11/22/63 by Stephen King

I had watched the show years ago and loved it, then it re-appeared in my feed due to hitting Netflix, so me and my wife decided to watch it (again, we loved it), and it occurred to me:

I’ve read a TON of Stephen King books (list incomplete, but you get the picture), but somehow I hadn’t read 11/22/63?!

So I decided to change that. Damn what a great read. I typically read at night before bed (as evidenced by my highlight timestamps), and this book made for some anxious nights. Just knowing generally what’s going to happen, but the build-up is so stressful.

If you’ve never read a Stephen King book, this is a great place to start. 11/22/63 is officially one of my favorites of all time.

On a technical note, I ended up reading this one in NeoReader, but I think I’m going back to KOReader. I’ve set up a KOReader sync thing between my Boox and Pixel, so I think I can now sync highlights and reading position between my devices. I’ve been missing that since leaving Kindle, but I think I’ve finally solved it.

Due to the Mistborn announcement, that’ll be my next read! Back on a Sanderson run.

Highlights

11/22/63

by Stephen King

I stroked a big red A on top of his paper. Looked at it for a moment or two, then added a big red +. Because it was good, and because his pain had evoked an emotional reaction in me, his reader. And isn’t that what A+ writing is supposed to do? Evoke a response?
— Page 26 | Tuesday, November 11, 2025 at 10:03:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

PART 1 Watershed Moment
The impossible part was that in the twenty-two hours since I’d last seen him, Al Templeton appeared to have lost at least thirty pounds.
— Page 48 | Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 10:06:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

Nobody loses thirty or forty pounds in less than a day, nobody. But I was looking at it. And this, I think, is where that fog of unreality swallowed me whole.
— Page 48 | Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 10:06:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

I guess we always find excuses to keep on with our bad habits, don’t we?”
— Page 54 | Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 10:10:00 PM
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it turns out I’m no longer tied to the economy the way other people are. And it’s all because of what’s behind that pantry door.
— Page 67 | Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 10:14:00 PM
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I knew where I was; Lisbon Falls, Maine, deep in the heart of Androscoggin County.
The real question was when I was.
— Page 91 | Thursday, November 13, 2025 at 9:52:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

I think a human mind that’s moderately well-adjusted can absorb a lot of strangeness before it actually totters,
— Page 125 | Friday, November 14, 2025 at 9:52:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

“Every time is the first time.” I said it slowly, putting a space around each word. Trying to get them to make sense in my mind.
— Page 134 | Friday, November 14, 2025 at 9:55:00 PM
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“You can change history, Jake. Do you understand that? John Kennedy can live.”
— Page 170 | Friday, November 14, 2025 at 10:10:00 PM
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Save Kennedy, save his brother. Save Martin Luther King. Stop the race riots. Stop Vietnam, maybe.”
— Page 201 | Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 9:53:00 PM
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Why would it be hard? Because the past doesn’t want to be changed?”
“Something doesn’t want it to be changed, I’m pretty sure of that. But it can be. If you take the resistance into account, it can be.”
— Page 222 | Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 10:03:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

