Reading SK...

[frik51]

First the cut edition, then ,many books later, the complete and uncut one.

sk

[fmancino]

Sorry, I'm curious :P but, it the cut edition the first edition? I only own the Complete & Uncut version, and I didn't think there was a difference... Hypothetically speaking; would it matter?

[srboone]

Depends on who you ask. Reading the original version--I take offense at calling it the "cut" version--shows you what it originally was (better); the "Complete and Uncut Version" diminishes (in my opinion) the impact of the original, but read it and make up your own mind. I look at the 1990 version as King's "vanity" project and that's ok. But by never reading the original or reading it after reading the 1990's, you're losing much of what the book actually is...

[JJ Holden]

It's a long time since I read the 'uncut' version of the Stand, but I think I came away feeling that parts of it worked, and parts of it didn't. But overall, it was still a very cool read.

For the record, my first Stephen King was Salem's Lot. Love that book. And The Shining. And -

[fmancino]

So I guess I'm better off reading the first edition... not the uncut.

[hamount]

I started a couple of years ago, because my brother constantly nagged me to read some of his work, I finally gave in. Favorite book(s) The dark tower series.

[Endless Horror Tale]

My story is a little convoluted. My uncle, my mom's brother, was much younger than she was. As I was growing up, he and I were really close. In fact, he's a large part of the reason I love digging through record stores, watching horror flicks, and reading Stephen King. The Christmas after I turned 12 years old, he was given a copy of IT (along with paperback copies of Pet Sematary and The Shining) from various members of my family. Less than a year later, before I turned 13, my uncle was struck from behind by a truck and killed as he and a friend walked from their college dorm to an all-night diner to get some coffee and food to fuel their studies for finals. After he passed, many of his books were passed on to me, as my grandparents knew how close we were and thought I would enjoy them. I tackled IT first, then quickly devoured Pet Sematary and The Shining.

From 2003 up until the last year or so, most of my reading has been studying or work-related, unless I was on vacation. Over the last year, I have made it a point to balance my duty-reading with reading-for-pleasure. A few months back, my daughter came home from her first year away at college and expressed an interest in reading some King, so I've made a list of recommendations to her. She started with Pet Sematary and the Shining before moving on to The Stand. I'm sending her back to school with copies of IT and The Talisman, and a little while later I'm going to ship her paperback copies of the Dark Tower books (as I replaced mine with hardbacks not too long ago).

[MrRoland]

I started with King in my late teens or early twenties with the Dead Zone.

Favorites: The Drawing of the Three, The Stand, Different Seasons, The Gunslinger
Least Favorites: The Dark Tower, Gerald's Game

[TerryE]

It's strange how many young people have read Pet Sematary. I also read it in high school and enjoyed it very much. However, now that I have a young child, rereading it last year was much more disturbing and effective in delivering chills.

[HorrorScribe]

Three months before I turned 14 in 1992, my mother shipped me and my two siblings off to live with my father for various reasons. To help me through this extremely difficult transition, I sat before my father's bookcase and pulled a paperback book from one of the shelves. The cover read: "Stephen King/Four Past Midnight." I recognized the author's name from a stack of books in the bottom of my grandmother's linen closet. I opened the front cover and started to read it. During the course of the next several days, I continued a fascinating journey into adult fiction. With Mr. King as my guide. I quickly moved on to the few other King books that my father owned. Once I finished those, I borrowed from my grandmother's collection. Then I bought the books I hadn't read or borrowed them from the library. A year or so later, my grandmother bought the recently released hardcover edition of Nightmares & Dreamscapes for me during a shopping trip. I haven't purchased King's new releases in any other format since. Unless published otherwise.

As for my favorites (in alphabetical order and I'll limit it to the top five): Christine, Desperation, Dreamcatcher, Needful Things, and The Talisman.

[divemaster]

I was a sophomore in HS, and my best friend gave me a paperback copy of The Stand for my birthday (15th). This was ... let's see ... 1983. He had not read it, but had heard it "was pretty good" and he knew I liked to read.

I totally loved that book! It remains to this day my all-time favorite. From there I read a lot of King. I don;t remember the order, but I knew 'Salem's Lot and The Dead Zone and Firestarter were some of my early reads. Oh, and also Christine.

I guess my favorites (aside from The Stand) would be Wizard and Glass, Christine, Different Seasons, Firestarter, Desperation, 'Salem's Lot , and Night Shift.

Ones I did not care for at all were Gerald's Game, The Regulators, Dreamcatcher, and The Tommyknockers. Lisey's Story didn;t do anything for me, although I did like his other "women" novels such as Bag of Bones, Rose Madder, and Dolores Claiborne.

[frik51]

Gerald's Game, The Regulators, Dreamcatcher and The Tommyknockers are often mentioned as least favorite King-novels. My exception would be The Regulators. I much prefer it to Desperation (its companion piece).
Bag of Bones firmly belongs in my King top 5, together with Lisey's Story. I'm just dreading what Mick Garris is going to do (doing!!) with BoB. What King sees in him, I just don't understand.

sk