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any Stephan King fans?

Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:31 am

i just read "the Backman Books," consisting of four books he wrote as Richard Bachman. All the stories in it are so great. "Rage," was good but seemed unfinished, "the long Walk" was a great concept (well executed as well), "Roadwork" was good for the guys emotional battle(and one of the best known book ending known to man). And last, the one i thought would suck: "The Running Man." For anyone who thinks the story is like the movie(sucks hard), like i did, your so wrong. In all, the bachman books consist of gloriuos greatness that i can't explain. now i'm going to find "thinner"



i purposely left no explanation of what most of the stories were like because i wouldn't want to ruin it if somone is going to read them.

Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:47 am

I'm not a fan of Stephen King. I read Dreamcatcher and there was something that was so unsatisfying about it (I haven't seen the movie). I now refuse to read any books by Stephen King, if I got unbelievably bored I might consider it but currently I don't have enough time.

Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:18 pm

I read the Eyes of the Dragon or something like that, it was good, but I don't like the rest of his books.

Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:57 pm

Medusa wrote:I'm not a fan of Stephen King. I read Dreamcatcher and there was something that was so unsatisfying about it (I haven't seen the movie). I now refuse to read any books by Stephen King, if I got unbelievably bored I might consider it but currently I don't have enough time.

Don't judge him on Dreamcatcher! I haven't read it yet, but I've been told it's not one of his best works.

I've read:
Bag of Bones
The Dead Zone
Dolores Claiborne
From a Buick 8
Gerald's Game
The Green Mile
Misery
Rose Madder
The Stand

Next I'll probably read:
The Shining
The Dark Half
Desperation
The Regulators
The Dark Tower books

After I finish those, I'll move on to more.

Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:13 pm

I find him somewhat lame and contrived.

Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:30 pm

I've only read Misery. It was better than the movie, let me tell you that. I liked it, I may want to read more of his works. Certain parts were a little slow, but the whole creepy obsessed stalker fan made me like it. :)

Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:11 pm

AFI_Sorrow wrote:I've only read Misery. It was better than the movie, let me tell you that. I liked it, I may want to read more of his works. Certain parts were a little slow, but the whole creepy obsessed stalker fan made me like it. :)

That was the most recent one I read. I'd already seen the movie, but the book ended totally different. As I neared the end, I could NOT put it down, I was in such suspense and so anxious to see what was going to happen.

Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:15 am

I've read some of his books. I really liked From a Buick8, The Shining (probably my favorite), and Pet Semetary. 'Salem's Lot was pretty good too, but it was a bit confusing because the point of view and time jumps around a lot.

Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:58 am

The Shining is my favorite King work, though I haven't been keeping up with all his more recent books. I like his story collections too, as well as his book about horror fiction.

I thought Eye of the Dragon was rather disappointing, myself.

Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:00 pm

I got Desperation and The Regulators last night. I'll probably start reading them in a week or so.
The funny thing is, the two books go together, but Desperation was written as Stephen King and The Regulators was written as Richard Bachman.
Also funny, the back flap for The Regulators says this:
Richard Bachman died in 1985. His widow, Claudia Inez Eschelman, discovered the manuscript of The Regulators, along with some other writings, in the attic of the Bachman residence in New Hampshire. Both Thinner and The Bachman Books are available in paperback, the latter with a new introduction by Stephen King.

Sat Mar 26, 2005 9:24 am

I'm a big King fan! I've read:
Misery
Gerald's Game
IT
Pet Sematary
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Hearts in Atlantis
From a Buick 8
Christine
Bag of Bones
Salem's Lot
Everything's Eventual
Dreamcatcher
The Tommyknockers
Dolores Claiborne
Insomnia
The Green Mile
Rose Madder
Night Shift
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of The Three


And I've seen the movies Carrie, the Shining, the Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Pet Sematary and Dreamcatcher.

IMO, the best ones that I simply could NOT put down were Hearts in Atlantis [if you've seen the movie, read the book cause the movie only deals with the first quarter of the book and the rest is amazing], The Green Mile, Dolores Claiborne, Pet Sematary [the movie is horrible, haha] and of course, the Dark Tower series.

I absolutely love how you bump into connections between books all over the place. For example, the main character in Misery is an author who writes sappy romance novels about a woman named Misery. In Rose Madder, the main character lives at a womans shelter for some time, and during a conversation with the owner of the shelter in her office, she takes out a copy of one of the Misery books from her drawer and talks about it. Another Misery book pops up somewhere else too, but I've forgotten where. Miiiight be in Bag of Bones, in the beginning, but don't hold me to it.

When the two kids in the end of Tommyknockers are sent into Derry to purchase more batteries, one of them sees what he thinks is a hallucination - a clown with silver eyes hiding in one of the drain holes along the street. It is of course Pennywise the clown from IT.

The eerie vision main character in Dolores Claiborne and the main character as a girl in Gerald's Game both have, where they see each other even though they are far, far apart.

And of course the most known of all, the car in From a Buick 8, the boy that must be saved in the end of Insomnia, Ted and the Low Men in the first part of Hearts in Atlantis and much more are all connected to the Dark Tower series.

Sat Mar 26, 2005 6:12 pm

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but in Rose Madder, the world inside the painting is supposed to be the world in the Dark Tower books, right?
I think I recall hearing that somewhere, but as I haven't read any of the Dark Tower books yet, I can't be sure.

(Incidentally, Jim, our wonderful Admin, is big Stephen King fan. The first thread of mine he ever posted on, back when I was still new to PPT was a thread I made about Stephen King.)

Sun Mar 27, 2005 12:27 am

Sapphire Faerie wrote:Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but in Rose Madder, the world inside the painting is supposed to be the world in the Dark Tower books, right?
I think I recall hearing that somewhere, but as I haven't read any of the Dark Tower books yet, I can't be sure.


Correct :)

Sapphire Faerie wrote:(Incidentally, Jim, our wonderful Admin, is big Stephen King fan. The first thread of mine he ever posted on, back when I was still new to PPT was a thread I made about Stephen King.)


Wonderful? *strikes heroic pose* 8)

The connections between Kings works stretch even further than most people realise. There is even a story that runs parallel to Rolands quest in the books co-written by King and a man called Peter Straub. The first is a book called "The Talisman", and the second is called "Black House". I highly recommend them.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:00 am

I think I've read all of his books (most of them several times). It's funny that I think my favorites have been all the Dark Tower books. Not usually my kind of read, and not like the rest of his books.
I wouldn't base my opinion on Dreamcatcher. It is probably my least favorite of his books. I'm not a big fan of the whole alien thing (which is why Tommyknockers is my second least favorite). It seems more Dean Koontz-ish, which is okay, but not what I'm looking for in a Stephen King book.

Tue Mar 29, 2005 5:53 pm

The only book I have read of his would be Eyes Of The Dragon. Actually I'm still reading it, so far I'm quite enjoying it.
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