Books - Stephen King Thread- 'The king of horror"

Crossbow · 03-25-2003, 05:59 PM

I know there was a thread on here before the migration to the new server, but it looks like no one ever started a new one.

Annyhoo, I'm readng Insomnia, and it's making me SO TIRED! Reading about how tired the protagonist is is just exhausting!

Immortal_Ophelia · 03-26-2003, 01:51 AM

I think i own that book, but i haven't read it let, is it any good?

Crossbow · 03-26-2003, 05:47 PM

So far, it's REALLY good.
But then, I usually like about the first 2/3 of all his books, and then they seem to disintegrate during the last 3rd. I have a theory that he writes the set-up and then hands them off to ghost writers to finish!

The_Magic_Box · 03-28-2003, 01:26 PM

I heard that he recently released his last book (the Buick one), and though there will be movies and more books that he already wrote coming out, that that will be his last.

ljlaxgirl · 03-28-2003, 06:01 PM

id be bridgett from sisterhood of the traveling pants...has anyone read it its one of my fave books it really just reminds me of me and my friends also i cant wait the second book its coiming out this month in april the second summer of the shisterhood of the traveling pants and i heard that they were making a movie about the book i just cant wait too much good stuff

LolaRuns · 03-28-2003, 06:15 PM

I remember not liking Insomnia too much and being very confused by it. LOL, if you make it through, more power to ya [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

My favourite King book are Bachman books, namely The Long Walk and Rage. I like them better because they can be scary without the supernatural component, in fact I think it makes them scarier. I also enjoyed Roadwork and I liked how he tackled Running Man.

Other than that my favourites are:

- Needfull Things (ok so the ending could have needed some work, but the build up! The build up!)
- Pet Cementary (took me a long while to get into, but wow, another book that is just about the build up and this time the ending is perfect)
- Gerald's Game (again maybe because of the lack of supernatural element, silly little book, but I love it)
- Misery (did I mention lack of supernatural element?)
- Seasons (actually mainly the Apt Pupil story, simply because it strikes close to home)
- Carrie (only because it was my first King)

I also liked Tommyknockers (I just have a soft spot for those "community stories" with a wide range of characters, besides, I love the scene where the drunk environmentalist starts ranting at the party about the dangers of nuclear power plants, hilarious. Again, a week ending book in my eyes) and I love all his short stories.

Interestingly, the only King book where I had to take a break reading it was Firestarter. I read about half of it (till the enforcer arrives) then put it away, right at the part where it gets most scary and then didn't read it for about half a year. Then I picked it up again and continued reading right where I'd stopped.

Some of his books get a bit werid or convoluted but the only one I truely hated as Desperation/Regulators. I was so pissed after finishing because I didn't care for it at all.

OK, lol, obsessed much? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

~*Echo*~ · 03-28-2003, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LolaRuns:
<STRONG>

Other than that my favourites are:

- Needfull Things (ok so the ending could have needed some work, but the build up! The build up!)
- Pet Cementary (took me a long while to get into, but wow, another book that is just about the build up and this time the ending is perfect)
- Gerald's Game (again maybe because of the lack of supernatural element, silly little book, but I love it)
- Misery (did I mention lack of supernatural element?)
- Seasons (actually mainly the Apt Pupil story, simply because it strikes close to home)
- Carrie (only because it was my first King)

</STRONG>

I loved Needful Things! I agree, the ending was a bit weak, but the majority of it was purely entertaining to read. It took me about a year to get through, but only because I bought it (doesn't make much sense, I know, but I always feel obligated to read library books first, and every time I go to the library to return books, I can't resist getting more).

Just starting Pet Sematary, and I'm glad to know it picks up as it goes. I've never read Gerald's Game, but Misery was really good (my friend recommended it, and when I read the back, I thought it would just be gruesome and pointless, but I ended up really liking it) and I loved most of Different Seasons (I didn't like the The Breathing Method very much, but the other three are classics). I've never actually read Carrie, but I've seen the movie a couple times.

Some of my other favorites are The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan and The Green Mile.

[img]smilies/bubble.gif[/img] Beth

LolaRuns · 03-28-2003, 07:19 PM

I love The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I was ready to write off King as somebody who just isn't at the height of his game anymore (since I didn't care about a lot of his more recent books), but The Girl convinced me otherwise. What an adorable book!

