Stephen King

TwentyFour

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Vincent

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I've only recently gotten to his writing, and so far, I like. I started with some of his short fiction collections, and then The Dark Tower. Maybe The Stand next?
 

Mandy-Jane

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I love Stephen King too. The Shining was very scary; The Stand was horrific; Pet Semetary frightening; Christine ..... I've run out of adjectives. I'm not a horror fan as such, but he writes in a way that makes it all almost believable. He's great.
 

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beezle said:
I've only recently gotten to his writing, and so far, I like. I started with some of his short fiction collections, and then The Dark Tower. Maybe The Stand next?
Two of my favorite King books of the "scary type" are The Dead Zone and Delores Claiborne.

I recently read The Colorado Kid. It was okay, but I expected more.
 

Vincent

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Ah, The Dead Zone. I really like the movie. Now, that's one of the reasons that has kept me off him for so long... just about everything's been made into a movie, most of them bad, and I've seen them all. Few surprises left.
 

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If you haven't read it already, you would probably enjoy Everything's Eventual, three or four of the stories are really good.
 

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Salem's Lot is one of my favorite horror books of all time.
 

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I remember when my Mom took my brother and me to see The Shining, our first R-movie. I was 11. It scared the bejesus out of me; I slept with the light on that night and made my big brother sleep on the floor of my room! I read the book immediately afterward. I've been hooked on Stephen King since.
 

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Needful things...brilliant. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recomend it.
 

Akuma

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I also recommend 'Everything's Eventual'.
One of the stories played off my biggest fears--still having awareness of sensation and thought even after you're dead.

And then the mortician arrives...
 

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Akuma said:
I also recommend 'Everything's Eventual'.
One of the stories played off my biggest fears--still having awareness of sensation and thought even after you're dead.

And then the mortician arrives...
Oh, then you'd just love Poe's The Case of M. Valdemar.

In that story, a man is hypnotized as an experiment right before he dies.
 

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My first brush with Stephen King was watching Pet Semetery in the seventh grade. It scared me so bad I couldn't be by myself for days afterward. I didn't get the courage to read the book until much later. When I tried to read the Shining, it scared me so much that I had to put it down for a while. My DH was out of town at the time, and I couldn't do it when I was there by myself.

Bag of Bones is probably one of my favorites by him. But, The Stand is one of my all-time favorites.
 

underthecity

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The first King book I ever read, which was also the among the first "adult" novels I read, was Christine. This was 1984. I was 14 and in 7th grade. A friend of mine and I had recently gotten into cars and he had just read Christine and raved about it. I read it and really liked it. I loved the story, the characters, and especially the scary, murderous car.

I read The Shining next and loved it. Loved it loved it loved it. I stayed up late nights reading it, unable to put it down. It made me eager to see the movie of which I had seen bits and pieces on TV. I rented it (on Beta!) and was disappointed in the treatment. I couldn't understand why the movie so different from the book. It was scary, but not the same.

The Shining (book) was influential to me. I had written maybe a few short things by that point, but after I read The Shining, I knew I wanted to write like that: a great story, scary, suspenseful, and memorable characters. (And I've never really accomplished it yet.)

The Shining is one of my favorite books of all time. The Shining (movie) is one of my favorite movies of all time. Stanley Kubrick is my all-time favorite director, and later I appreciated the film more by not comparing it to the book. Kubrick took King's story and made it into his own vision, resulting in a terrifying horror movie that stands on its own.

But without King's book, Kubrick's The Shining never would have been made.

allen
 

Angelus

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Stephen King fan here. I can nit pick at his writing, he does go on and on and on and...But, no writer can get you to stop eating your pop tarts and pay attention.
The Stand: Brilliant
The Shining: Literally his best fiction
The Gunslinger Books: Close but no Tolkien.
Salem's Lot: My favorite, I love the simplicity of it.
Misery: He can write fiction that doesn't involve spooks, unless you consider Annie a spook, and wouldn't argue
Needfull Things: Sinister, with a sense of irony
Insomnia: Wicked and the only strange that King does so well
The Tommyknockers: Brilliant, man that story takes a long time, but it is well worth the time
Everything's Eventual: Love all of them
From a Buick 8: good storytelling
Dreamcatcher: King is the master of gross, and so he is with this book
The Dead Zone: weak but effective
Firestarter: Weak but effective
The Stand: he doesn't need Tolkien
It: way too long, never will re read that one.
Night Shift: treats and more treats, love them all
Skeleton Crew: not so many treats, but still some brilliant stuff
Carrie: started it all, and everything in that novel explains a lot about the other novels
Salem's Lot (again): That was a vampire story, no mistake, there was nothing else there, simply a vampire story. Love it, read once a year.
Haven't read Gerald's Game or The Girl who loved...don't recall.
 

tlblack

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I've read all of King's books. The Stand still holds my attention more than any of the rest.
 

Lyra Jean

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Mandy-Jane said:
I love Stephen King too. The Shining was very scary; The Stand was horrific; Pet Semetary frightening; Christine ..... I've run out of adjectives. I'm not a horror fan as such, but he writes in a way that makes it all almost believable. He's great.

I read Christine and wasn't that impressed. It was a good story and I like how he showed the metamorphose of the MC but it just wasn't that scary to me.
 

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Angelus said:
Haven't read Gerald's Game or The Girl who loved...don't recall.
Both of those have rather simple premises. In The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon a girl is lost in the woods. That's bad enough, but is she being followed, stalked by . . . (I don't want to give away any spoilers). In Gerald's Game a woman is tied to a bed unable to free herself after her husband keels over during one of their sex games. There is no one around who she call yell for help. Then more unpleasant things begin to happen . . . Both are well-written but not King at the top of his form, in my opinion.

I'm currently reading Lisey's Story but I haven't gotten far enough along to say how good it is.
 

Begbie

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I enjoyed Cell earlier this year. I love Bag of Bones, which is a quiet ghost story about a writer. I purchased Lisey's Story, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
 

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alleycat said:
Both of those have rather simple premises. In The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon a girl is lost in the woods. That's bad enough, but is she being followed, stalked by . . . (I don't want to give away any spoilers). In Gerald's Game a woman is tied to a bed unable to free herself after her husband keels over during one of their sex games. There is no one around who she call yell for help. Then more unpleasant things begin to happen . . . Both are well-written but not King at the top of his form, in my opinion.

I'm currently reading Lisey's Story but I haven't gotten far enough along to say how good it is.

I really liked The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but not so much Gerald's Game. I agree that King wasn't at the top of his form in that one. I'm re-reading Dolores Claiborne right now, which is an awesome story. An awesome voice, too.

Edited to add: Just finished re-reading The Green Mile and found that it is just as good as the other times I've read it. Wonderful book.
 
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alleycat

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Southern_girl29 said:
I really liked The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but not so much Gerald's Game. I agree that King wasn't at the top of his form in that one. I'm re-reading Dolores Claiborne right now, which is an awesome story. An awesome voice, too.

Edited to add: Just finished re-reading The Green Mile and found that it is just as good as the other times I've read it. Wonderful book.
Delores Claiborne is one of my favorites of King's stories. I happened to be reading On Writing again this week and he talks about both Gerald's Game and Tom Gordon in the section on plotting vs. not plotting.

Since your'e in Tennessee, Southern, did you know the movie version of The Green Mile was filmed at the old Tennessee State Prison? I remember when Tom Hanks and crew were in town for the filming.