stephen king c/d?

DJP, I read Cell this summer and enjoyed it start to finish.

Salem's Lot
The Dead Zone
Cujo
Pet Sematary
Dolores Claiborne

The Shining used to be my very favorite, but every time I crack it open to reread a scene, it seems puny compared to my memories of it.

the stand
the shining
long walk
firestarter
carrie

honorable mention for best late work: full dark no stars

cell is totes also a forerunner but i didn't want to mention that and under the dome because i'd look like a noob

The Stand
It
Skeleton Crew (The Mist! The Raft! Survivor Type!)
Different Seasons
Pet Sematary

(and an honourable mention to On Writing)

oh man "The Mist" and "The Raft" are so badass

The recent "Full Dark, No Stars" was amazing. I could not stop reading it.

it's weird that I loved horror novels/short stories so much as a teen but could not abide horror movies at all unless they were pitched as "science fiction" or "psychological thriller" or "action movie"; something about the connection of the concept "horror" to actual visuals short-circuits something in my brain and stampedes directly to an unpleasant place in my brain

In your bra-ain
In your bra-ai-ai-ain
Horror! Horror! Horror! Or! Or!

yeah, like that

brrrrr

under the dome just read like a dude homaging sk, imo, couldn't get into it, couldn't finish it

But i rep for insomnia and hearts in atlantis so..

skeleton crew is rly good throughout tho

The extent to which I remember every story from Skeleton Crew, and the frequency with which various things remind me of those stories, is kind of amazing given that I last read the book some time in the late 80s.

(and an honourable mention to On Writing)

Oops, I should've listed Danse Macabre.

i have a copy of the longer version of The Stand that i've never read (have read the shorter version). and i've just ordered a copy of Full Dark...

(promised myself i wouldn't buy any more books this year, but hey...)

Longer Stand doesn't add anything that couldn't just well have stayed out, imo. I found the section with "The Kid" kind of annoying.

Stephen King could do with an ILM ballot-style poll.

I had thought about doing one just for his short stories, but I haven't gotten around to re-reading a few of the older collections in a while.

It's been ages since I read anything by him, but I really loved a lot of his stuff when I was a teenager. I think somewhere there exists a photo of me in 4th grade reading Pet Sematary which seems sort of funny to me now.

Anyway, I really liked The Stand (which I read on a 20 hour round trip car ride to see the Grateful Dead) and most of the short story collections - the Bachman Books (probably my favorite), Skeleton Crew, Different Seasons, Night Shift, etc. I read a lot of the older novels but always liked the short stories / novellas the best.

I also really remember liking Needful Things though it probably doesn't rate that high overall. Like the Stand, it had a lot of the "whole world starts to descend into chaos" thing that Stephen King did really well.

Like when fat old women start slinging mud at each other's sheets and then bury meat cleavers in each other's skulls kind of thing.

The Stand (which I read on a 20 hour round trip car ride to see the Grateful Dead)

lol

Anyway, this thread has inspired me to put a few of his older books on hold at the library to see if they still hold up for me.

I quit on Under The Dome when the source of the dome became evident.

I love it when he writes about the 'descent into chaos,' but shit falls apart for me when the deux ex machina is God or aliens or w/e.

I'd be interested in knowing which of his books people find indefensible. Because I'd probably read just about anything he's done under the right circumstances but it would be helpful knowing which ones to avoid. The problem with that, though, is that everyone has their own ideas about indefensible King. For instance, I'd probably say Needful Things was the worst one I've read, while I actually thought the universally-reviled Rose Madder was decent.

Needful Things and Insomnia are the two I've read and remember almost nothing about except that they were disappointing. I mean, it's complicated -- I would say the last four Dark Tower books are indefensible, yet I read them rapidly and with great enjoyment even as I fumed at King about everything that was wrong with them!

Inspired by this thread, I just bought 11/22/63, which is 10 bucks on Kindle at the moment.

fuck, the mist is amazing, it's really hard to leave off anything dude wrote before 1980

I read 11/22/63 this summer. It's good, but man does he need an editor. Padded with every little bit of information he dug up on the era.

crit narrative abt king is that "he can't do endings" and "needs an editor", both of which are prob true but w/ ref to the latter, i sort've admire the fact that dude plainly LIKES TO WRITE, a lot, all the time. he's a very...generous...writer, for good and bad.

worst king i've read is prob the tommyknockers, which seemed interminable

he's a very...generous...writer, for good and bad

SUCK MY BOOK
SUCK MY BOOK

The Tommyknockers is terrible but at least it isn't Gerald's Game

ok this 11/22/63 book is p great so far

yr in for a treat!

If I were to purchase one Stephen King book from the last seven or eight years to read while on vacation, which one would you recommend? (That's the collective "you.")

probably 11/22/63. It's by far the most enjoyable.

Duma Key is good but there's a lot of suspension of disbelief that has to happen - Under The Dome is great til the end and then you want to chuck the book across the room.

I'll be reading it on my iPad so I'll avoid Under the Dome.

I hate to be that person who doesn't let an artist grow, but is 11/22/63 scary at all?

Cell is definitely scary.

under the dome really fizzled.

but this one, i'm like 15% in and looooving it

doesnt seem scary so far but what do i know

11/22/63 isn't scary per se, but it's v tense and has some interesting supernatural threads

Duma Key is legit scary, at least I thought so

11/22/63 only gets scary once Zombie Kennedy shows up and eats Dean Rusk's brain

oh shit sorry

I've been off the King train for so long I haven't even heard of some his newest titles. 11/22/63 sounds interesting, King's love of that era is palpable in much of my favorite writing of his, but man the time travel thing he's working here seems hoary even by Twilight Zone standards. It's really good?

He sets up a (I think) unique set of rules re time travel that have an enormous effect on the plot, which makes it a little more interesting.

^^^^

it's well worth it

I read Danse Macabre (1981) recently and there's a part in it where he says he doesn't set his books in the 60s because the horror was too real.

ya i love time travel stuff and i find his treatment of it pretty novel and fun

gonna stop reading this thread now tho cuz i dont wanna spoil anything

Bought 11/22/63 and I love it so far. I think the question I wanted to ask earlier wasn't "is it scary" but maybe is it spooky or is it supernatural bc for some dumb reason I thought it was historical fiction? Like accurate, non-time traveling, non-SK-world referencing historical fiction. But it's totally Stephen King in a good way. :)

otm

enjoy!!

Haven't read Stephen King in decades, but just requested the new one from the library.

I find the guy's prolific rate really inspiring. Also, "On Writing" was so good.

My top five:

The Stand (unabridged)
Skeleton Crew
11/22/63
It (scared the crap out of me when I was in high school)
Danse Macabre

Least favorite: Insomnia - I barely remember it

Gerald's Game is terrible but it does have a memorable scene at the end in a car that I often think of when I'm alone in a car at night. So even his worst stuff can have effective parts in it.