I didn't care much for Green Mile. It struck me a bit low key. I'm not so much into gore, but Green Mile just didn't have the amount of dread or suspense as the others.

Immortal_Ophelia · 03-28-2003, 09:03 PM

My favorite stephan King books are. The Stand, THe dead zonw, Deamcatcher and the shinning, right now i am reading pet sematary.

The_Magic_Box · 03-29-2003, 12:26 AM

I LOVE It It is so creepy, and has started my lifelong fear of clowns [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

LolaRuns · 03-29-2003, 04:39 AM

OMG, how could I forget the Stand. Again I especially love the whole beginning where he descibes how the plague is sweeping the country.

S
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One thing I really liked was the substory about the chick who is carrying Fry's baby. LOL it's built up like a huge Anti-Christ story and like she is really important. And then she falls out of the window and it barely registers with him. For some reason I thought that was hilarious. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

S
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END

Actually It for some reason was one of the hardest books for me to read. Don't really know why. By the time I had finished I had seen the movie and heard everybody's opinion about it and it just wasn't that scary anymore.

PVCscully · 03-30-2003, 06:21 AM

It's funny, I've read most of Stephen King's books, but Insomnia was the one I didn't like at all. I only finished it out of duty, but I remember feeling empathy with the insomniac at the beginning of the book.

I recently read Hearts in Atlantis which I really enjoyed, but the latest King I read was Dreamcatcher. I don't think I'm as fond of his really long books as I am of his other novels - The Stand was good, but I lost interest for a few chapters in the middle.

Favourite Kings? The Shining, Skeleton Crew, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Carrie, Salem's Lot. The Shining was the first book I read that ever really scared me - I think I was 11 - and it left a lasting impression. Oh, and Misery too.

****
Edited to ask if anyone has read Black House, which he co-wrote with Peter Straub. I've had a copy on my shelf for about a year but I've never read it.

[ 03-30-2003: Message edited PVCscully ]

LolaRuns · 03-30-2003, 07:25 AM

Yeah, I didn't like Insomnia either. I don't even remember if I finished it and that's probably a very bad sign.

I also thought that Rose Madder (that's the story of the abused wife, right?) was a bit to preachy and rose-colored. I mean, more power to King if he writes a book about an abused housewife and how she leaves her husband and easily starts her own life, but all I could think was "Yeah, right". She runs away, immediately finds the right people, immediately finds a great job (despite having no major education), immediately finds friend. Don't get me wrong, it would be great if it were that way, but yeah, rose-colored. Kinda takes away the credibility of the story.

PVCscully · 03-30-2003, 11:28 AM

Oh, I remember Dolores Claiborne wasn't quite what I expected either. I'm a big fan of his novellas and short stories - particularly Word Processor of the Gods, The Jaunt and Survivor Type.

LolaRuns · 03-30-2003, 11:47 AM

OMG, I LOVE Survivor Type that the stranded storyline, right? I love it to pieces. Grin, not gonna talk about it too much, because I don't want to give anything away. I also love the really small stories, like The Man Who Loved Flowers or Popsy (Popsy is the one about the guy who has to drown the puppy, right?).

I also love his introduction to Nightshift, where he talks about writing and how he thinks that there is some sort of filter in his brain. The whole world goes in there and somehow it filters everything out and only the dark and gory stuff remains. I love how he describes how he and let say a western author would see the same scene (a lake in the moonlight) and then sit down and write a book about it and the western author would write a story about cowboys and Indians fighting over the water rights and he would write a story about a monster coming out of the lake at midnight and eating the cattle. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

One of his wft? stories to me is where he tries to write a Sherlok Holmes case. Again it's a normal Sherlok Holmes story and as far as I can see not even a bad one, but, it's like really, really long and extremly useless.

Dolores Claiborne, didn't mind it. But, wasn't scary to me at all and it wasn't particularly moving or insightfull either. So it's another one of thos books that are just *there*. It really depends on the reader though. My mother loved it and thought it extremly scary, maybe because she could empathize more with the characters.

[ 03-30-2003: Message edited LolaRuns ]