Stephen King

[Thenop]

Any fans here?

I like reading him in 'batches', 4 or 5 books after each other and then I turn to something else again. I read a fair deal of his output, admittingly, that's auote something already, the man is super prolific.
I started reading him when my mum brought in his books, I must have been 12 or so, first one was I think Christine. Immediately took a liking to his accesible writing and his many references to popular culture.
Mum still reads him, she is now 78 :-) Everytime a new one is published she tells me, she buys it and then passes it on. Lovely tradition.

I am doing a bit of a catch up now, from his latest to 5 titles back that I had lying around. I did Fairytale, Later and now onto If It Bleeds, a collection of 4 stories.

My favourite of his remains The Stand, but Pet Semetary takes me back to the time when Metallica's master of Puppets was released and I read it while playing that album over and over again. 'Til this day I cannot listen to Sanitarium without getting the smell of asphalt in my nose.

Next up is probably the latter day ones: The Outsider, Billy Summers and the Institute. Then I need to read the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and finally, finally do the Dark Tower series that somehow, I never got round reading. Have the books though...
Also really enjoyed The Talisman, with Peter Straub and have a soft spot for The Dead Zone. And cannot do an SK topic without mentioning It, so there I mentioned it.
Most left of field read I enjoyed: Joyland.

Lastly: I am an avid SK movie adaptations viewer, no matter how bad they are - and there are a lot of bad ones out there!

[Fishy]

Always preferred the short stories...

[pxr5]

I've read quite a few Stephen King over the years, but can't recall them all (much like Dean Koontz as well). Like Fishy says some of his short stories are great, but The Stand, Misery, The Green Mile and It are standouts for me. Film/TVs - a lot certainly are really bad (e.g. Under the Dome which veered from the book massively) but some are great: The Shawshank Redemption, Carrie, The Green Mile, The Mist.

[R6GYY]

You could say I was quite a fan - although not so much these days.

The Talisman remains one of my favourite books, and as it happens I am listening to the audio book at the moment.

The Stand and IT are also favourites, although I don't like the ending to The Stand. No spoilers here, but given all of the groundwork laid leading up to that point, I felt the ending a bit of a cop-out.

I don't think I have a bad word to say about IT. This is more scary than The Stand, especially given that a lot of the events take place through the eyes of the younger protagonists. King really gets in your head here and knows how to push your horror buttons.

But it is The Talisman that I keep coming back to. I must re-read the sequel someday too. I've only read it once, and I don't think I grasped all of it. So a re-read is in order methinks when I finish with The Talisman.

[Thenop]

You could say I was quite a fan - although not so much these days.

The Talisman remains one of my favourite books, and as it happens I am listening to the audio book at the moment.

The Stand and IT are also favourites, although I don't like the ending to The Stand. No spoilers here, but given all of the groundwork laid leading up to that point, I felt the ending a bit of a cop-out.

I don't think I have a bad word to say about IT. This is more scary than The Stand, especially given that a lot of the events take place through the eyes of the younger protagonists. King really gets in your head here and knows how to push your horror buttons.

But it is The Talisman that I keep coming back to. I must re-read the sequel someday too. I've only read it once, and I don't think I grasped all of it. So a re-read is in order methinks when I finish with The Talisman.

I have it but I still need to read Black House, the follow up to the Talisman.

Agreed on the ending of the Stand, it's been agreed somewhat that King's weak spot is his endings.

[R6GYY]

Lastly: I am an avid SK movie adaptations viewer, no matter how bad they are - and there are a lot of bad ones out there!

I've been waiting I don't know how many years now (30+ ?) for an adaptation of The Talisman.

The latest names to be linked to it are the Duffer brothers (of Stanger Things fame). That gives me hope, as they certainly have the chops to get the 80's setting right and they know how to make good TV. Fingers crossed.

[Thenop]

Lastly: I am an avid SK movie adaptations viewer, no matter how bad they are - and there are a lot of bad ones out there!

I've been waiting I don't know how many years now (30+ ?) for an adaptation of The Talisman.

The latest names to be linked to it are the Duffer brothers (of Stanger Things fame). That gives me hope, as they certainly have the chops to get the 80's setting right and they know how to make good TV. Fingers crossed.

That would be fantastic. However, I am always a bit scared when it comes to TV adaptations. The latest version of the Stand is... ehm.. not what I expected let's say.

[R6GYY]

I haven't seen the new version. I did enjoy the older TV version with Gary Senise.

I can remember thinking at the time that Mother Abigail was exactly as I had pictured her in my head when reading the book.

Still a crap ending, but that can't be blamed on the adaptation.

Well actually it can? The film-makers wisely changed the ending of Hannibal to make a more satisfying and believable ending.

But I digress.

[Thenop]

Funnily enough for the new version King penned a new ending or rather an epilogue.
It's not as bad as it's made out to be but it could have been so much better.

And yes, the old version is a favourite of mine. I used to watch it when home sick, it always seemed to fit the situation 

[Thenop]

Was at my parents' this afternoon, saying hi to my brother & niece. I bought her (my niece) a book for the holidays - she's 8 and reading - this one was a book by a Dutch author on animals doing class presentations on other animals. A great & fun idea. I am the uncle that buys her books. I know..

But I digress, my mother had bought The Regulators previously published under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, finished it (in no time, did I mention she's 78?) and handed it down. So another one on the list to read. And so we continue...