Book Review – Duma Key by Stephen King

Since I read so much – I thought adding an occasional book review might be helpful. I don’t plan to offer a deep analysis or anything like that – just a few words to express whether or not I enjoyed a particular book.

My friends and family know that I mostly prefer reading creepy, horror fiction. I’ve read quite a few books outside that genre – but I keep coming back to authors like Stephen King & Dean Koontz for some reason. I also read quite a few detective novels from authors like James Patterson and Jonathan Kellerman. I guess I like the continuation of the primary protagonists.

I recently finished Duma Key by Stephen King and found it very entertaining. I’ve read most everything from this author and most of his novels I found to be quite creepy (some of them clearly over the line). Duma Key didn’t feel that way – although it clearly had the level of “scariness” that I’m used to from King.

Was the book long? Yes. Were the characters real? Yes. Was the storyline believable? Well, not really – but how many of King’s other novels fall into this category? King has the ability to suck you into a story no matter how far fetched the “believability” factor is. The sign of a great writer in my opinion.

I enjoyed reading Duma Key and consider it not the best, but certainly one of King’s better works.

My rating: 4/5 Stars

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

My 2009 running goals

Today is January 3rd, 2009 and I’ve decided to get an early start on my running goals for the year. The previous couple of years I kind of just did whatever felt right at the time but didn’t really set specific goals. My only true goal for last year was to train for, and complete my first marathon. I achieved this goal on October 5, 2008 when I finished the Portland Marathon in 4:33:53. Not a terribly impressive finish time – but I was thrilled to have my first marathon out of the way.

This year I plan to build on this achievement by running 2 marathons (one in the Spring and one in the Fall). My goals for 2009 are listed below:

1. Remain injury free throughout 2009
2. Break 1000 total miles for the 2009 calendar year
3. Run the Eugene Marathon in under 4:10
4. Run the Portland Marathon in under 4:00
5. Run two Half Marathons (both under 2:00)
6. Run at least two shorter races (5k-15k)

Well, there they are. Pretty simple when you look at them in print. I doubt I’ll feel the same when I’m nursing severe blisters and cramps in mile 19 – but that’s all part of the fun right?

Cheers

The snow is gone…I’m back in the saddle

Well, Happy New Year to all. This is my first post in some time – and also my first post in 2009. The past couple of weeks have been quite an adventure with all of the snow and family holiday events going on.

Here in the Portland area we’ve had more snow than I can remember in years. It was the first white Christmas I can recall in many years as well. Great fun if you don’t have to travel much and like running indoors on a treadmill (I don’t).

Naturally, I’m way behind on my training due to the snow/ice and an extended cold that sapped most of my energy. In my younger days I would have ignored the cold and pressed on – but my 42 years of age wisdom tells me that doing so would be a bad idea. So, I’ve basically been laying around, eating too much, watching movies on TV and thinking about running.

Well, today I woke up feeling pretty decent – and a quick glance out the window confirmed there is still some snow left, but the streets are clear. I quickly grabbed my cold weather gear and well worn Asics Gel Kayanos and headed for the door. On my way out I checked my remote temp gauge and it read a frosty 36 degrees. Just right for my inaugural 2009 run.

I warmed up with a short walk and then proceeded on a wonderfully exhilarating 5 mile run through some neighborhoods near my home. It wasn’t a particularly long or fast run – but it was just what I needed.

I’m looking forward to a great year in 2009. I don’t do resolutions – but I already have my goals for the year mostly settled in my head. I’ll post my running goals in a subsequent entry.

Cheers