A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity Stephen King

Just wondering if there are any Stephen King readers out there? And if so....what have you read lately?

I just started 'The girl who loved Tom Gordon'. can't get interested in it?
before that one, I read 'Salems Lot'. LOVED it!

I love Stephen King's work. Waiting on DD to finish the book "Cell" so I can have my turn.

Haven't read any lately though, books are so expensive and we don't have a library here. Hoping to find some at a yard sale this summer though. DD buys mostly Nora Roberts or VC Andrews, she must of got the S-King book as a gift.

I read several of King's books, and then it seemed they weren't as good. I really wanted to read a series called (I think) The Dark Tower? But I couldn't seem to stay interested enough to get through the first book. Another King reader told me she felt the same way but if I just skipped over the rest of the first book that I would really enjoy the rest. So I might try them again sometime.

I read so many books, all the time, that it would be hard to mention any at all.
I read a lot of different genre and authors. I am a speed reader.

I read several of King's books, and then it seemed they weren't as good. I really wanted to read a series called (I think) The Dark Tower? But I couldn't seem to stay interested enough to get through the first book. Another King reader told me she felt the same way but if I just skipped over the rest of the first book that I would really enjoy the rest. So I might try them again sometime.

I read so many books, all the time, that it would be hard to mention any at all.
I read a lot of different genre and authors. I am a speed reader.

(Sorry about this double post!!! I only hit Submit once, honestly!!!)

I've read all of his earlier works. I read It, in one day years and years ago. Stayed up all night.

There are classics of his such as Carrie, The Shining, Salems Lot, The Stand, Firestarter, Cujo, Dark Tower series, Christine, Pet Cemetery, Misery, and the Green Mile. Oh and Thinner, and The Running Man are good too---under his pen name Richard Bachman.

I think the last book of his that I read and liked was Dolores Claiborne. After that it seemed to me that his works sort of went downhill. At least to me.

I tried, The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, and Hearts in Atlantis.....neither of them were any good to me or and didn't make any sense. It seemed his writing style was so different and I've never picked up one of his books again. Those 2 disappointed me so much I gave up on him.

Shirley, you sound like my Grandmother. She didn't 'read' books, she 'consumed' them. She was a huge Mignon G. Eberhart, Victoria Holt, and Louis Lamour fan. She would re-read her books so many times (they were all paperbacks) that she would have to put rubber bands around them to keep all the pages together.

Several years ago I heard that Stephen King wanted out of a contract he was under with one of his publishes due to some kind of dislike of some stipulations in it. He couldn't get out of it and was highly upset because of that. Since he was 'obligated' to write a certain number of books under that contract, he wrote them but deliberately made them not as 'consumer-friendly' as a way to get back at his publisher.

Didn't they make a movie out of the 'Cell'? If it's the same, I thought it was waaayyy coool!!!

That would explain a lot.

You'd all die if you saw my books. I have at least 100 piled up next to my bed...seriously. Then I have a small bedroom with 3 bookshelves and hundreds of books. I HAVE to read at night or I can't sleep. And I read with lightening speed.....my genres of choice are vampires and time travel.

I think you need to re-name that bedroom and call it your 'library.'

I LOVE "The Green Mile." Didn't read the book but saw the movie with Tom Hanks. I'm glad I've been reminded of this because I've intended to get the book. The books are always better than the movies.

It's actually not just one book, although they might have condensed by now into one.....when I bought them years ago it was a bunch of really thin paperbacks.

Oh....I call the small room bedroom, the library room. I actually just got rid of a few hundred books a few weeks ago, took them to the Goodwill. Needed to free up some shelf space.

"'some' shelf space"

Hi,
I have all of Stephen Kings books in hardback - read them all and liked most- some more than others... The Tower series is good- and my favorite is The Stand- read that one at least 5 times...
My Mom is a reader too she speed reads- can hardly keep her in books,do a lot of trading them in at the used book store...and plan to start going to yard sales soon.
Nana

well I started the tom gordon book a week ago. read one or two chapters and have no desire to pick it up again. guess, i will put that up and donate to the library next time were there. I have another King, called Dark Half. maybe it will be better.
Dolores Claibourn was very good. I read that one in 2-3 days (an all time record for me!)

Must be making room for Christmas shopping

Yeah that's it Tam! :wink: Need all the room I can get for that, you'd die if you were to see "the present closet" already.

Hey BTW, have you all read Dean Koontz? I mean if you like King you'll like him probably. I read most of his stuff years ago too. Some is pretty out there though.

Another good author for medical thrillers is Robin Cook. I used to read a lot of him.

And of course the good old standby of V.C. Andrews. I've read all of her books...however she passed away some time ago and the family hired someone that writes similar to her to continue in her name. The newer books just aren't as good as her actual books.

