I've been on a Stephen King binge. (1 Viewer)

[Jack Briggs]

Though the past two years have been (by my standards, at least) tumultuous, one respite has been the Los Angeles Public Library. Thanks to said institution, I have been able to renew my readings of the long- and ever-popular master of mayhem, Stephen King.


I read the author closely back in the '70s through the early '90s (picked up Carrie when it first appeared). For some reason, though, I moved on to other diversions as time went on. However, back in 2014, I returned to this interesting writer with a vengeance. I have been playing catch-up ever since.


One thing I always appreciated about Mr. King is that he understands the distinctions between so-called literary (or serious) fiction and the popular stuff. I chalk this up to his background as an English instructor. Yet this understanding is reflected in the man's work. At his best, Mr. King is something a bit more than a mere bestselling author; at his worst, he still is entertaining.


As things stand, I have read everything he has published except for the following: Bag of Bones, Deloris Claiborn, Gerald's Game, Dreamcatcher, and The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. And the only reason I have not read these books is due to the library -- if the titles are not there, I do not read them.


My favorite recent King novel? Perhaps 11/22/63. My favorite older King novel (i.e., before his traffic mishap)? Oh, probably The Stand. His "scariest"? There is a scene in Pet Semetary that gave me the creeps.


Anyhow, I wanted to get this obsession off my chest. I respect Stephen King as a writer and I appreciate his honesty. Now, if I only I could locate a copy of Bag of Bones. ...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My mom is a huge Stephen King fan, and I think I inherited that from her. She had collected all of his books in hardcover, but over the years, she had loaned out various ones to friends and hadn't gotten them all back. A few years ago, I had to move back home for a brief period, and I wanted to do something special to thank her for putting me up (putting up with me?), so I went to eBay, Amazon and other used booksellers and tracked down hardcovers of all the ones she was missing. And buying them led to reading them which led to getting hooked myself.


I really, really loved 11/22/63. Absolutely fantastic novel on so many levels. Among newer stuff, I also really liked Duma Key and From A Buick 8.


I love the short stories. I haven't read the latest collection yet. (Once my mom finishes with it, I'll borrow).


His older books tend to be the ones that scare me, while the newer ones are more creepy than scary - but that's not a complaint. But I will say that Revival, which I think came out last year, that one scared me just like the old ones did.


So at the very least, know that you're not the only Stephen King fan around these parts!

 

[TravisR]

I've been reading or re-reading King's entire output in chronological order for the last few years (it's slow going since he's so prolific and I also read other stuff) so I'm only up to 1991 and Needful Things. So far, my favorite book is The Stand followed chronologically by The Shining, Christine, It and Misery. The scariest one is Pet Semetary and a few parts of 'Salem's Lot really spooked me too. I'd have to say that my favorite lesser known book of his/Richard Bachman's was Roadwork. The book done the biggest disservice by a movie was The Running Man. Due to that movie, I was not looking forward to reading the book and I was happily surprised by how much I ended up enjoying it.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I really have to give The Stand another try. I've tried to read that one two or three times, and it's the only one that I keep getting bored with. We had the "expanded" version and my mom thinks that may be my problem. She only recalls reading, and loving, the novel as it was originally published and thinks that maybe it got too bloated with the extra pages. I think it might be something more simple than that - I'm bored to death with plague stories (as well as zombie apocalypse stories), and that's what it is. And the main characters, who I gather I'm supposed to like at least somewhat, come off as whiny and obnoxious to me, or at least, that's how I remember it.


I'm determined to get through it at some point, but so far it's done nothing for me.


I really think it's me, though. I think it's the same problem I had with "Walking Dead" where the first season of that show was interesting to me up until they left the CDC - the CDC wasn't the problem, the problem for me was that the showrunners had absolutely no interest in exploring what caused the zombie apocalypse or how it works, whereas that's all I wanted to know. It's kind of the same thing with The Stand, where King is using the end of the world as a background to tell the story of these characters, and I find I'm more interested in the mechanics of the end of the world than any particular character in the story.

 

[Jim Mcc]

I read a lot of his books, and the worst one is Carrie. Very boring. The movie is much better.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Josh,


You have to be patient with The Stand. I remember reading it when it first came out, and it was slow in the beginning, which is not unusual for a King novel. Once the story got going though, it was quite a ride.


I was a huge King fan through his earlier years, but had got away from him for awhile -- probably during his Dark Tower series, which I became bored with and never finished. However, in the past couple of years I have picked him up again -- after buying my mother a Kindle, who is a big King fan, and her Kindle is on my Amazon account so that we can share books. I agree with the comments about 11/22/63, and think that is the best of his more recent work that I have read.

 

[Sam Posten]

The stand is my favorite book of all time and I've read all but his latest 4, I'm a slow reader and am behind

The gunslinger saga is amazing!

 

[TravisR]

The gunslinger saga is amazing!

It's funny when I read The Gunslinger, I was completely let down and wondered why people rave about The Dark Tower books. Then I read the second & third books in the series and I loved them. At the rate I'm going, I'll finish the other books in a decade or so.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I got hung up while reading one of the middle books -- Song of Susannah, I think. I became bored, put the book away and never went back. It has been so long that I would probably need to start from the beginning again, and I just haven't been able to motivate myself to do that.


