This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It

I figured I'd review this book since I've reviewed everything else related to John Dies at the End. But then I thought: maybe I'll just review every book I read. I don't have as much time to read anymore, so it won't be a lot. Why not start a new column and review some novels without graphics? I couldn't come up with a title I liked, so I'll just use the book's title until I come up with something better. Or maybe I won't. Who knows?

I'm going to be vague while discussing plots, because I don't like to know too much going into a book. I even consider people who read the copy on the back to be Philistines. I go into that stuff with comicbooks a bit more, but that's more so I can nitpick. And also, they take about 10 minutes to read. I don't want to spoil something that you may be invested in for a couple weeks.

And I'll also review books I can't finish. Don't tell me it gets better after page 200 or in the next book. No one told me that before I started Game of Thrones or Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It wasn't until I mentioned how shitty those books were until people started saying, "Book two is where it gets really good. You have to stick with it." Fuck you because (1) I don't believe that every book I read coincidentally gets so much better after the page I left off, and (2) even if that is the case, there are literally hundreds of books that are great from page one. If I need to suffer through hundreds of pages I don't like to get to something tolerable, it's not worth it. I don't care how many movies they make.

Anyway, on to my review of This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It, the sequel to John Dies at the End. I'm going to say that if you liked JD@TE you should like this. The horror and humor are similar. The structure's a bit different as Wong probably knew this would end up as a novel going into it. JD@TE debuted as a short online story that got several additions due to its popularity. Eventually it got published in book form. Because of the way it was written, it was naturally a lot more episodic. This one's more of a cohesive story line. The first one was probably a little more terrifying and exciting because everything was new, not only for the reader but the characters as well. Even so, I still loved this book and hope for more stories of Dave and John.

More John

I've plugged the book. I've plugged the movie. So now I'll mention the score. I figured I'd give you guys a heads up since there are only 3000 of these pressed. You can pick one up here: http://www.lalalandrecords.com/JDATE.html.

Anyway, mine showed up yesterday, and it's great. It was composed by Brian Tyler who also did Bubba Ho-Tep and Six String Samurai. This one's a lot more diverse and ambient than Bubba, but definitely shows a similar style. Check it out.

John Dies at the End

One of my first posts when I started this blog was about this novel. The film is finally finished, and I got to see it last week. It's really good. A pretty flawless translation. It's been five years since I read the book so I don't remember a lot of the book's plot clearly, but there is a lot of imagery and a lot of scenes that stuck with me. The film looks the way I saw the book in my head.

I also got to meet Don Coscarelli after the movie. I got a little dorky and told him how much I love Bubba Ho-Tep which is one of my all-time favorite movies. But really, anyone who knows me knows that I love to go on about movies that I like to anyone who will listen. So it felt cool to do that with someone who actually wants to hear it.

Anyway, if you've read the book, you know there's a lot of stuff in it. Apparently, there's a lot of scenes and monologues  that were shot but didn't make the 100 minute movie. These  scenes will be on the DVD coming out in a couple months. It also seems that Bubba Nosferatu is unlikely at least for the time being, although Coscarelli would still love to make the film.

John Dies at the End is on a very limited theatrical run now and also On Demand (I think. At least it was for a while). Definitely check it out. The book's sequel has recently been printed as This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It. I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, so I can't vouch for it but I'll go out on a limb and say it's probably good.

Book of the Week

You may have noticed that I haven't picked a Book of the Week in a little while. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to pick up my books weekly anymore. However, I'm going to try to keep track of when books come out and keep the column going. I should get my books in a few days and have two Book of the Week pics in the coming week. That's pretty much how I'm hoping this thing progresses.

Anyway, I figure that since I haven't read any comic books in a couple weeks, I'll recommend a novel with no graphics. I read John Dies at the End a couple years back and liked it so much that I'm still telling people to read it.

It's gone through a few incarnations. Originally published online at http://johndiesattheend.com/, it later found a softcover printing through Permuted Press. It recently got a hardcover printing through a larger publisher with bigger distribution. Don't quote me, but I think that all three versions differ slightly.

I'm not really going to divulge much of the plot, but the book is both really funny and really disgusting and terrifying at the same time without any awkwardness. I think Don Coscarelli (who owns the movie rights) described it as Stephen King meets Douglas Adams. So, go check this out and I'll get back to the regular Book of the Week soon.