Any Stephen King Readers?

by White Dove 45 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Sunspot

  Funny, one of my sons and I were discussing this very same subject a few nights ago on the phone. I had asked if he remembered sending me his copy of the Langoliers from his home in TX when I was in the hospital here in upstate NY years ago. We had BOTH hated the TV movie of it but enjoyed the book,

  If I had to state which ONE was my favorite....I couldn't do that, but I best liked the Shining, It, Pet Cemetary, and the Stand. I was SO frightened reading the Shining, that even with hubby snoring right next to me at 3:00 AM, reading one part of that book SO TERRIFIED me that my heart was pounding at every noise and creak in the walls and I could NOT sleep until the sun came up and was "shining" in the window! No other book has ever affected me like that one did.

  Stephen King IS the Master of horror!

  hugs,

  Annie
• 

  Sunspot

  White Dove, I read The Stand in two days. I think it's over 1,000 pages. I can't remember now, but I couldn't put it down. All of his books are good, even the ones he's written under psuedonyms. I like the Dark Tower series, too. I've been reading his books probably since I was 10. He's awesome.

  Dorktacular.....did you fight the urge to RUN from anyone with a bad cough after reading that book? LOL!

  hugs,

  Annie
• 

  Rapunzel

  Hi Sunspot, I really enjoy reading King. In addition to Duma Key, I have read a lot of his other stuff including It and The Shining and Christine and Cujo etc. As for him being the master of horror, well, I have to say that there are writers whom I find better than him. For example, I much prefer Edgar Allan Poe and Joyce Carol Oates to Mr.King. Technically, Joyce Carol Oates writes in the tradition of the grotesque, which is a little different than horror.

  In my opinion, Poe is the consumate master of horror. In my opinion, it would be a great idea if some editor were to bring Poe "up to date." Someone should make his language more readily accessible to modern readers. I think that many readers are discouraged by the difficulty of his prose. There are many versions of the Bible in contemporary English. I was wondering if someone could do the same thing for Poe. At least, someone could edit Poe providing glosses and explanatory notes.
• 

  dinah

  Stephen King loves Poe as well.
• 

  White Dove

  I'll check out Poe and see what I can do with it to bring it more up to date.
• 

  Preston

  As a novelist, Stephen King......... sucks (small s). I know that's a sacrilegous thing to say but..... he does. His short stories are REALLY good, primarily because HE GETS TO THE POINT ( a guy kidnaps a kid and the kid turns out to be a vampire, then something else happens). But he gets wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy toooooooooooooo long-winded with this book-writing, and it takes 300 pages of characters development to get to the main plot device. When Kubrick made The Shining, King disowned it as a terrible film, but the fact that the movie became more memorable than the original text must say something.

  The Talisman is pretty good though.

  But drop King, and pick up Poe, Lovecraft... or if you want the best of them, Thomas Ligotti, both his novels and short stories (some are just one or two pages) are well crafted.

  - Preston (of the "sucks, small s" class)