Well I finally finished IT. IT has been on my "read" shelf for a long time but I had never actually finished IT. When I was 14 or so I obtained a copy of IT just before the summer holidays fully intending on spending most of the holiday laying in my back garden reading. And, for the first two weeks of my six week holiday that's exactly what I did. I piled through IT only stopping to replace my bottles of frozen squash - it was a steamingly hot summer that year, for the UK anyway. I remember exactly whereabouts in the book I stopped reading. There's this scene around halfway through the book where something happens Ben see's Dracula and he (Dracula) has a mouthful of razor blades which he proceeds to close his mouth on with a great Kerucnh that persuaded me to put it down forever. Fast forward ten or so years and I start my Goodreads account and I'm sitting adding all the books I've ever read. Something makes me add IT. I guess my brain just declared that I had finished it. So without another thought I added it. Fast forward another ten ish years and I'm on Goodreads again. I see that someone has made a comment on a review I liked (Maciek's Review if you're interested) and as often happens I got drawn into reading all the reviews. It was then I realised that I had never actually finished IT. Time to rectify that thought I. So I picked up my e-reader (my battered old paperback copy having disappeared into the mists of time) and lost myself in Derry. When I hit the bit that put me off all that time ago I simply read past it. I hate to skim read but in order to finish this book I had to and I'm glad I did. I'm glad I've finally finished IT. It was a story that I was already familiar with having been determined to watch the film since the trailer scared me at the age of 8 - Tim Curry (Pennywise) & Johnathan Brandis (Big Bill) are the best parts of the movie (no contest) - but the book I can categorically say is so much better (quelle surprise). I read the book with the film cast in my head and "remembered" parts of the book being in the film. I'll read IT again one day I'm sure, probably once I've seen the remake which, I have a feeling will never be as good as IT was. ( )

I´ve read this book for the first time in Portuguese, and couldn´t help to reread it. Why? Because it´s such a great story! It´s King´s most mature work. The horror and sci-fi encrusted in its pages make it undoubtedly a masterpiece. I´ll never forget the thrill of this fantastic 80´s book... ( )

It took a very long time but I finally finished the audio book version of It. I did enjoy it quite a lot but there were some places when it just felt overly long. But, for a book of this size, I imagine it would have to at some point.

I'm still not afraid of clowns! ( )

When I was 17 my English teacher decided that for the next two weeks we would spend the class reading a book of our choice. I already read books like they were going out of print, so this was a welcome change in my daily schedule. Grading on this reading would be based solely on page count, to be proven and tested by the teacher opening pages at random and asking what was going on after a sentence or two. The only caveat being that it couldn't have been made into a movie.

I initially was going to re-read "Flowers in the Attic" but one student pointed out that it had been made into a movie. I guess the teacher didn't trust us to actually read the book....However no one seemed to have a problem with "It" although it had been made into a mini-series (that I hadn't seen and still haven't seen).

So I grabbed my copy of "It" and proceeded to re-read it for a second time. We weren't limited to reading the books in the classroom, so I managed to plow through this 1000 page behemoth in about 5 days.

While other kids were turning in 200 and 300 page books after the whole two weeks was over, I had managed this book and three others. Needless to say, I got an A, and had my teacher wondering what kind of cheat I was doing to be able to easily and accurately tell him what was going on after only a sentence or two. It was like "Name that Tune" but with books... He actually considered the idea that he was randomly opening the book on exciting and memorable chapters that stood out and as such made for easy recollection. Although, it's been 20 years since I read "it", but was able to recall the book scenes from the previews of the movie coming out --That I WON'T be seeing Thank you very much...

Whatever.... I read "It". I read "It" three times, and plan on reading "It" again. However, I won't be listening to the Doors while reading "it" since the last time I did I managed to be listening to "Light My Fire" at the same time it was referenced in the book....Not quite the same as the phone ringing in IRL when it is ringing on tv...but close.

So this wasn't quite a review of the book but more of a little anecdote showing how it somehow made it into my personal Zeitgeist.

If you haven't read "It" because you are daunted by the page count, don't worry, if you like Steven King, this is required reading that won't leave you skimming the pages. "It" Is a classic that needs to be read at least once in your life if you like the genre.

Now for the side-effects!
Reading "It" will often cause mild to moderate side-effects including but not limited to....

Lost items never attempted to be recovered once they cross the barrier of sidewalk to sewage drain....Not even the fear of losing a wedding band will have you peering into those drains...Bonus for you if your spouse has also read "It" because they won't even question your lack of action.

Fear of old refrigerators with the latch doors....

Anxiety when walking into a library, that increases exponentially in correlation to the time of day and the age of the library.

New aversions to:
red balloons, slide projectors, clowns, wax-sealed paper boats, small-towns, asthma inhalers, clowns, bikes with playing cards in the spokes, walking at night, walking along rivers at night, clowns, cookie-baking little old ladies in big old houses, ex-ray machines that tell you your shoe size, clowns, turtles, sewers, full moons, native american sweat huts, and CLOWNS!

On the other hand...reading "It" gives you the same bragging rights over those who have only watched the movie....bonus points to knowing when to avert your eyes and miss out on those scenes that will forever haunt your friends and family that didn't see them coming....

Cheers! ( )

If you disregard that this book:

1. is extremely hateful towards fat people -not the character's POVs, the writer and the actual writing of fat people is horrendus and constantly demeaning -all fat people are vile, even random airplane seatmates, (except the one that becomes thin later on of course)
2. is extremely fond of decribing intense physical violence against women with a gleeful attention to detail
3. is extremely fond of informing us as to the whereabouts of women's nipples at any given time - oh didn't you know girl's and women's nipples act like radars? sure, like penises do. if you get aroused, cold, frightened, excited, curious, or have a paranormal experience, and are female, your nipples will surely harden and you will note the fact. Of course. Ask any woman, she'll tell you it's true.
4. uses it's main female protagonist as a love interest and bond between the rest of the children - they can't be friends if they don't fancy her, they can't have strong bonds if they don't want to bone each other, nevermind they're 11 years old. she exists to be the love interest.
5. justifies the girl offering her body so others feel comforted and applauds it as the right thing to do. The applauding part is extremely important. A girl grown up in an abusive household, where she's learned that sacrificing her wants and her needs so she can take care of others is the only path a good girl can take, may very well act this way and be justified. Because that's what patriarchy always demands of women to do. But when the author applauds it as the correct thing to do, then we have a problem.
6. secretly brings in the idea of the divine and a godly force opposed to all evil.

Then it's an amazing book. It analyses small american town mentality and creates vivid environments and believable characters. It even manages to have great horror scenes that are both imaginative and iconic.


But I can't ignore my previous 6 points, that are very important to me, so I cannot in good conscience rate it anywhere above 3 stars. Those of you who have done so, maybe re-read it mindfully? ( )