Pet Semetary opened a whole new world for me that summer and I did all I could to get a hold of every Stephen King book I could find. I went through Salem's Lot, Cujo (OK the movie here wasn't bad, but it blew me away at the time that there were no chapters), The Dead Zone, The Stand and of course I finally read Christine, Carrie and The Shining (I have to say that this one creeped me out in places).
Stephen King provided an escape for me, an escape into an equally probable world. I found that he could create these worlds that I could literally climb into and ignore everything else around me, and he wasn't beyond the odd comment about things sexual, but also not too heavy into it either. I can remember reading The Stand for the first time (I had the version with the black cover and the raven or whatever it was, it was a cool cover), and I was blown away by Randall Flagg. Who was this character, what was he all about? And why was he appearing in so many different books, most notably the Dark Tower Series. To say the least, it was this interest in Flagg, or whatever he called himself in other books, that made it an escape into another world for me, one that I could easily visualize to escape boredom of the summer or even school.
There was a period for me where King could do no right. It started with Gerald's Game. I had to fucking struggle to read it, and a good part of the reason is quite simply that there was too much detail. I like a book that moves and around that time, he began to get into too much detail, and sometimes not enough movement forward in the plot. The last King book at the time of my starting to fall out with him, was Dolores Claiborne. I never really got the book, nor did I really want to. I found it somewhat boring to be honest. So I went years without reading too much King, picking up the Regulators and Desperation (no this did not inspire me to call my first book Desperation, it honestly came down to either that or Salvation) mostly because the hard backs were on for 5 bucks each, but really not others. Then King started back into the Dark Tower Series after a long hiatus, which ultimately led to his retirement (although he has retired far less than the Who).
Some of the more recent books I have picked up and read and thoroughly enjoyed them, much like in the old days. I have to wonder if King realized something was off with his writing and gave it up for a bit until he got his mojo back. The one about Kennedy was awesome, as was the Dome (this was more like classic King, reminds me of Needful things, the book that taught me a hammer smashing into someone's skull goes thunk). The Cell was awesome, his version of zombies, and a bash at modern society and their reliance on technology. Tales from a Buick 8 - reminded me some of why I didn't like King for awhile, but hell, it turned out good in the end.
Overall, King is a good author in my books (haha pun intended). He can still weave a story that takes me back to my childhood of reading his books. It was honestly with him I hit a few milestones for reading - first real horror novel, first novel over 1000 pages that I read - It, ah h good old Pennywise the Clown and the Turtle. I am often on the lookout for King's books as they are released.
My recommendations for King books to read, here are my top 10, not in order, except for numbers 1 and 2:
1. The Stand - both original and extended version
2. The Dark Tower Series
3. The Shining
4. Salem's Lot
5. Carrie
6. The Bachman Books
7. Firestarter
8. The Dead Zone
9. Cell
10. It
Hmmm, notice how many are classic King. Other notable mentions are Needful Things, Tommyknockers, Misery, Eyes of the Dragon, Cujo, Desperation, The Regulators, Joyland, 11/22/63 just to mention a few.
Roland at the Dark Tower
I just love this pic of Jack Nicholson - also one of the first horror movies I watched.
And of course The Stand
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