I had a similar experience with Under The Dome. I was about 1/3rd of the way through the novel when it occurred to me that I really did not care what happened to any of the characters, and I stopped reading.

 

[Citizen87645]

I read a fair amount of King when I was in high school. My favorite from that time remains The Dead Zone, but It is also high on the list. In many ways, the short stories are more chilling than the novels (e.g. Night Shift).

I haven't attempted to tackle The Stand, but more recently I finally read some of his older novels that I enjoy as TV/movie adaptations -- 'Salem's Lot and The Shining.

The last one I read was Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. It was entertaining but disappointing in many ways as

Spoiler

the little girl was much too powerful and defeating the evil creatures was basically a foregone conclusion.

 

[TravisR]

In many ways, the short stories are more chilling than the novels (e.g. Night Shift).

Night Shift has my favorite King short story- 'The Ledge' where a guy gets revenge on his wife's lover by making him walk around the small ledge on the outside of his penthouse.

I haven't attempted to tackle The Stand...

When I read that, I set a 'rule' that I had to read at least 50 pages a day. If not, I would have kept putting off reading it due to its size. I did the same thing with It as well.

 

[Citizen87645]

I wasn't intimidated by the length of It, mainly because I found the story completely engrossing as a teen with a soft spot for coming of age stories and nostalgia pieces.


The Stand has less of an appeal to me, maybe for similar reasons others have cited. It probably doesn't help that I labored through the TV mini-series, and I don't really feel like revisiting that in my mind.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I loved It, as well. Unlike The Stand, I got right into It from the beginning. This is still one of my favorite King novels. I really need to revisit it again.


BTW, I never saw the screen adaptations for either of these books.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Here's a surprise for you: Among Mr. King's science-fiction novels, I prefer The Tommyknockers, even though the author himself dislikes it. I even like it more than Under the Dome (which also is a science-fiction story). As for The Stand, I think the longer version proves one thing: All writers benefit from a good editor (try reading the pre-edited version of Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, for example).

 

[Malcolm R]

I've always had a soft spot for Needful Things. That was my first couldn't-put-it-down experience with King.


I've read some of his other mid-career titles, but still have not read a number of his early works or more recent novels. Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game were not among my King favorites.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Oh, and further musings:


Mr. King's most recent novel, Finders Keepers, is pretty good, though I really do not see the author's need to make the detective/retired cop's story into a trilogy (the final novel is due later this year, in June). Even so, I look forward to it.


His most recent short story collection (and most current book) -- what's it called? Something with "bad dreams" in the title (forgive me) -- I liked very much.


And I liked very much Lisey's Story, though I was less impressed with Duma Key, largely because I thought the appearance of those scruffy monster things from the sea during the climax reeked too much of recent Hollywood attempts at horror. However, as I stated earlier, I enjoyed the book nonetheless.


Though Carrie was criticized earlier in the thread, I should point out that I consider that novel science fiction. And I liked it; I thought back then that the writer "showed promise" (as is said in the trade).


There's so much more to I could say, but I prefer to read all your opinions. So have at it, "constant readers" (to borrow Mr. King's phrase).

 

[Jack Briggs]

Oh, and Malcolm, I too enjoyed Needful Things. In fact, it was one of the first books I read by Stephen King when I renewed my interest (obsession?) with him.


One of the most difficult of the man's novels is one of his shorter ones: Misery. Why? It is so damn plausible, so realistic. Though "difficult," I loved it, however; I read it in a single sitting.


And those books of his I listed in my original post, the ones I have not had the chance to read: Those are the only ones of his I have not read. Everything else? Read!


Again, what can I say? Stephen King knows how to pull his readers in. He is a literary black hole, I suppose.

 

[Citizen87645]

I remember enjoying Tommyknockers, but that was as a teenager. I don't know how it'd go over now.

 

[Jack Briggs]

And I reread that novel last year and enjoyed it as much as when it first appeared. Perhaps my experience with The Tommyknockers demonstrates that while I am older now I perhaps have the mind of teenager? Kidding. As for the author, he has written that he composed that novel during his worst bouts with substance abuse and that the story suffers as a result. I only wish I could tell the man that I disagree. Though The Tommyknockers comes close to being disjointed, somehow it comes together in this reader's opinion.


As for It: I loved, um, it too. Yet It is among those King titles that ties into his Dark Tower stories without actually being a part of them (the same with Insomnia, 'Salem's Lot, and others). One is hopelessly caught up in his work when he or she is aware of things like that. Which I am, of course.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The first King thing I ever read was The Shining, after seeing the movie. Both scared the crap outta me. And then Carrie, which I thought was just okay. And then my first aborted attempt at The Stand. But I didn't read anything else of his for a while.

The Green Mile was next, I read it month to month as it was being serialized, and that was a cool experience. And I read the book he cowrote about the Red Sox season in 2004. Really enjoyed that.

But it was 2009 or 2010 when the binging began for me. First The Dark Tower novels, and then most of the ones loosely connected to it. And speaking of it, "It" was a fantastic read. Loved it.

I too liked Tommyknockers more than most.

I don't remember when I read "On Writing" (earlier than later) but I really loved it.

Last attempt at "The Stand," I was at least a third of the way in. I kept glancing over and seeing the bookshelf filled with every other King book and wishing I was reading any of those instead. I tracked down a copy of the original, shorter version for my mom for Christmas this year, if I try it again, I'll give that version a try.