon it!