letdown

I just finished reading Stephen King's "Cell". I want to preface my review with this: during my formative years, King was my idol. I was in junior high school when my dad lent me his copy of "Christine", and I didn't look back. For years my all-time favorite non-series book was "The Stand" (it has only recently been replaced by "The Genesis Code"). While I haven't read every single word the man's written, I'm pretty damn close. So maybe my expectations are a tad high. I didn't like "Cell", though. It had a great concept, great suspense, good characters, and some parts really made me think. The ending, however, was terrible. And there was a little bit of gore, but not much. Sometimes I wonder if King's gone soft in his old age.

Maybe I'm more critical because I'm older, or because I'm so critical of my own writing. I have noticed that in the past few years I've become a more discerning reader. That's a good thing, I think, because it makes my own writing better. It makes it harder to enjoy reading, though. Hazard of the job, I guess.

Speaking of jobs, micro is going well. I've begun training on Acid Fast cultures (that's tuberculosis for you civilians) and next week I'll start on strep and respiratory cultures. A few days ago I worked with organisms that could potentially kill me. Jealous?