The Stephen King Thread

[squeekness]

I need to start reading the comics soon, I haven't even gotten to the first mini series yet.

I read Cell last year and was pretty underwhelmed. Then I read Duma Key, and wow, that one was really damned good. Not The Stand good, but close.

I'm almost halfway through Bag of Bones right now (and I'm hoping it picks up the pace a bit). After that, my unread King list looks like:

Insomnia
Danse Macabre
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
On Writing
Dreamcatcher (the movie might have ruined this one for me, dunno)
From a Buick 8
Lisey's Story
Blaze
Just after Sunset
Under the Dome

So I'll have to decide on one of those soon. I'd like to wait until Under the Dome is in paperback but if I keep hearing how good it is I might not put it off.

Blaze was really good, I read that in one day it was so awesome. Also The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon. Plus neither one is very long at all. I'd try either of those next.

Dreamcatchers the book was better than the movie, they had to cut quite a bit out for the film, so don't discount the book because the film was meh.

 

[Bat Attack]

I'm reading (or trying to for that matter, with so much school work and all) Pet Sematary. Last time I read anything of Stephen King's was it was his epic "IT" which I loved. All of the characters in IT are so well fleshed out that I felt like I actually knew them personally at the end of the book. It's faaar better than the 1990 mini-series adaptation (obviously), that pales in comparison with the novel.

 

[squeekness]

I really haven't yet seen a TV series or a show that was able to fully capture King's books. Not that they were all bad, but each had to leave something out because words can say so much more than pictures sometimes.

 

[Bat Attack]

I really haven't yet seen a TV series or a show that was able to fully capture King's books. Not that they were all bad, but each had to leave something out because words can say so much more than pictures sometimes.

I absolutely agree!

 

[Sawyer]

I really haven't yet seen a TV series or a show that was able to fully capture King's books. Not that they were all bad, but each had to leave something out because words can say so much more than pictures sometimes.

The Stand miniseries was a major disappointment.

 

[squeekness]

I thought they did an OK job with that considering how massive an undertaking it was. Things were word for word in some places. It's just that the story was much too big to really pull it off the way it deserved.

 

[Bat Attack]

I hope the big-budget adaptation of "IT" turns out well, I'm not getting my hopes up though. I still can't imagine how some of the scenes in that book would work well on film. Honestly, the only big-screen adaptations of King's work I really enjoy are Misery and The Shining (1980). Kathy Bates was the perfect choice for Annie Wilkes!

 

[Sawyer]

I thought they did an OK job with that considering how massive an undertaking it was. Things were word for word in some places. It's just that the story was much too big to really pull it off the way it deserved.

For a 1990s era Tv miniseries it was okay, but I'm just pissed that no ones considered doing it over again in this day and age, whether on the big screen or again as a miniseries.

 

[squeekness]

I hope the big-budget adaptation of "IT" turns out well, I'm not getting my hopes up though. I still can't imagine how some of the scenes in that book would work well on film. Honestly, the only big-screen adaptations of King's work I really enjoy are Misery and The Shining (1980). Kathy Bates was the perfect choice for Annie Wilkes!

Bates was excellent in Misery which is one of the better attempts at King's work ( Ithink anyhow). I also still like Walken in the Dead Zone though it's not perfect.

For a 1990s era Tv miniseries it was okay, but I'm just pissed that no ones considered doing it over again in this day and age, whether on the big screen or again as a miniseries.

It would be quite an undertaking and probably not doable in just one movie. The TV show was what? Six hours I think, and they still left stuff out.

 

[:eek:]

Bates was excellent in Misery which is one of the better attempts at King's work ( Ithink anyhow). I also still like Walken in the Dead Zone though it's not perfect.

Kathy Bates also did a great performance in Dolores Claiborne which I personally think ranks among the best King-adaptations.

 

[Bat Attack]

Kathy Bates also did a great performance in Dolores Claiborne which I personally think ranks among the best King-adaptations.

Now I have to see that.

 

[squeekness]

yeah, she was really good in that too.

 

[Manic]

I decided to start reading The Dark Tower recently. I picked up The Gunslinger, and I think I'm about two thirds done with this one. My uncle gave me a very vague idea of what this series is about a while back, so it'll be interesting to see where the story goes after I finish the first part.

 

[LEX]

Subscribing.

Duma Key was the first, and only, Stephen King book I've read. Minds were blown and bricks were shat in the process. It was such a page-turner and so vivid, too. I only wish I had more time to finish the three books I'm currently in the middle of, so I can finally get into the King books that I've been hoarding. Already have Under the Dome, The Stand, Salem's Lot, IT, and The Darktower books.

 

[squeekness]

Well, hopefully, as you continue to read them, you'll grow to love King even more like we have.

 

[taskmaster]

Subscribing.

Duma Key was the first, and only, Stephen King book I've read. Minds were blown and bricks were shat in the process. It was such a page-turner and so vivid, too. I only wish I had more time to finish the three books I'm currently in the middle of, so I can finally get into the King books that I've been hoarding. Already have Under the Dome, The Stand, Salem's Lot, IT, and The Darktower books.

Don't forget to get into some of his short story work, it is some of his best stuff in my opinion. IT will always have a special place in my heart though, it was the very first novel I every read that wasn't for school, I read it in the 7th grade.

