freezer books
April 23, 2009
In a very special Friends episode, Joey and Rachel have traded books. Unless I’m wrong (and I’m NEVER wrong) Joey has never read the ending of The Shining because when a book he’s reading gets too scary (he’s really into Stephen King), he puts the book in the freezer.
Rachel has him reading Little Women. And Beth is really sick, and Joey is scared. So he and Rachel put the book in the freezer together.
Well. I’m currently reading The Book Thief. It’s awesome. I love the characters, I love the writing, and I love the guy who is reading it to me (since I listen on cd during my commute–not sure what I’m going to do when I start riding the motorcycle to work. What, I’m supposed to be illiterate during the Summer?).
I give nothing away when I tell you that The Book Thief is about a little girl in Southern Germany during World War II. But I know how World War II ends. For example, I just finished reading Night, a haunting memoir of the Holocaust from an Auschwitz survivor. See? I know.
I’m on the last cd of The Book Thief. And I’m very very scared. I LIKE these characters. I like them a lot.
Do you think the Draper City Library would mind if I put just cd number 11 in the freezer? What’s the worst that could happen?
dug 
April 23, 2009 at 11:01 am
Putting the CD in the freezer could initiate a butterfly effect that plunges the Earth into an ice age. Perhaps that’s not the worst that could happen, but it’s pretty bad. I don’t own a Pugsley.
My wife liked The Book Thief. It’s on my reading list, now moved up.
April 23, 2009 at 11:21 am
the cover of “the book thief” looks like something from “saw” or “hostel”…i will not be reading this book.
i read “the exorcist” in high school in the 70’s, before i saw the movie. when i saw the movie in ’74, the next day i burned the book. it’s the only book i’ve even thought about burning. oh, i also slept on the floor in my parents room after the movie… i was 16. i wish i could’ve put my memory of that in the freezer. i’m such a wuss.
April 23, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I saw the original Halloween when I was sixteen. I slept IN my parents bed that night right between the two of them. Never saw another horror film again until the first half of Dawn of the Dead, haven’t seen one since. I’m telling you, happy endings are best, reality be danged.
April 23, 2009 at 11:23 am
I’m at the same place with “all the pretty horses.” Bad things are starting to happen, but since I read the last book of the trilogy first, I know how it’s all going to end.
April 23, 2009 at 11:27 am
mark, “all the pretty horses” was great. whatever you do, DO NOT watch the movie. if, you equate crappy with scary, you’ll be scared to death.
April 23, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I just finished “Blindness” and promptly got the DVD. The Book was meh, the film was the biggest waste of two hours since “Before and After.” I’ll steer clear of “All the Pretty Horses,” which is too bad because the book has incredible potential for film adaptation.
April 23, 2009 at 11:43 am
The way the Draper City Library sucks your card away and spits it back out is just creepy to me. Hate to see what they would do to a person who froze a cd.
April 23, 2009 at 12:25 pm
That’s why you should read books with happy endings!!! But, I would like to see if you fit in the card reader at the library.
April 23, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Your post made me laugh and warned me NOT to read that book. It reminded me of how I felt when I watched the movie “Seven.” I was so disturbed by the movie I had to run down the four flights of stairs in my apartment building and put the DVD in my car and lock it. Then I had to watch animated Disney movies late into the night. (Although animation can be almost as freaky, just in a different way. I stayed away from Bambi that night.)
April 23, 2009 at 12:58 pm
but in retrospect, please admit that “seven” is the best police thriller ever.
after i watched “the river’s edge” at the theater, i had to then watch the unbelievably bad, but very light “outrageous fortune” in the next theater to get the creepy crawlies off my skin.
April 23, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I will agree with you. “Seven” was one of the best movies that I try not to think about and will never watch again!
April 23, 2009 at 4:42 pm
better than “silence of the lambs”? a movie i will never watch again…
halloween is still my alltime favorite scary movie. of course, i have to be tricked into watching them.
April 24, 2009 at 12:26 pm
All time favorite scary movie and “Halloween”? NEVER again. Anyone tricks me into watching any more scary movies will see me disappear faster than Dug does a downhill. I have seen enough (and heard enough) of Silence to know it will never get on the viewing list. Favorite and Scary do not go together in my lexicon.
April 23, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Another vote for Silence of the Lambs. Gives me the heebeegeebees just thinking about the scene where she’s wandering around in the dark tunnels and Hannibal is stalking her with his night vision goggles.
The Shining freaked me out. It was a mistake to watch that – demonic, evil stuff does a number on me.
Jaws gave me my first big irrational fear as a young teenager. I’d get a little freaked out getting in the tub.
April 23, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Books never make me scared. Most horror movies don’t either. But one exception is The Descent, about some women who go spelunking in what turns out to be an unexplored, endless cave with these strange bat/human creatures crawling around and jumping out of nowhere. I’m not claustrophobic by nature but the entire movie makes you feel like you are in a dark, cramped, cave. I can’t ever watch it again.
April 23, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Sounds like the Pain Cave I’m going into on Saturday.
I’m a total wuss for scary movies. On Grad night many years ago, a bunch of us gathered at a friends house to watch movies and hang out. I don’t even know what the name of the movie was, but at one point I got so freaked I literally was up and running toward the door before I checked myself.
I prefer happy endings.
April 24, 2009 at 12:27 pm
AMEN!
April 23, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Finish the book/CD, it is really worth it.
I loved The Book Thief – I think I read it in two sittings – but it is quite emotional. For those that haven’t read it, it isn’t horror, in fact it is written for teenagers (and still not horror).
April 24, 2009 at 10:12 am
okay, i finished it. i’m so lucky i listen to these books alone in my car, because when the bombs came, i was crying like a baby.
a fine book, a wonderful book. seriously, all of you, go read it. it’s awesome.
April 23, 2009 at 6:20 pm
what we need here is a true definition of horror…besides hannah montana and dick cheney.
April 24, 2009 at 9:42 am
LOL
April 27, 2009 at 7:38 am
It’s like the opposite of Fahrenheit 451
October 14, 2009 at 9:03 am
[…] makes me wish I were a better knitter. Although, if I made one, I’d probably have to store it in the freezer overnight to keep it out of my dreams. Seriously, it is a stunning piece of work. To bang one out […]