to utterly love Stephen King?

[minifingers]

Ex secondary English teacher, who snootily resisted his books and the whole horror genre for decades, in favour of Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Jane Austen, and lots of serious modern authors like Saul Bellow.

Had children, got too knackered and thick to read serious fiction so tarted on the Stephen Kings.

I find that I absolutely love his books. Love them, and the mind which created them.

Worried that I'm going to end up like that woman in Misery - you know, the Kathy Bates character. Obsessed.

Anyone else got a Stephen King pash or is it just me? He's not very mumnsetty.

I just think that if you write 10,00000 books/series/short stories, some of them have to turn up good

The infinite monkey theorem would suggest this is true.

I have only read The Shining and the dog at the party bit freaked me OUT

Is it just me that hated Misery, Dolores Claiborne, 11.22.63, Rose Madder?

They bored me and I never bothered to finish them

Favourite top 5 are:

1. the Stand
2. Dead Zone
3. salems Lot
4. It
5. Firestarter

Short story wise, I have to say that The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet is my fave. Just a lovely elegant story.

Also the Library Policeman and The Langoliers are two I return to again and again.

A pretty decent film was made of The Langoliers and I'm surprised nobody has tried with the Library Policeman as it seems so utterly filmic to me.

And I was always spooked and charmed in equal measure by the stories featuring the recurring old gentlemen's club with the eternal valet...

"It is the tale, not he who tells it..."

Oh, and of course, the utterly sublime Mrs Todds Shortcut . One of the loveliest female characters he has written and after whom I named DD

Mrs Todd's Shortcut is lovely. And it also always makes me think of the scene in the Dark Tower when Mrs somebodyorother drives Roland (okay and gets to sleep with Roland too!).

LOVE The Langoliers - in fact, I was thinking just yesterday that I'm due a re-read.

The best, best short story though, is, "Survivor Type."

I didn't like Lisey's Story at all, I think I only got about a third of the way through. l finished the Stand, but wasn't keen, but that was some years ago, so I may go back to it and see if that's changed.

Also, really don't like Cujo, not because it's not a good book, but because it's just heartbreaking. The bits written from Cujo's perspective made me sob. I actually think that is the most horrible book I've ever read.

I think my favourites, in no particular order would be Salems Lot, Needful Things, Carrie, The Shining and Rose Madder. Also all his short story collections which I can read over and over.

Stephen kings character development is second to none

I've said this before and doubtless will say it again, but I absolutely detest, "Needful Things." I'm always astonished at the number of people who list it as one of their favourites.

Oooooh the Langoliers!!! I had that on video - recorded it when I was young. It was dreadful but brilliant in the way only SK tv adaptations can be. Mr Toomey haunted my nightmares!

LOVE Stephen King, he is now basically the only fiction I ever read.

Ah. I made the very enormous mistake of reading Survivor Type on a train when I was pregnant and suffering from morning sickness.

I may have thrown up on the train... ('lovely...lovely...just like ladies fingers...')

Another one as well for The Talisman with Peter Straub. Such a wonderful complex book with such a great storyline driving it through. And another favourite character; Wolf.

I was so invested in him that I remember sitting in a pub waiting to meet some friends and just sobbing into my snakebite and black (deliberately being vague in case anyone has yet to read it)

Another short but very sweet story was Word Processor of the Gods. Just charming.

Adore, "Word processor." Ultimate wish fulfillment story.

Another SK fan, totally agree with the PP who said he sparked a love of reading. I snuck one of his books home from the library aged 9 and that was it, I was off. Didn't fully understand half of what I was reading but the half I did was bloody good and I 'got' the stories on a whole.other level as I got older.

I found Doctor Sleep (the sequel to The Shining) a really hard read for two reasons. The first was the obvious, the bad guys kill children (not a spoiler - it's in the blurb) and there's a line where a victim screams until his vocal cords rupture. I cried and cried for him. I know he's fictional and didn't really die but I cried for him dying horribly, all alone and far from his mother. The second reason was the way Danny grew up, the story of his life, the flashback scenes with his mother and so on. I was pregnant with DS2 and it hit me that my children are going to grow up, they're going to have lives of their own and they're going to make choices that might not always be good ones. Danny was this little five year old boy, I have one of those (DS1) and it was a bit poignant for me (is that the right word?) that he became a grown man. Time marches on and all that.

I recently watched the film version of Cujo which has a different ending to the book. I'm reluctant to say exactly what in case anyone hasn't read it but I read in an article that the ending was changed because SK regretted the outcome in the book and it was the one thing he wished he could take back.

Anyone else think MN should try get him to do a Web chat?

Stephen King webchat? Now you're talking!

MNHQ? Are you there? Pretty pretty please?

Yes please please please!!!

A King webchat would be the most amazing thing in the world (except maybe getting to snog Ben Cohen).

Gwan gwan gwan gwan gwan!

(You know you want to...)

I've never heard of Ben Cohen, so I just googled him.

Blimey, he's not very ugly, is he?

He is bloody gorgeous, but I actually like him better with his clothes on!

How do you contact MN to make a webchat request? Report the thread?

I love SK. He's written some absolute turkeys - The Tommyknockers and From a Buick 8 are books I will never read again - but he's written far more incredibly good stuff. Duma Key is my absolute favourite King, because it charts his own recovery from serious injury so well, is scary to the nth degree without ever being splatter and has some characters you really learn to love. I also love the Dark Tower series - must reread those again soon.

There's a reason why he is so successful, and it isn't because he's trashy. He simply has a stunning talent for describing humanity with all its flaws.

Agree that, "The Tommyknockers" = pretty shockingly bad, but think he was pretty much off his head through writing that one!

Tolstoy I just read Duma Key while on holidays in the states - the room I was staying in had a big scary abstract type picture on the wall. I was terrified. Great book but I feel scared just thinking about it now.

Also agree re Survivor Type. Also you know the one about the guy that discovers the cure for violence in the water and then they all get Alzheimer's. So sad!

Also The Library Policeman is terrifying.

Has anyone read The Ledge?