“Because every trip down the rabbit-hole’s a reset.” Then Al just looked at me, to see if I got it. After a minute, I did.
“I—?”
“That’s right, buddy. You bought yourself a dime root beer this afternoon. You also put Carolyn Poulin back in a wheelchair.”
— Page 227 | Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 10:06:00 PM
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“And I didn’t find this story in the Enterprise because?”
“It didn’t happen around here. It happened in Derry, upstate.
— Page 252 | Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 10:15:00 PM
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“A good life is never wasted. Could it have been better? Yes
— Page 254 | Monday, November 17, 2025 at 10:05:00 PM
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PART 2 The Janitor’s Father
I felt good.
Until I saw Derry.
— Page 346 | Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 9:46:00 PM
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Derry looked only marginally more charming than a dead hooker in a church pew.
— Page 361 | Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 9:52:00 PM
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Murders. Half a dozen at least. Kids. Found one down in the Barrens just recently. Patrick Hockstetter, his name was. All decayed.”
— Page 368 | Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 9:55:00 PM
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Other folks say he was a local who dressed up like a clown to keep from being recognized. The first of the victims—this was last year, before I came—they found him at the intersection of Witcham and Jackson with his arm ripped clean off. Denbrough was his name, George Denbrough. Poor little tyke.”
— Page 371 | Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 9:56:00 PM
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“Beep-beep, Richie,” the girl said. She was wiping the corners of her eyes.
— Page 400 | Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 10:17:00 PM
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It doesn’t matter if you’re talking 1958, 1985, or 2011. In America, where surface has always passed for substance, people always believe guys like Frank Dunning.
— Page 450 | Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 10:16:00 PM
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Come in and visit. Time doesn’t matter in here; in here, time just floats away.
— Page 515 | Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 10:26:00 PM
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The past does not want to be changed. The past is obdurate.
— Page 531 | Wednesday, November 26, 2025 at 10:28:00 PM
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“Who are you, mister?” he asked.
“Nobody.” I walked past him to the door. He deserved more than that, though. The sirens were closer now, but I turned back. “Your good angel,” I said.
— Page 618 | Friday, November 28, 2025 at 10:57:00 PM
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PART 3 Living in the Past
“I got lung cancer from smoking, that’s all.” He coughed as if to prove this, but I saw doubt as well as pain in his eyes.
“Probably that’s all it was. I hope that’s all it was. But it’s one more thing we don’t kn—”
— Page 662 | Sunday, November 30, 2025 at 10:55:00 PM
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But sometimes longshots are lucky shots (Lee Harvey Oswald being a particularly malignant case in point).
— Page 675 | Monday, December 1, 2025 at 10:38:00 PM
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I’d saved him from a limp and some mental fogginess only to cut his lifespan by forty years or so? Terrific. The surgery was a success, but the patient died.
— Page 678 | Monday, December 1, 2025 at 10:40:00 PM
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Even people capable of living in the past don’t really know what the future holds.
“Hey, Ozzie,” I said softly. “I’m coming for you, you fuck.”
— Page 691 | Monday, December 1, 2025 at 10:47:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

Al had assumed the Yellow Card Man was just a wet-brain who’d been driven crazy by an unlucky combination of booze and proximity to the rabbit-hole. I hadn’t questioned that until the card turned orange. Now I more than questioned it; I flat-out didn’t believe it. What was he, anyway?
— Page 698 | Tuesday, December 2, 2025 at 10:19:00 PM
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Are there people who have such headaches not just occasionally but frequently? If so, God help them.
— Page 731 | Wednesday, December 3, 2025 at 10:49:00 PM
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“Marnie … if God had wanted you to know that part, He would have told you.”
— Page 786 | Friday, December 5, 2025 at 10:53:00 PM
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Angel. It was the second time I’d heard that,
— Page 787 | Friday, December 5, 2025 at 10:55:00 PM
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Time-travelers lie a lot.
— Page 788 | Friday, December 5, 2025 at 10:55:00 PM
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Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
— Page 810 | Sunday, December 7, 2025 at 10:24:00 PM
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I didn’t like Dallas. No sir, no ma’am, no way.
— Page 842 | Tuesday, December 9, 2025 at 10:25:00 PM
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It was no wonder it took me almost two months to think of this; life’s simplest answers are often the easiest to overlook.
— Page 860 | Wednesday, December 10, 2025 at 9:44:00 PM
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Dumb. But stupidity is one of two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances.
— Page 884 | Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 10:11:00 PM
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On the subject of love at first sight, I’m with the Beatles: I believe that it happens all the time.
— Page 953 | Sunday, December 14, 2025 at 10:29:00 PM
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Sadie was good-looking in an artless what-you-see-is-what-you-get American-girl way. She was something else, as well.
— Page 962 | Monday, December 15, 2025 at 10:11:00 PM
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PART 4 Sadie and the General
“Mister, this is a bus stop on the road to nowhere.
— Page 1024 | Wednesday, December 17, 2025 at 9:38:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

“What’s that dance?”
“The Madison! They’ve been doing it on Bandstand all month! Want me to teach you?”
“Lady,” I said, taking her by the arm, “I’m going to teach you.”
— Page 1045 | Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 10:12:00 PM
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It was the Hellzapoppin. Of course it was. Because the past harmonizes.
— Page 1050 | Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 10:15:00 PM
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It was kissing, but it was more than kissing. It was like eating when you’ve been hungry or drinking when you’ve been thirsty.
— Page 1053 | Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 10:18:00 PM
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Derry is Dallas,’ you said. Then you said it backwards. ‘Dallas is Derry.’
— Page 1120 | Friday, December 19, 2025 at 10:32:00 PM
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Maybe it’s the butterfly effect. Maybe Vince is dead because I came to Jodie.
— Page 1125 | Friday, December 19, 2025 at 10:35:00 PM
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There was a man I was supposed to be watching for. Besides Oswald himself, that was. A man whose name also happened to be George, and who was going to become Oswald’s only friend.
Don’t trust him, Al had written in his notes.
— Page 1134 | Saturday, December 20, 2025 at 9:49:00 PM
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The dessert was as wonderful as ever, but things weren’t the same. Because she was right. There was a broom in the bed. Like the jimla Rosette had seen in the back of my car, it was invisible … but it was there.
— Page 1163 | Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 10:13:00 PM
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Two things about the Land of Ago: there’s a lot less paperwork and a hell of a lot more trust.
— Page 1189 | Monday, December 22, 2025 at 10:06:00 PM
11/22/63 by Stephen King

