The Shining, Fahrenheit 451, and Siddhartha

Due to lack of my own computer (hopefully, not for long!) and SO having no desire as yet to posess one, my blogging is lacking. Also, I meant this to be a blog with an occasional book review to keep up with my readings; however it's seemed to turn into a book review with occasional spurts of life-blogging. I promise to write a non-book-related blog very soon.
With the short amount of time I've got, here are three books in one post that I've read over the past couple of weeks:


The Shining by Stephen King
I admit, that I'm not a willing fan of Stephen King's work...but it's like a friend of mine says, "he writes so much, that he's bound to write some truly great books...and some really awful pieces of shit as well." This book was surprisingly very good, and also very scary.
I love the movie, LOVE IT. One of my favourites. The book doesn't even come close to the movie. Cannot even conceive of the movie. You learn so much more about the Torrance family, about little Danny and about the history of the hotel. There are parts in it that are very Stephen King-y, which is to say a bit....unbelievable; but overall, it is an extremely good book. And unlike most book-movie combinations this one did not affect my opinion of the other. They are so similar, and yet still so very different, that there is nothing for me to be upset about (surprising, huh?).


Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
This is one of those books that everybody is supposed to have read, and yet I somehow managed to go through my entire school and college career without ever picking it up.
I've read a lot of distopias, and even more general fiction novels. And quite honestly, I thought this book was mediocre. I can see why it is required literature for middle and high schoolers, the whole point being that nobody reads any more and it becomes the law for no one to own any books. But to me, this book was on par with a creative essay from a college student about the ignorance of society. Plus, I have a hard time labeling a book as a distopia when it ends with hope. The man character's name is Guy, which I consider a throwback to Everyman--which also equals great amounts of cheese to me. Everything about this book just seemed so very corny to me, with the exception of the title (if it's true), I love that the title of the book is the temperature at which books will burn.
As a side note, there was a movie made in 1966, but I've not watched it and there are rumors that a new Fahrenheit movie will begin filming sometime next year. (Which, a movie about a book, that is about how people watch tv/movies instead of reading is terribly ironic.)


Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Also, this is one of those books that people just assume that I've read--especially after I tell someone a little bit about my beliefs. I've never read a damn word of the thing until a few days ago. This is a book about eastern philosophies during the time of the Buddha written by a Swiss (some say German) poet in the 1950s. Although very simplistic in its writing style, the book presents a pretty good overview of the eastern way of religious thought--kind of like an Eastern Doctrines for Dummies. Or it's perhaps mine and my sister's fascination with all religions that make the explanations seem so simplistic to me.
The book follows Sidhartha (the main character) throughout his adult life as he tries to find an explanation for why we are on earth. He studies and learns from everybody he meets and eventually realizes that the Self he is trying to escape in order to find the bigger meaning, is actually what life is all about.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty decent little book (a novella? perhaps it could be called) and would definitely recommend it for anybody trying to find some sort of faith to follow.