The King of Horror

It’s amazing how reading works for me. Not the act of reading, that’s pretty simple, but more so the way I read books. I always say that I have to be in the mood to read a book in order for me to finish one in any amount of time. I think this stems from middle and high school, when you’re forced to read books that while they are classics, sometimes they aren’t really all that interesting. "Great Expectations," "Les Miserables," "The Pearl," "As You Like It," and other are fantastic books, but they didn’t hold my interest at all. (No offense if you really like any of those) Granted there were books like "Lord of the Flies" and "All Quiet on the Western Front," but in general I never really liked books in school.

Flash forward to 9^th grade. I was flipping channels on day and came across the Sci-Fi (not SyFy, whatever the hell that is) channel and there was a movie on about a clown in a storm drain. Weird? Yes. Oddly interesting? Yes. While I didn’t get to finish the movie, I found out that it was “It” by Stephen King. Having only heard of King’s works and movies, I was quite interested in reading more. So I went to Books-a-Million and picked up “It” in paperback. I read the first 100 pages that day. The storytelling was fantastic. I took that book everywhere I went and it lasted about a month and a half (the paperback edition was about 1100 pages…way to ease into a body of work, right?).

I don't know why, but that cover is oddly intriguing.

I like to say that I was spoiled by reading “It” first. A lot of people I’ve talked to have read some of his other works first and got turned off. But for me, that was like a gateway book. After “It” I picked up “The Shining” and breezed through it and loved every page. It was as if a whole new world had been opened up to me. Stories that were mildly twisted and at times quite frightening were appealing to me. Over the summer I read “Christine,” “Misery,” “Pet Sematary,” “Cujo,” and “The Dark Half.” I was reading at a crazy pace, and loved it. “Christine” was an easy read, and very entertaining when you think about a car being possessed and hunting people down. “Pet Sematary” is one of those rare cases where the movie is slightly better than the book. Don’t get me wrong, the book is great, but the movie was much creepier. “Cujo” is one of the rare instances where King doesn’t use anything supernatural, and it works very well. You could imagine being trapped in a car (in 1980…before cell phones), with a rabid Saint Bernard outside in the middle of summer. A pretty dire and frightening situation if I say so myself.

When it came time for us to pick a book to read for my American Literature class, we were given the option to choose any American writer, so long as the book was over 125 pages. Of course I picked Stephen King and chose the book “Bag of Bones” which clocked in at 529 pages. The report was to be 10 pages, and include chapter summaries. Well mine ended up being 26 pages and the chapter summaries were insanely long. I’m pretty sure I got an “A” simply because Mrs. Hudson didn’t want to read the whole thing. I read “The Stand” over the latter part of my Junior year and into the summer (1125 pages) and it is still one of my favorite books I’ve read. The sheer scope of the story and characters is staggering, and after I finished reading it, I wanted to go back to page one and start again. It’s really that good.

On September 14, 1999 the book “Hearts in Atlantis” came out and of course I picked it up right away. Two days later Hurricane Floyd came through Eastern NC and flooded a good part of Rocky Mount and left us without power for about a week. Needless to say I finished that book in less than a week and shortly after we had power back I went after my next books. “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” was a quick read, a shorter story about a girl lost in the woods who listens to Red Sox games on a walkman to keep her company. Sadly, “The Tommyknockers” was a huge disappointment. King does a lot of things very well, story, characters, creating an environment that’s so real you feel like you’re there….but science fiction isn’t one of the things he does well. I never really liked the characters and the story was just plain boring to me. I rediscovered this later on in 2002 when I read “Dreamcatcher,” which was pretty good but wasn’t one of his better works. I attribute it to the fact that he wrote it after his accident where he was struck by a van and was immobile for a long time. After that I finished “The Long Walk,” which is the book that I point people to if they have never read a King book before. Another one that doesn’t have anything supernatural in it, but is more character and dialogue based that really engages the reader.

Through my college years my King reading slowed, only plowing through “Dreamcatcher” before the movie came out. Again, I was disappointed by the science fiction writing. However my disappointment was short lived when “Cell” was released. Wasting no time, things went horribly awry on the 6^th page and it didn’t let up from then. I really enjoyed it as it was a new take on the “zombie” genre.

Several of my friends who know that I like King’s works had told me that I needed to read the Dark Tower series, which is a 7-book epic. Not being a big fantasy fan I dismissed it initially, but my friends continued to tell me how good it was. My friend Spence lent me his copy of “The Gunslinger,” which I tried to read two or three times before giving up. It was so dry and initially uninteresting. I shelved it for a while and moved on to the newest tree-killer of a novel: “Under the Dome.” Many people who read it will think of it as a serious version of “The Simpsons Movie” since the plot shares the fact that a town in encased in a giant dome. That’s where the similarities stop, and where King’s ability to draw out suspense and create characters that you really care about and villains that you absolutely hate.

Around Christmas 2010 I was trying to figure out what to get my mother for Christmas. I came to the conclusion that she might enjoy a Kindle or a Nook, and began doing research on them. After finally deciding on a Kindle (which she loves, btw), I began to want one myself. Prior to this I had no desire for one, but after I looked at them long enough I thought that I may actually read more if I had one. So, being a single man with disposable income, I bought one. My first goal was to give the Dark Tower series another try. What I found was that with the Kindle I wasn’t as discouraged by books as much. Personally I like to read in bed, and having an 8-pound book sitting on your chest is uncomfortable, and when you’re 500 pages in and it’s only halfway, it can be discouraging to me when so much has happened and I’m not even halfway done! With the Kindle it’s just one page after one page, so to me it’s easier to read that way. Plus it’s a hell of a lot lighter, and if I drop it, I don’t lose my place.

Having a shiny new toy I decided to push through “The Gunslinger,” and after I finished it, I was mildly impressed. The story was decent and the character of Roland is one of the most complex that I’ve read. It took me about 3 weeks to push through “The Gunslinger,” which is the shortest of the Dark Tower 7. As soon as I was done, I picked up “The Drawing of the Three,” hoping that it was better than the first. Well, two weeks later I was already reading “The Wastelands” and 3 weeks after that I was on “Wizard and Glass” (I read mostly at night before bed, so it takes more time now). The books have been fantastic and each one keeps getting better and better. However, after spending 4 books in the world of Roland and his Ka-tet, I decided that I needed a break from the Dark Tower series, and have gone all the way back to his second book ever published; “’Salem’s Lot.” I finished it last night and thought that it was a really good book, even though it does do one thing that a lot of King’s books do…let’s just say the cast of characters at the end is significantly less than at the beginning!

A lot of people branch out and read books by many different authors, and while I know that I probably should, I really enjoy King’s works, and you’ll notice that I quote him (or his works) often in this blog. And as long as there’s a backlog of books that I haven’t read, I’ll continue to be one of his so-called “Constant Readers.”

My "King List" (In order):

It
The Shining
Christine
Cujo
Pet Sematary
The Dark Half
Bag of Bones
Misery
Thinner
Different Seasons
The Stand
The Tommyknockers
The Green Mile
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Hearts in Atlantis
The Long Walk
Storm of the Century
Rage
Dreamcatcher
Cell
Everything’s Eventual
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Just After Sunset
Under the Dome
The Gunslinger (Dark Tower 1)
The Drawing of the Three (Dark Tower 2)
The Wastelands (Dark Tower 3)
Wizard and Glass (Dark Tower 4)
‘Salem’s Lot

If you have your own "King List," next book suggestions, or a list by any other author, please share!