It occured to me today that I've been reading Stephen King for 30 years. Woah!

I'd call his body of work uneven. Some of his works are excellent, others I wonder how they even got published.

Here's my list of my own personal favorite novels and short stories.

Excellent-

Salem's Lot-- a masterpiece

The Dead Zone

Pet Sematary....."Can Stephen King write a book that scares even HIM?"...reportedly, he was too frightened by this tale to even finish it, but he did.

The Green Mile

....and these short stories....Battleground, The Breathing Method, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, Word Processor of the Gods, The Body---all superb.



Mediocre--

Cujo
The Shining
From a Buick 8


Just plain bad--

Carrie
The Tommyknockers --a mishmash
The Stand----9000 pages of nothing
It---ditto
Christine --silly

The guy has like 1000 books. Hes bound to have some bad ones.

The Dark Half :@@:

I thought Cujo, Pet Semetary and It were among his best novels. Pennywise was one of the better inventions of an authors imagination.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was great mainly because it turned into one of the finest movies of my lifetime.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was great mainly because it turned into one of the finest movies of my lifetime.



Oops, forgot that one, Evak-- a great story, but I've not seen the movie.
Many times his works don't translate well onto the big screen. I wonder why that is.

Many times his works don't translate well onto the big screen. I wonder why that is.
I liked the Shining and Shawshank.

Shawshank was literally robbed of best picture. In fact IMDb thinks highly of it, ranked the 2nd most well regarded film on the site: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

I like the Dark Tower series, good stuff.

Oops, forgot that one, Evak-- a great story, but I've not seen the movie.
Many times his works don't translate well onto the big screen. I wonder why that is.

Evak's right about the movie Ren, it is truly a great film. If you haven't seen it yet, rent it and watch it some weekend when you're in the mood for a really good movie.

On his writings I have to say I liked The Stand and Cujo, I thought Christine was the dumbest idea for a horror story I've ever encountered, and after I read The Tommyknockers I promised myself I would never read another word that man wrote. :)

And I haven't since.

We'll get Shawshank Redemption probably this weekend, fellas. If it's anything like the story, it's bound to be good.

(It's a prison movie. How can it be bad?):)

Shawshank Redemption was great, both the movie and the book.

I really liked The Stand, it's one of my favorites and I also liked It.

I hated how The Dark Tower series ended.

I'm not sure if I liked Pet Semetary, I refused to watch the movie when it came out. I think this was his scariest book.

Evak's right about the movie Ren, it is truly a great film. If you haven't seen it yet, rent it and watch it some weekend when you're in the mood for a really good movie.

On his writings I have to say I liked The Stand and Cujo, I thought Christine was the dumbest idea for a horror story I've ever encountered, and after I read The Tommyknockers I promised myself I would never read another word that man wrote. :)



And I haven't since.

lol, tommyknockers was pretty stupid. I read it while I was in Haiti. No TV, radio, no electricity, and that as the only book I had. Even then I felt like I was wasting my time. I feel your pain.

I loved The Stand. And I never read It but I saw the movie.

It and The Stand would be a close tie for me. I think he has an amazing ability to write through the eyes of children. Also he writes about a time when kids literally had the kind of freedom where you would take off in the morning on your bike, might return for lunch or not. If not, your parents probably barely missed you. They sure as hell were not picturing you dead in a ditch. Next headed home and ate dinner and headed back out doors with the gang. Got home just at dusk.

It was a magical time that way. Now kids live on a leash where their parents know their every move. Parents in fact play with their kids. Gawd we would have died if our parents were hanging with us. They were just supposed to show up for your games or any awards and disappear again when the gang showed up.

I don't think I liked Pet Sematary. The only reason I say that though, is because I can't remember it. The Shining was excellent. And the movie wasn't bad.

And Frogger you are right...Pennywise was the scariest and most brilliant invention.

He also had a cool idea where he started to intertwine his books for a while. Like the solar eclipse that happened in a number of his books and loosely tied the characters together. I think he could have done more with that.

I have often wondered if Tabitha writes parts of, or some of his less successful books. I tried reading her but found her ability to develop character to be sadly lacking. And for me characterization drives the book. Plot is important of course but strong characters can cover an okay plot. Whereas, weak characters with a strong plot bore me.

I read Stephen King for a long time and for me his books became predictible and repetitive. I did have a marvelous collection of hardbound first editions, up until I started to read "Gerald's Game" That book was over inside of three chapters. I was infuriated. I stayed away from King for a long time, and to this day have purchased none of his books since the late 1980's. I re-read "The Stand" some years back, and read "The Green Mile". I gave my collection to my young nephew. Maybe he'll keep them, probably he won't.

The Long Walk has been my favorite to date, although I've only read maybe 5 or 6 of his many books.

I have read so many Stephen King books and my favorite has and always will be "Bag of Bones". Some of his book turned movies were good,but it's hard to take any book and make it into a movie and not lose some of the story telling when it's acted out.

And Tim Curry played the role of Pennywise so well I am to this day TERRIFIED of that clown......

The Long Walk has been my favorite to date, although I've only read maybe 5 or 6 of his many books.LOL, I read that in one sitting and was exhausted by the time it ended. :)

I've read The Stand, Bag of Bones, Dead Zone, and some short story collections partially. I've also partially read On Writing. Watched Shawnshank, Green Mile, and Shining.

Although I agree he has fascinating ideas, great eyes for details and writing from a child's point of view, I just didn't like his books that much enough to read anymore. One problem is they are sometimes unnecessarily long. Another can't be helped--it's that I'm hard to scare, especially if the scary idea is silly or banal. (from reading quick descriptions on the sleeve a lot of times is enough to convince me I'm not going to like the book)

Dark Tower series looks interesting, but these days I don't give myself time to read long, plot-driven novels. Or novels in general. I'm pushing that type of reading to after I'm retired and have nothing to do.

Although I agree he has fascinating ideas, great eyes for details and writing from a child's point of view, I just didn't like his books that much enough to read anymore. One problem is they are sometimes unnecessarily long.

I agree, dio. Way too much verbiage, and more talented writers can tell an unsettling tale with much, much less.
See--Daphne du Maurier, a true master storyteller.