lauren_1992

Yes. Comes highly recommended from me. I believe that people can't teach you to write, but King shares his writing experience and I think it helps a lot. If you're a King fan, it'll be even more brilliant for you .

Sundown

I agree with what some of the other people on here have said. It's an interesting read about King, his life, and how he writes. If you like Stephen King, then I would recommend it. I enjoyed it myself.

~Sundown

belmont

I have the audio book on my ipod. I like to listen to it on shuffle.

invisible ink

I loved it, personally. His writing isn't my style, but I enjoyed learning about his. Very interesting.

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Lise

I'm a big fan of Stephen King. I think he is a genious writers - that's an explanation of his success. No other American writer had captured the attention of millions of people.
All true fans of King must read this book! To least to know better the master of modern literature. Stephen reveals his personality in this book.


By the way, my favourite book is Dolores Claiborne

Rob

Don't talk rubbish.

Cheers,
Rob

Stewart

Oh, let's see. Mark Twain. JD Salinger. Herman Melville. Henry James. John Updike. Philip Roth. Don DeLillo. Cormac McCarthy. Saul Bellow. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ernest Hemingway. Joseph Heller.

Read some books, would you?


I think you'll find that King is nowhere approaching the description of "master of modern literature" and acknowledges this himself. He's the greasy burger to the lipsmacking steak of those (and many more) that I listed above.

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BillinNC

Best book on writing ever written..

Lise

Ok, guys, may be my statement was too categorical. Don't think that I'm easy-minded, I've read Mark Twain, Don DeLillo, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway from the above list.

But I don't agree with your "greasy burger to the lipsmacking steak of those", if you do not like him personally - it's your problem (I suppose).

Don't you see that the majority likes him. Another proof - it's BillinNC who says that it is the best book on writing ever written

Rob

Anyone can claim anything.

I´ve read King´s and I´ve read several others and I don´t rate King´s as highly. Still, it´s just an opinion and doesn´t prove a thing. If some people read King´s book and find it useful, great. I do wonder though, when this thread pops up, as it often does here, how many of those who fall over themselves to claim King´s book as ´the best´ have actually read any others, and my suspicion is that few have. Also, I find a lot of people rate the first decent how-to book they ever read as great, even if they´ve read good ones since, perhaps because being all new they tend to learn more from the first decent book they find.

Cheers,
Rob

Stewart

That's fine. I'll reinforce it by saying that while he has the skill to put together a novel, he has little skill with words - how they sound, how they shape something on the page. That's where my gastronomical comparison comes in - King has a cloth-ear for English.

It would be hard not to like him personally, given that I don't know him personally. But I don't personally like his work as my review of his latest, Lisey's Story, shows.

I can see that. I would also assert that the majority don't know their arse from their elbow in that they play safe when it comes to reading and no doubt aren't savvy to the myriad alternatives.

That's not proof; that's BillinNC's opinion.

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Lise

It's more clear of course.
And I like your gastronomical comparison although I don't agree with it.
It's your opinion.

Dan

Literature? No.

Storytelling? Yes.

There are at least four writers on your list who I count among the most overrated authors I've ever read. I've noticed over the years that most "great literature" becomes viewed as such with the passage of decades. In fact, I'd wager a year's pay that if the best works of the authors you listed (and others you didn't) were first released today as popular fiction, they would be the greasy burger to other past steaks.

We see the same "nostalgia effect" with beloved old movies. I love the classics as much as the next guy, but I also recognize how, even in the greatest of these, the acting and plotting are horrendous. Were they released today as originals, they would get rightly slammed as slop.

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talesofsomething

very good!! ^^ although he is biased sometimes, and I personally don't always agree with what he says...but it's a good read. humorous, witty, and such. I would definitely recommend it.

Stewart

Even better than it being my opinion, it's King's own opinion. If your read the introduction in Different Seasons he acknowledges that he's the Big Mac of fiction.

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