DD loves V.C. Andrews, she has lots of those. I haven't read much in the past while. DD bought me a book while I was in the hospital 'Grave Concerns' by Gwen Hunter~haven't read a page yet.

I never remember names..

My fav. authors are Laurell K Hamilton, JR Ward, and Sophie Kinsella.

2 write about vampires(but full of love and you know what ), and Sophie writes about chic lit--like Bridget Jones' Diary. All 3 are great!

Karen Marie Moning is good too....especially her Bloodfever,and Darkfever books!

I like Koontz too. Some of his books I like more than King, but some I can't get interested in. with King, pretty much all of his books are good.
Watchers is by far my favorite Koontz book. Oh, and the Bad Place was very good also.

I accidentally discovered a short series of books by Stephen Woodworth that were really good in my opinion. I read the first one and promptly procured the next 2.

They are the 'Violet' series. First one is "Through Violet Eyes". The second one is "With Red Hands" and the last one that I have is "In Golden Blood."

I'm glad this 'book thread' was going because now I want to check and see if he has another one in this series. I really enjoyed them.

Oops. I have 4 of them. I forgot. The last one I know about is "From Black Rooms."

I'm trying to remember the title of that book where they alien was stopped from destroying the earth by getting him to eat raw bacon. 'Mr. Gray wants bacon!'.....'Ister Ay awnts acon!' don't you just love it when an author can get you to believe in things that just sound silly if you try to explain the plot to someone who hasn't read it?

Cricket, I don't know what the title of that book is but it sounds fun. It reminded me of the Terry Pratchett books my daughter and I use to read aloud to each other sometimes when she was a teenager. Hilarious!! The characters had great personalities all their own and their 'speech' had varying traits to them that the author somehow managed to create in the way they 'said' things kinda like the book you're talking about with the "Ister Ay awnts acon." His character 'Death' always spoke in all capitol letters, for example.

I love Stephen King books. The dark tower series is a bit weird and hard to get in to at first but I thought that series was some of his best work, I really loved those books. I also enjoyed salem's lot, the stand, the shining, geralds game was super creepy, and it. I've read so many of his books it would take me too long to list all the ones that I've read. I recently aquired 7 Stephen king books that I haven't read yet for $7 off someone on craigs list.

I've only read one of the dark tower series. susannahs song. I found it to be an interesting story but exhausting to read(for me). i'll have to look for geralds game since you said it was super creepy. I like the super creepy!

One of you posted earlier (sorry I forget who) that you'd heard of a contract dispute co-inciding with a change in King's writing style.

I'm also wondering if that noticed style change was around of the time of his very bad accident which left him so so terribly injured? I haven't read anything new he's written since that awful accident, but I have speculated about it's impact on his writing.


Merme

when was that accident, merme?
I claim to be such a big fan of his but I don't know anything about his accident?
the last book I read of his I was a bit dissapointed in. 'the dark half'. i felt I knew how it would end from the beginning to middle way through the book. but, with king...he always surprises me. he didn't surprise me in this book. I felt like this was one of the books some were mentioned earlier. same ole same ole, nothing new, write just to get a check book.

I also really love The Stand, both in book form and the video miniseries.

Cricket ~ after King was fairly well healed up following that dreadful accident, he actually PURCHASED the van that hit him. Then, he got himself a sledge hammer and went right to it, beating that van to pieces! We all said "You go, Stephen, you go!"

He also donated a huge sum to Central Maine Medical Center, the hospital that saved his life.

But then, he & Tabitha have always been very generous... starting a Little League and entirely revamping the public library in Bangor, every year giving all the Kindergardeners a new book, etc.


Merme

Joclyn~ If you are only in Philly, you ought to come up here for a visit! Then when you are all done playing on the beach with us, you can go see Stephen King's house! Now isn't THAT a plan?!


Merme

that sounds familiar - him purchasing the van and beating it.

Is his house spookey????? Does his house look like the one in that book he wrote about the vampires? (can't for the life of me remember the title of that one! it's one of his classics)

I just started a koontz book, Night Chills. seems ok so far.

He & Tabitha bought a beautiful, beautiful stately Victorian and restored it. The fascinating thing to the fans who visit the location is the wrought iron fencing and gate. The iron work is complete with bats and such things! People love to photograph it.

I LOVE thinking about how terribly, terribly poor they were (living in a trailer without even a telephone) when the manuscript to Carrie sold, and how well they've done since.

Especially considering that he THREW AWAY the manuscript to Carrie thinking it wasn't any good and she pulled it out of the trash and mailed it!


Merme

I bet he'd be a fascinating person to sit down with and talk to! I didn't know that about carrie.
salems lot is the one I was trying to remember before, with the vampires. very good book!

Jocyln ~

I am only two hours north of Boston although King's home is a few hours further. You could do the trip in stages.... drive to Boston, drive to here, then drive to Bangor!

Oh, wouldn't that be fun?!


Merme