I remembered the day I had spoken to Frank Dunning’s wife, pretending to be a real estate speculator with an interest in the West Side Rec. She’d been twenty years older than Sadie Doris Clayton, née Dunhill, but both women had blue eyes, exquisite skin, and fine, full-breasted figures. Both women were smokers. All of it could have been coincidental, but it wasn’t. And I knew it.
— Page 1213 | Monday, December 22, 2025 at 10:18:00 PM
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Thank you for showing me how good things can be. Please don’t say goodbye.
— Page 1233 | Tuesday, December 23, 2025 at 10:33:00 PM
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Time to realize the teaching had done a lot more than pass the time; it had satisfied my mind the way work does when you care about it, when you feel like you might actually be making a difference.
— Page 1240 | Tuesday, December 23, 2025 at 10:38:00 PM
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History repeats itself is another way of saying the past harmonizes.
— Page 1353 | Monday, December 29, 2025 at 10:26:00 PM
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What convinced me was the thought of Sadie. I loved her and she loved me—at least she had—and I’d thrown that away to come here to this shitty street.
— Page 1363 | Monday, December 29, 2025 at 10:31:00 PM
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Oswald might be going to change the course of history in a mere fourteen months, but he was a bore.
— Page 1405 | Tuesday, December 30, 2025 at 10:16:00 PM
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“They say you can fool a scientist, but you can never fool another magician. Your ex may teach science, but he’s sure no magician.
— Page 1471 | Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 10:29:00 PM
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I went to kiss her, but she held me back for a moment. “It’s almost here, isn’t it? What you came to do.”
“Yes,” I said. “But it’s not tonight. For tonight it’s just us. So kiss me, honey. And dance with me.”
— Page 1504 | Sunday, January 4, 2026 at 10:16:00 PM
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Al’s notes had said nothing about this development, either because he didn’t know or didn’t care. But I cared.
The wife of the man I had waited over four years to kill was once again pregnant.
— Page 1533 | Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 10:24:00 PM
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“Yessir, outside a bar called the Desert Rose. Over a woman, accourse. Don’t that figure?”
“I guess,” I said. “Although sometimes it’s politics.”
“Nah, nah, at the bottom it’s always a woman, son.”
— Page 1538 | Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 10:26:00 PM
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The AAs say FEAR stands for something else, as well: Fuck everything and run.
— Page 1542 | Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 10:28:00 PM
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My ear in the Oswald apartment had gone deaf.
The past is obdurate.
— Page 1561 | Friday, January 9, 2026 at 10:07:00 PM
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“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate that. And you really will marry me?”
“Now that I know your name is Jake? Of course.”
— Page 1585 | Saturday, January 10, 2026 at 10:14:00 PM
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I lived two lives in late 1962 and early 1963, one in Dallas and one in Jodie. They came together at 3:39 on the afternoon of April 10. In my ear, Sadie began screaming.
— Page 1599 | Saturday, January 10, 2026 at 10:20:00 PM
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PART 5 11/22/63
In the first two, Sadie’s cheek hung in ragged flaps. That I had seen on Wednesday night and was prepared for. What I wasn’t prepared for was the stroke-victim droop of her mouth and the slack wad of the flesh below her left eye.
— Page 1657 | Wednesday, January 14, 2026 at 9:51:00 PM
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“Wait. Are you telling me the Dunhills and the Claytons carpooled?”
— Page 1689 | Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 9:49:00 PM
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Hunch-think.
— Page 1715 | Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 9:59:00 PM
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The crazy people of the world—the Johnny Claytons, the Lee Harvey Oswalds—shouldn’t get to win.
— Page 1722 | Friday, January 16, 2026 at 10:24:00 PM
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It’s all of a piece, I thought. It’s an echo so close to perfect you can’t tell which one is the living voice and which is the ghost-voice returning.
— Page 1748 | Friday, January 16, 2026 at 10:36:00 PM
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For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don’t we all secretly know this?
— Page 1748 | Friday, January 16, 2026 at 10:36:00 PM
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“Can you predict the future? You can, can’t you?”
I said nothing.
In a small voice she said, “Did you come here from the future?”
I said nothing.
She turned from the window. Her face was very pale. “Jake, did you?”
“Yes.”
— Page 1765 | Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 10:17:00 PM
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“It’s a ridiculous life, my friend. Go see an Ionesco play if you don’t believe me. I recommend Victims of Duty.”
— Page 1791 | Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 10:26:00 PM
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One day his temper will get him in trouble.
