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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Kingston ON, Canada
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Stephen King: A Constant Reader's Thread
Let's talk about the man, his work, and how much it has affected our respective lives.
The first book I read by King was actually read to me in grade school by my teacher. It was The Eyes of the Dragon. That was in 1991, I believe. The next book I read (on my own) was Pet Semetary, and it remains my favourite King novel. Possibly my favourite novel ever. It is definitely his scariest. The horror really creeps in the story, which starts out quite idyllically.
Well, over the years I have consumed pretty much everything else by King. Some of my favourite books of his include: Pet Semetary, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Dead Zone, Different Seasons, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, Insomnia and Dolores Claiborne. With regards to the film adaptations of his various works: The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist, Secret Window and Stand by Me are probably my favourites. Misery is not bad either, until the end, that is.
For reference, this is a list of all the King/Bachman I have read. The only 2 books missing are: Faithful (his collaboration of the Red Sox's 2004 winning season) and Danse Macabre (his horror genre treatise), both of which I have either not read or finished.
NOVELS
1974 Carrie
1975 ‘Salem's Lot
1977 The Shining
1978 The Stand
1979 The Dead Zone
1980 Firestarter
1981 Cujo
1982 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
1983 Christine
1983 Cycle of the Werewolf
1983 Pet Sematary
1986 IT
1987 Misery
1987 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
1987 The Eyes of the Dragon
1988 The Tommyknockers
1989 The Dark Half
1991 Needful Things
1991 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
1992 Gerald's Game
1993 Dolores Claiborne
1994 Insomnia
1995 Rose Madder
1996 Desperation
1996 The Green Mile
1997 The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
1998 Bag of Bones
1999 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
2001 Dreamcatcher
2002 From a Buick 8
2003 The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
2004 The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
2004 The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
2005 The Colorado Kid
2006 Cell
2006 Lisey's Story
2008 Duma Key
2009 Under the Dome
COLLECTIONS
1978 Night Shift
1982 Different Seasons
1985 Skeleton Crew
1990 Four Past Midnight
1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes
1999 Hearts in Atlantis
2002 Everything’s Eventual
2008 Just After Sunset
MISCELLANEOUS
1999 Storm of the Century
2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
2000 The Plant, Book 1: Zenith Rising
2009 Ur
AS RICHARD BACHMAN
1977 Rage
1979 The Long Walk
1981 Roadwork
1982 The Running Man
1984 Thinner
1996 The Regulators
2007 Blaze
WITH PETER STRAUB
1984 The Talisman
2001 Black House
(Plus various short stories, including Premium Harmony, The Reploids, Morality, The Blue Air Compressor, I Was a Teenage Graverobber, Jhonathan & The Witches, The Killer, The King Family and the Wicked Witch, Man with a Belly, The Night of the Tiger, Throttle (w/ Joe Hill), The Crate, Skybar, Slade, Weeds, The Hotel at the End of the Road, I’ve Got to Get Away, The Other Side of the Fog, The Stranger, The Glass Floor, The Cursed Expedition, Never Look Behind You, Before the Play.)
Lastly, in all the interviews I've seen King in, he comes across like an Average Joe. This demeanour seems to show up in his work, too. His characters are mostly people I can relate to, at least in motivation. And finally, in speaking of his work, he is a master at plot pacing and character development. I do find he seems to have difficulty ending longer works though which is why I usually prefer his shorter works; they seem to narrow his focus and leave less to the whims of chance.
A reviewer once called Stephen Edwin King, "The Shakespeare of the 20th Century", and while I believe that sentiment to be over-dramatic at best, there is no denying that he has a lot of more say in his stories than most give him credit for. Aside from his tales covering multiple-genres, his main message, at least to me, seems to be that the monsters, especially those in human form, are only as scary as we believe them to be. They may win the battle but they will ultimately lose the war. As for his purpose for writing, from the dedication page of It (a note to his children): Fiction is the truth inside the lie, and the truth is the magic exists. (Might be a slight paraphrase.)
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