This Book is Full of Spiders [by David Wong]

Diana Hignutt

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Any David Wong Fans here?

I honestly thought this book...was the most enjoyable, thought-provoking book I have ever read in English.

Anyone else read this? I'd love to discuss it!
 

Diana Hignutt

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So, I finally got a chance to read some fiction whilst I was away in Quintana Roo, Mexico...my choice on the trip was David Wong's sequel to his brilliant work, John Dies at the End, entitled, This Book is Full of Spiders, Seriously Dude Don't Touch It.

First, simply setting the book on the coffee table totally freaked the maids out, so much that they did not want to re-enter the room again. So, the first day, I pull the book out of my bag and go to dinner...we get back the maid had placed several items on top of the book (right over the pretend hole in the book where the spiders are emerging):

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So, I knew I had a winner. It really is a fantastic book and I will host a discussion of it in this thread...where I will point out many of Wong's brilliant points on the supernatural.

The book contains invisible parasites, zombies, shadow people, the Illuminati, quantum teleportation, and multiple universe theory, mystical psychedelics, the nature of empathy and compassion, and, of course, the Apocalypse. It's written in a style that is rather like a combination of Kevin Smith's Clerks, Douglas Adams, and HP Lovecraft...I laughed my behind off and learned a lot.
 

Diana Hignutt

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Here's one of my favorite parts, way towards the beginning, where David is in his court-ordered therapy for shooting the pizza guy with a crossbow. His therapist, Dr. Bob Tennent, tells David the following story:


Quote:“So, a few years ago, while I was presenting at a conference in Europe, my wife called and insisted that the walls of our laundry room
were throbbing. That was the word she used. Pulsing, like the wall itself
was alive. She described a hum, an energy, that she could feel as soon as
she walked into the room. I suggested it was a wiring problem. She
became . . . let’s just say, agitated at that point.

Three days later, just before I was due to come back, she called again. The problem was getting worse, she said. There was an audible hum now, from the wall. She couldn’t sleep. She could hear it as soon as she walked in the house. She could feel it, the vibration, like something unnatural was ready to burst forth into our world.

So, I flew home the next day, and found her extremely
upset. I understood immediately why my suggestion of a wiring
problem was so insulting—this was the sound of something alive. Something massive. So, even though I was exhausted, jet-lagged and just
completely dead on my feet, I had no other thought than to go out to
the garage, get my tools and peel off the siding. Guess what I found.”

I didn’t answer.

“Guess!”

“I’m not sure I want to know.”

“Bees. They had built an entire hive in the wall, sprawling from
floor to ceiling. Tens of thousands of them.”

His face was lighting up with the telling of his amusing anecdote.

Why not? He was getting paid to tell it.

“So I went and put on a hat and gloves and wrapped my wife’s scarf
around my face and sprayed the hive, I killed them by the thousands.
Only later did I realize that the bees are quite valuable and a local beekeeper actually came and carefully removed the hive itself at no charge.

I think he’d have actually paid me if I hadn’t killed so many of them at
the start.”

“Hmm.”

“Do you understand?”

“Yeah, your wife thought it was a monster. Turned out to just be
bees. So my little problem, probably just bees. It’s all bees. Nothing to
worry about.”

“I’m afraid you misunderstood. That was the day that a very powerful,
very dangerous monster turned out to be real. Just ask the bees.”​
You can find a free sample that this excerpt came from right here:

http://www.johndiesattheend.com/ThisBook...review.pdf

first 24 pages, I think...
 

Chrissy

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Okay that sounds pretty good! You said sequel -- do you recommend starting with the first one then?

(Oh, and btw... it's awesome to "see" you Diana! :heart: )
 

Diana Hignutt

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Okay that sounds pretty good! You said sequel -- do you recommend starting with the first one then?

(Oh, and btw... it's awesome to "see" you Diana! :heart: )

Great to see you too!

Actually David Wong suggests skipping John Dies in the End, because it makes him look douchey...this book is vastly superior...and is written in such a way that reading the first book is not required...
 

Chrissy

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Ha! Will do then.
 

Sam Argent

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It's going on my buy list just for that cover.