![]() ![]() In the new millennium, two books brought me back to Stephen King: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and On Writing. ![]() I didn’t read a single one of them during those years, and I missed some good stuff! From 1984-1999, Stephen King published 31 books, according to Wikipedia. My reading tastes were expanding, so I had some catching up to do. I just couldn’t keep up, plus I was well into my career as an English teacher. Then I gave up on Stephen King for about 15 years, starting in my late 20s. When those dead animals and dead humans started showing up again after being buried, it creeped me out and gave me vividly bad dreams. It’s still the scariest book I’ve ever read. But Different Seasons was great and included both “The Body” and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” two stories later adapted into excellent films: Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption.Įventually, I joined the mail-order book club The Literary Guild, primarily because they sold cheap hardcover editions of Stephen King books, and one day in 1983 Pet Sematary showed up in my mailbox. The Gunslinger didn’t interest me as much as the horror novels. Christine disappointed me as being too similar to Cujo: One is a haunted car one is a haunted dog. I tried to maintain pace but fell behind and lost interest to a certain extent. He started cranking out several books a year, including novels published earlier under the pen name Richard Bachman. I kept up with him, even though in college I actually read the books assigned for class. Thankfully, Stephen King put out books regularly as I went through college. From that point on, I considered myself a Stephen King fan and vowed to read every book he could ever write, and I didn’t bother to consider myself melodramatic for that decision. The main characters were high school kids who dealt with mean classmates, weird grownups, and strange 1970s vibrations. ![]() It wasn’t a vampire book, but it more than satisfied the horror fan in me. ‘Salem’s Lot led me to this Stephen King guy’s other book Carrie. The small Maine town in ‘Salem’s Lot had echoes of my town. Some of the characters were kids like me. The vampires were mysterious and scary and cool and totally believable. But I knew that ‘Salem’s Lot was a far superior book to anything else I’d read. Of course, like I said, I’d been reading a steady diet of forgettable novels, many based on a TV show, seasoned by a dedication to Fangoria magazine. I also liked how I could hide paperbacks inside the monstrous textbooks I was supposed to be looking at in class.Īnyway, I read ‘Salem’s Lot and immediately knew it was the best vampire book I’d ever read. In fact, I probably thought hardcovers only existed at the library or at the B. Although the hardcover version of ‘Salem’s Lot came out in October, 1975, I didn’t really do hardcover books. Rather than glut the market with Dan Ross books, he used a variety of pen names, including one borrowed from his wife Marilyn for those Dark Shadows books.)Īt some point, probably in 1976, my friend John gave me a paperback edition of ‘Salem’s Lot by someone named Stephen King. (“Marilyn Ross” was actually Dan Ross, an incredibly prolific author of more than 300 paperback gothic novels. I do remember reading the Marilyn Ross paperback adaptations of the Dark Shadows vampire soap opera. I only read books about vampires.Īlthough I have few memories of specific titles, I probably read whatever was available in the horror section at Walt’s Hallmark, the only book store in the small Iowa town where I grew up. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, for most of the year in Maine, USA.When I was in high school I did not read books assigned for class. and a plot that will keep you awake at night.' (GQ )Ībout the AuthorStephen King has been described by the Guardian as 'one of the greatest storytellers of our time', by the Mirror as a 'genius' and by The Sunday Times as 'one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel.' In 2003, he was given the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Review'Popular fiction at its best.' (The Times ) And why his home town is about to become the new Armageddon. When he begins to understand why his hitherto mild-mannered friend, Ed, is getting out of control - dangerously so. That's when Ralph begins to lose a lot more than sleep. Not to mention the bald doctors who always turn up at the scene of a death. Then the hallucinations start - the colours, shapes and strange auras.
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