— Page 1820 | Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 9:42:00 PM
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“People pay more for gasoline and have more buttons to push. Otherwise, it’s about the same.”
— Page 1826 | Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 9:44:00 PM
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Scaring people is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.
— Page 1836 | Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 9:48:00 PM
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I can love you if you’re a man, and I can love you if you’re a hero—I guess, although for some reason that seems a lot harder—but I don’t think I can love a vigilante.”
— Page 1872 | Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 9:34:00 PM
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“The Yellow Card Man’s the personification of the obdurate past,” Al said. “You know that, don’t you?”
Yes, I knew that.
— Page 1931 | Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 9:55:00 PM
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For the first time I saw him as I had come to see Oswald—as an actual man. In the double take and the gesture that followed it, I saw something even more beautiful than a sense of humor: an appreciation for life’s essential absurdity.
— Page 1994 | Friday, January 23, 2026 at 9:27:00 PM
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“Sane men will often take a hint,” Mr. Kenopensky said. “Crazy men rarely do.
— Page 2002 | Friday, January 23, 2026 at 9:30:00 PM
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I wanted Sadie and my poundcake, too.
— Page 2008 | Saturday, January 24, 2026 at 10:24:00 PM
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“I made up for you, although I didn’t finally go under until the wee hours. If you hadn’t come, I might have slept right through the damn assassination.”
How dismal would that be for an ending?
— Page 2058 | Saturday, January 24, 2026 at 10:40:00 PM
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“Lee!” I shouted. “Stop, you son of a bitch!”
— Page 2123 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 9:38:00 PM
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I fired. My shot went high and only exploded splinters from the top of the window frame, but it was enough to save John Kennedy’s life.
— Page 2125 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 9:39:00 PM
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I have never been a crying man, but almost any man who’s lost the woman he loves would, don’t you think? Yes. But I didn’t.
Because I knew what had to be done.
— Page 2132 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 9:42:00 PM
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PART 6 The Green Card Man
“Mister Amberson? Jack Kennedy here. I … ah … understand that my wife and I owe you … ah … our lives. I also understand that you lost someone very dear to you.” Dear came out deah,the way I’d grown up hearing it.
— Page 2181 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 9:57:00 PM
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I’m safe. I’m safe. I’m safe.
The President of the United States had called from Austin to thank me for saving his life, and I was safe. I could do what I needed to do.
— Page 2183 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 9:58:00 PM
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Sadie with her long legs and long hair and her propensity to trip over anything that might be in the way … only at the critical moment, I was the one who had taken the fall.
— Page 2242 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 10:22:00 PM
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“I’ve stayed away from your string as much as possible,” the man in the black overcoat said, “but it hasn’t been entirely possible. Besides, there are so manystrings now. Thanks to you and your friend the cook, there’s so much crap.”
— Page 2257 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 10:27:00 PM
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“So every trip isn’t a complete reset.”
“Yes and no. It leaves residue.
— Page 2265 | Monday, January 26, 2026 at 10:30:00 PM
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Final Notes
I can’t save Kennedy, that is out of the question, but can the future history of the world be so fragile that it will not allow two high school teachers to meet and fall in love?
— Page 2344 | Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 9:54:00 PM
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Can I really be thinking of risking the world—perhaps reality itself—for the woman I love? That makes Lee’s insanity look piddling.
— Page 2351 | Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 9:57:00 PM
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I should also tell you that I no longer think of 2011 as the present. Philip Nolan was the Man Without a Country; I am the Man Without a Time Frame.
— Page 2357 | Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 9:59:00 PM
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Goodbye, Sadie.
You never knew me, but I love you, honey.
— Page 2360 | Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 10:01:00 PM
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Citizen of the Century (2012)
Mr. Amberson, where do I know you from? Because I do know you, I’m sure of it.”
— Page 2382 | Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 10:08:00 PM
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Who are you, George?”
“Someone you knew in another life, honey.”
— Page 2387 | Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 10:10:00 PM
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