Thread: Reading first Stephen King Novel

Originally Posted by Black_Board

Oh, one other thing, his endings are all horrible.

Because he never plans or outlines his stories. He even said it in his memoir, On Writing: he rarely know where his plots are headed, therefore he resorts to trick, supernatural gimmicky faux endings such as the one in Bag of Bones or Gerald's Game or Rose Madder or The Dark Tower and 50 other of his books and anthologies. Whack.

Rose Madder was a good read for something I found in the basement.

The Green Mile is the only book of his that made me cry.

Stephen King is great. Self-admittedly not the best writer, but extremely entertaining.

The "Gunslinger" Series is the best for me. The seven books were written haphazardly over the course of about 30 years, and are a lot of fun.

I was hoping you Misery was the novel you're reading. It's one of my favorite novels ever. It does mess with you're mind, just wait till you hit the last 50 or so pages, and even more so the last 3 or 4...I still think about it sometimes. Oh, and these little things I'm thinking of weren't in the movie.

I'm trying to track down Four Past Midnight at the moment. I remembered the plot to "The Sun Dog" the other night and just remembering gave me the creeps. Haha. And the same for "The Library Policeman".

This'll bug me till I find it.

Oh have mercy! Stephen King rocks! The Stand. Delores Claiborne. Needful Things. Nightshift. Four Past Midnight. Skeleton Crew. Who the hell can read those books and not be totally freaked out and intrigued????!!! I also loved a lot of his work under the pen name "Richard Bachman" like The Long Walk, The Dark Half, Thinner, and Rage.

While I was pregnant with both of my kids I suffered horrible insomnia. Stephen King was my cornerstone during that time. For shorts, I've read "Nightshift", "The Ledge", "Quitter's Inc", "The Boogeyman", "Strawberry Spring","Jerusalem's "s Lot", "The Man Who Loved Flowers", "Gramma", "The Mist","The Monkey", "The Library Policeman", and "The Langoliers" more times than I can count. All of them are quick enough to get through, but still a great late night read. The Stand is by far my favorite book by King.

Delores Claiborne, Rose Madder, The Shining, Misery, The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, and The Stand are all books I own and read at least once a year. I really enjoyed It and Lisey's Story (which is an really interesting read, though not from the horror perspective).

Also, King wrote a book called The Cycle of the Werewolf which was intended to be a calendar but ended up an illustrated book. I first laid eyes on King's work in third grade when a friend of mine rented The Cyle of the Werewolf from the highschool library and came to stay the night while her father went to A.A. The freakiest sh*t ever to an 8 year-old. Trust me.

I'm trying to track down Four Past Midnight at the moment.

I think I've seen it at Wal-Mart, actually. Paperback.

I've yet to read King. I have no aversion to him, I just haven't gotten around to it. I'm going to pick up something today at the library, I think.

Originally Posted by Red_Venus

While I was pregnant with both of my kids I suffered horrible insomnia.

It's fascinating to me how this affects different women. My wife couldn't stay awake. With our first, she was in bed by 8:00 or so every night -- and out like a light. I'm the one who got all the reading done.

Originally Posted by JosephB

It's fascinating to me how this affects different women. My wife couldn't stay awake. With our first, she was in bed by 8:00 or so every night -- and out like a light. I'm the one who got all the reading done.

I would have preferred to be tired and asleep early every night, but in retrospect, it did give me the opportunity to read quite a bit. King wasn't all I read, just a good portion of my reading. I found great enjoyment in biting into a good creepy tale when the rest of the world was dark and silent. A small part of me couldn't help but wonder if the stories had a possibility of being true...there's nothing quite like the imagination after midnight, unless of course, that imagination belongs to a sleep-deprived-rollercoaster-hormoned-pregnant woman.

Originally Posted by Dr. Malone

I think I've seen it at Wal-Mart, actually. Paperback.

I believe a film based on of the stories is getting ready to come out, so it is getting another round of exposure. I saw it on the shelf at Wal-Mart just yesterday.

Edit: Just did a quick check. The movie is Dolan's Cadillac, starring Christian Slater, and is from the Nightmares and Dreamscapes book. That may be the one I saw at Wal-Mart, but I still think I saw Four Past Midnight as well.

You guys think I'm made of money? LOL. Yard sales, library sales, friends and junkshops are where I get my books.

I believe a film based on of the stories is getting ready to come out, so it is getting another round of exposure. I saw it on the shelf at Wal-Mart just yesterday.

Edit: Just did a quick check. The movie is Dolan's Cadillac, starring Christian Slater, and is from the Nightmares and Dreamscapes book. That may be the one I saw at Wal-Mart, but I still think I saw Four Past Midnight as well.

I love that story and I've been hearing of movie rumors for years now. Cool to know they're finally going to get it out.

I've wanted to read king for awhile now and have never gotten round to it but I think it's about time that I did.

What would be your recommendations for a first stephen King novel? I don't want to know his best (I don't want to feel that everything else of his will be inferior and then not read them) but a good one, one to draw me in and make me read more of him? Thanks to anyone who will take the time !

Originally Posted by Heid

I haven't read it but I've heard "Pet Semetary"[sic] is very scary/creepy.

I was going to mention this one but you beat me to it. I don't know if it got to me because I'm a parent or what, but I had to set that book down several times. I don't know if this one is mentioned, but he has a collection of shorts called Skeleton Crew with some genuinely creepy sh!t in there. There is even one about a guy that eats himself from the feet up.

Carrie would be a good one to start with if you haven't read any.