Stephen King - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American writer of contemporary horror fiction, science fiction, fantasy literature, and screenplays. An estimated 300–350 million copies of King's novels and short story collections have been sold, and many of his stories have been adapted for film, television, and other media. King has written a number of books using the pen name Richard Bachman, and one short story, 'The Fifth Quarter', as John Swithen."
The first book of King's I read was 'Salem's Lot. I picked it up because it was a vampire book. It's hard to believe now, but when that one came out, it wasn't easy to find a good vampire novel. It wasn't easy to find any vampire novel. So I bought it. And I was hooked. It's still one of my favorite horror novels, and certainly right up there at the top of my list of favorite vampire tales.
After that, I read everything King wrote, and I continued for a good while. Up until the time of It, in fact. He lost me with that one. It was way too long, and it wasn't all that interesting to me. I started reading the Dark Tower books, but I ran out of steam before the series did. I read an occasional novel with great pleasure (The Green Mile), and I still enjoy some of the shorter works. I think King's an important writer, and I'm glad he's still at it.
4 comments:
King ran out of steam on the last three Dark Tower books as well. I stuck with him all the way and was disappointed in the ending.
Those last three came after his near death brush with the idiot in the van and they appeared over a year and a half period, which may be why.
I wish he would write shorter length novels like Salem's Lot, Carrie, Dead Zone, etc... again.
These long novels have turned me off.
Bill K.
Bill, we were in Barnes & Noble on Saturday looking for birthday books for our niece and there was an "If you like the Twilight series" table of vampire-related books for (apparently) younger readers - at least two dozen titles, none of which I'd ever heard of (ditto for their authors).
I guess you missed the boat on that craze.
Jeff
As for King, despite its length, The Stand is my favorite of his books. I do agree on IT and the other overlength ones.
Jeff
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