Reading SK...

[fmancino]

Just curious how some of you starting Stephen King and about what age. Also your favorite novels? Here's my story:

In the fifth grade this boy was reading Pet Sematary; the cover interested me. I went to a local bookstore that sells old books and somehow found the Stephen King section. I asked my mom: "Can I get these?", while I was holding Pet Sematary and IT. She said no. So a week later my dad took me and bought them for me. I read Pet Sematary with a book cover on. My mom asked what I was reading (she really didn't know) and I replied by saying: "It's about a girl who won the spelling bee!" About two days later my sister told on me. I didn't get in trouble though.

Favorite King book for me: Carrie
Age I started: 10/11

[ozmosis7]

Think I posted this somewhere here already, but I'll elaborate a bit. I started reading King at 17, over summer vacation. I worked Graveyard Shift for Pepperidge Farms and because I was a kid, I spent a lot of time on call--so I read IT. Between being on call and the lines going down from someone getting sick from motion sickness, I read a lot of his books that summer. For clarification, not sure if they still do it this way, but they used to have one half of the cookie come down a conveyor belt with chocolate on it, and the other half came down another belt at a slower speed, and I was one of the people that put the two halves together.

Best part of the job was eating the raw dough that was used to make chessmen cookies. Worst, was realizing that red die on the little white cupcake cups isn't die at all, and having the cuticles to prove it.

[frik51]

I was lucky to discover King right about from the start, in '75 when I read Carrie -the paperback- and saw Carrie -the movie.
Or maybe the movie was a year later, don't really remember.
Loved both, but was not hooked - yet.
I skipped both Salem's Lot and The Shining (as I said, I wasn't hooked yet), even postphoned reading The Stand (didn't really care for the cover) till I finally succomed, read The Stand and became a constant reader for life.
I'm glad I read King practically from the start - and almost chronologically!
Only way to go.

How old was I at the time?
23.
Favorite novels: The Stand, It, Bag of Bones and Lisey's Story.
Runners up: Cujo, The Dead Zone, The Regulators, The Dark Half, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass - and a few more.

sk

[fmancino]

Oh!

[fmancino]

Cool, I'm almost done with 'Salem's Lot, read Rage about a month ago, gotta read Night Shift, excited for the Stand; but heard it's boring, guess not in your opinion!

[srboone]

I was 14 in 1980 and my english teacher came in one day and started bitchin' about the movie The Shining, how it wasn't like the book and she hated it. I had seen TV spots for the movie and thought the elevator that poured blood was insane! I didn't want to see it again, but I couldn't turn away! Anyway, I read the book and it nearly drove me bonkers. When I finally saw the movie the next year on late night cable TV, I was confused, but I knew this was really something special. I saw it 4 more times that month (The Movie Channel) and later went in told my treacher that she was crazy--the movie was awesome! It didn't have to be exactly like the book--what was the point of making the movie if it were? We did't get along very well after that..

The Shining turned into The Stand (I feel sorry for those of you who first read the so-called "Complete and Uncut" version) which turned into 'Salem's Lot, Carrie, etc. I always had to fight a girl named Shannon Kemble for the new SK HC when it came out--she usually won (the best looking girl in school and I had something in comon with her no one else did, of course I let her win!)

I bought his books when they came out, but hadn't had time to read a lot of them so when the DT4-7 came out, I was behind in a lot of the action, but I've pretty much caught up now.

Faves: The Shining, The Stand (original), Cujo, Lisey's Story, IT
Close, but no cigar: Christine, The Drawing of the Three, Gerald's Game, From a Buick 8, Pet Semetery

Least favorite: The Stand (C&UV)

[bsaenz24]

Worst, was realizing that red die on the little white cupcake cups isn't die at all, and having the cuticles to prove it.

LOL!!! Damn, that is funny!!!!

[ozmosis7]

LOL!!! Damn, that is funny!!!!

Painful too, LOL. You had to pick up the cookies in groups and shove them into paper cups. Back then it was a different world, so you didn't wear gloves. And those cups would scape up your cuticles. It was literal hell. Now days I'd bet they make you wear gloves and all sorts of precautionary things. No way to get past the getting sick part though I'd guess. They would bring the lines down for hours on end while we waited in the break room, as they had to disinfect the entire oven and not just a section. This one girl threw up every night for like 2 months straight before they gave her another job LOL.

[bsaenz24]

Painful too, LOL.

Yeah, I meant funny in a "funny, but that really sucks, hope you're ok" sorta way!!

[frik51]

excited for the Stand; but heard it's boring, guess not in your opinion!

My opinion isn't too important here, but I've never heard The Stand described as boring.
Whenever the topic best Stephen King book comes up, it's always between these two: It and The Stand.
My vote goes to the latter, but It comes pretty close.

Hey, you should read both editions: the cut and the un-cut The Stand.
Many people prefer the complete edition, but I know some who wish King should never have released it.

sk

[frik51]

Least favorite: The Stand (C&UV)

IMPOSSIBLE!!

Just kidding; it's just I can't imagine someone not liking this book.
I read the cut edition first and was completely floored by it.
NEVER had I read anything like it.
The uncut version I liked, but not as much.

sk

[srboone]

Well, the original is one of my favorites. But the C&UCV is sloppily editied (too many references to the work as a 70's nugget were left in). The scene with the Kid and Tom Cullen was alluded to in the original, but it was cut out--for a reason, it really adds nothing to the novel; the ending cheapens the sacrifices made by larry, ralph and glenn; some stuff with the Trashcan Man is interesting, but it drags the novel down. I didn't care for it.

But someone noted that even bad King is good--and that's the truth. So just because it's my least favorite doesn't mean I thought it was a waste reading...I just think the original is light years ahead of the 1990's version in terms of consistency, continuity and impact.

Clarke never updated 2001, tho he did write sequels. I hate to think that Orwell would have rewritten 1984 as 1994 or 2004 if he'd still been alive.

[C.W. LaSart]

My Mom made me wait until I was 12 to read King-but she would've made me wait longer had she ever read his books! My first was Pet Semetary and I haven't looked back since. I have read everything he has written, besides the Dark Tower series (read the first 3 and they weren't my type), Lisey's Story, and the second half of Insomnia. They haven't all been my favorites, but I can't think of any I hated (Insomnia just couldn't grab me, though I plan to try again!). I'm not sure what it is, but I really liked Buick 8 and Duma Key

[frik51]

Well, the original is one of my favorites. But the C&UCV is sloppily editied (too many references to the work as a 70's nugget were left in).

I thought with C&UCV you meant both versions, Cut & UnCutVersion.
I'm very bad with abbreviations - the first C stands for Complete, of course!

That's why I got the impression you didn't care for The Stand at all.

sk

[RichardThomas]

I remember reading him a lot in high school. I don't think I read him much earlier than that.

Carrie: 14