 

[Byrd Man]

Don't forget to get into some of his short story work, it is some of his best stuff in my opinion..

I'll agree with you there. I've lost count of all the King books I've read, but I think the reason his short stories are better is that they're short and don't require a climax.

While I love reading King's work, I think sometimes the endings to his books are his weakness. I didn't care for how the Dark Tower ended, I was kinda iffy off the end of Under The Dome, ditto with IT.

Like I said, just my one fault with the guy. Still love his work and will continue to read his books and short stories.

 

[:eek:]

While I love reading King's work, I think sometimes the endings to his books are his weakness. I didn't care for how the Dark Tower ended, I was kinda iffy off the end of Under The Dome, ditto with IT.

The reason for the novels to often have "open endings" that can feel anticlimatic sometimes is probably that he doesn't like plot-driven stories where the author has already set up a goal before he/she starts write and a plot through which he/she is stearing the characters. He said he did this with Insomnia and found that he forced the characters to do stuff that didn't feel right just to reach the goal he had sat up. Which is why he was a little disappointed with that novel

He often says that when starts write he has no clue about how it will end. Something he prefers because "if the writer doesn't know how it ends, than the reader won't know either".

 

[Yurka]

Has anyone here tackled the beast that is Under the Dome yet?

 

[squeekness]

He often says that when starts write he has no clue about how it will end. Something he prefers because "if the writer doesn't know how it ends, than the reader won't know either".

This is how I prefer to write myself. I start and then off I go, never knowing waht twists may come. I think it's better this way -- unless you're writing a murder mystery or wahtnot. You'd still need to know who the bad guy was.

Has anyone here tackled the beast that is Under the Dome yet?

I have and it was wonderful. Two of my co-workers have as well and like me, they couldn't put the dang thing down.

 

[Dark Victory]

I'm about 50 pages into Under the Dome and so far it's not a bad read. Some sequences are slow, while others are complete page-turners. I haven't read much of Stephen King, other than The Stand and The Shining. I did an amazon search and does anyone know if Cell, It, The Mist, Stories of the Apocalypse, and Night Shift? Also, I was wondering if anyone has read -- these aren't written by Stephen King, but are supposedly fit his niche -- The Strain, World War Z and the Living Dead?

 

[SsM]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_re_us/us_people_stephen_king_troops


BANGOR, Maine – Author Stephen King and his wife are donating money so 150 soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard can come home for the holidays.
King and his wife, Tabitha, who live in Bangor, are paying $13,000 toward the cost of two bus trips so that members of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit can travel from Camp Atterbury in Indiana to Maine for Christmas. The soldiers left Maine last week for training at Camp Atterbury. They are scheduled to depart for Afghanistan in January.
Julie Eugley, one of King's personal assistants, told the Bangor Daily News that the Kings were approached about giving $13,000.
But Stephen King thought the number 13 was a bit unlucky, so the couple pitched in $12,999 instead. Eugley chipped in $1 to make for an even $13,000.
___

 

[SsM]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_re_us/us_people_stephen_king_troops


BANGOR, Maine – Author Stephen King and his wife are donating money so 150 soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard can come home for the holidays.
King and his wife, Tabitha, who live in Bangor, are paying $13,000 toward the cost of two bus trips so that members of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit can travel from Camp Atterbury in Indiana to Maine for Christmas. The soldiers left Maine last week for training at Camp Atterbury. They are scheduled to depart for Afghanistan in January.
Julie Eugley, one of King's personal assistants, told the Bangor Daily News that the Kings were approached about giving $13,000.
But Stephen King thought the number 13 was a bit unlucky, so the couple pitched in $12,999 instead. Eugley chipped in $1 to make for an even $13,000.
___

 

[Bat Attack]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_re_us/us_people_stephen_king_troops


BANGOR, Maine – Author Stephen King and his wife are donating money so 150 soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard can come home for the holidays.
King and his wife, Tabitha, who live in Bangor, are paying $13,000 toward the cost of two bus trips so that members of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit can travel from Camp Atterbury in Indiana to Maine for Christmas. The soldiers left Maine last week for training at Camp Atterbury. They are scheduled to depart for Afghanistan in January.
Julie Eugley, one of King's personal assistants, told the Bangor Daily News that the Kings were approached about giving $13,000.
But Stephen King thought the number 13 was a bit unlucky, so the couple pitched in $12,999 instead. Eugley chipped in $1 to make for an even $13,000.
___

That is awesome! Stephen King's such a cool guy.

 

[squeekness]

I'm about 50 pages into Under the Dome and so far it's not a bad read. Some sequences are slow, while others are complete page-turners. I haven't read much of Stephen King, other than The Stand and The Shining. I did an amazon search and does anyone know if Cell, It, The Mist, Stories of the Apocalypse, and Night Shift? Also, I was wondering if anyone has read -- these aren't written by Stephen King, but are supposedly fit his niche -- The Strain, World War Z and the Living Dead?

He wrote the ones in bold, not so sure about Stories of the Apocalypse. The bolded books were all good, but then I am a bit biased. Don't know as I've read a King book I didn't like in some way.