Now, if you'll excuse me I have several episodes of Dexter to watch...

I equate Stephen King with R.E.M. - riveting early stuff followed by a long streak of disappointments, where the (rarely seen) optimist in me hopes against hope that the next output will be back on par with It or Eponymous and against my better judgment I begrudgingly endure every production only to be let down time after time.

And so I borrowed the latest Stephen King short story collection from the library.

It passed the time on the PDX-MCI-TPA-BWI leg of my last trip. So there was that.

All the plots were a bit elementary, even for him, but 1922 and Fair Extension were fairly well written and engaging enough. The latter was such a sad but honest commentary on human behavior that it left a bad taste in my mouth (which made me love it).

But the other two novellas made me... well, mad. I don't know how else to describe it. Both were written from a woman's perspective; I wish his wife would discourage this (or edit more) because he never gets it right. The theme of the book was retribution so I suppose these two stories were supposed to showcase strong women standing up for themselves after experiencing something horrific. But from my vantage point these women did really stupid things in the interest of saving face. Taking on serial killers to protect your own image? Risky, dumb and unlikely in real life.

But hey, January reading goal: check.

Finishing this on the plane meant I was left with Mom's collection of crap novels last week. A skim through A Wedding in December, a rambling tale about seven people who haven't seen each other in 20+ years who come together to expose their various mid-life crises and then go off never to see each other again, nailed the coffin shut on any notions of attending my 20-year high school reunion next year. I should write Anita Shreve a thank-you note.

At BWI I wandered into the bookstore and walked out with Atlas Shrugged. Dense and rich, fascinating characters, social commentary that holds true today. I can't wait to see how it ends... at the rate I'm going, I'll know sometime around March 2012.