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An Cat Dubh posted:I haven't read Pet Sematary since becoming a parent. I'm sure it would be a much different experience reading it now. It really is. There's a whole new layer of loving terrifying involved.
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Jun 20, 2013 04:28
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I finished NOS4A2 last night. Not a bad read, but it did feel a little long. The climax felt over the top to me as well. Especially with Vic suffering from fatal stab wounds and in the process of dying, at times nearly falling over unconscious but then the next moment riding around like a bat out of hell . Characters having injuries affect them selectively isn't anything new I guess, but it still bothered me.
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Jun 20, 2013 17:21
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So King did an AMA on Reddit today
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Jun 21, 2013 03:21
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:So King did an AMA on Reddit today ...and he says Lisey's Story is his favorite.
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Jun 21, 2013 04:17
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Aatrek posted:...and he says Lisey's Story is his favorite.
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Jun 21, 2013 04:31
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Here, I grabbed some of the more interesting bits:quote:King: If I were to "unpublish" a novel...hmmm. There are some I'd probably rewrite, but unpublished? Probably not even ROSE MADDER, which has always seemed less than successful to me. quote:Reddit 1: The timing of this AMA... 4.15...4 + 15 = 19. Coincidence? I think not quote:Yes, I might go back there (Eyes of the Dragon universe). I wrote a sequel to THE SHINING, so anything is possible. As a general rule, I don't revisit. Too many new stories to tell. quote:Favorite musical act of all time? Probably Creedence Clearwater Revival. But AC/DC is close...and The Temptations...the Stones...ah, man, don't get me started. Just not Led Zeppelin.
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Jun 21, 2013 05:28
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So guess who just decided that it would be a good idea to pass a few days while suffering from strep throat by reading the extended edition of The Stand? 
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Jun 21, 2013 05:35
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I loved Hearts in Atlantis and Eyes of the Dragon. Both of them are pretty different from your standard King fare.
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Jun 21, 2013 07:13
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Eric the Mauve posted:So guess who just decided that it would be a good idea to pass a few days while suffering from strep throat by reading the extended edition of The Stand? That's always a good idea.
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Jun 21, 2013 13:07
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So after years of not reading anything by Stephen King I picked up IT earlier this year and blasted through it in a couple of extended sittings. I'm honestly blown away. I've read a handful of King's novels - the Dark Tower Series, Eyes of the Dragon, Salem's Lot, The Stand, Insomnia - but I never thought they were anything extraordinary. I figured King's real talent was in his short stories. For me IT really just exists in a class of its own when it comes to King's writing. Everything is so taught and fast paced, there's a constant creepy atmosphere, there are some great characterizations and a well rounded cast. Obviously one could pick big holes in the novel - I mean, we are talking about an 1100 page story about a killer space clown - but IT was definitely one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years. Hell, even though it was Stephen King book I found myself well satisfied at the end of the novel. Now that I've finished the book I am sorta curious to know if King ever wrote any commentary on it. I really enjoyed both Danse Macabre and On Writing many years ago and while King discussed the writing process behind some of his other novels I don't recall him saying much about the inspiration or process behind the creation of IT. My copy of the book is from the early 1990s and doesn't contain any sort of introduction, which is too bad since I've come to really enjoy anything Stephen King addresses to "Constant Reader". So my question for the thread is this: does anyone know of any book or interview where King discusses IT? Apparently he wrote an introduction for the 25th year anniversary but that thing costs a lot more money than I'm willing to spend just so I can read the author's recollections of writing the novel.
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Jun 22, 2013 19:55
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Eric the Mauve posted:So guess who just decided that it would be a good idea to pass a few days while suffering from strep throat by reading the extended edition of The Stand? That reminds me: a few years back my girlfriend came down with a really bad flu and asked me to grab a book for her to read while I was at work. She was a really fast reader, so I wanted something that would be sure to last her a while, so I grabbed the biggest book I saw. It was The Stand. 
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Jun 23, 2013 04:49
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I really want to read IT but have seen the TV movie so many drat times I don't feel like it's really worth it. Then again, it has been like three years since I last saw it so maybe I've forgotten enough of it...
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Jun 23, 2013 05:00
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a kitten posted:That reminds me: a few years back my girlfriend came down with a really bad flu and asked me to grab a book for her to read while I was at work. She was a really fast reader, so I wanted something that would be sure to last her a while, so I grabbed the biggest book I saw. My first car was the same model as the one the airman used to "rescue" his family from the base which he promptly crashed into a gas station. crankdatbatman posted:I really want to read IT but have seen the TV movie so many drat times I don't feel like it's really worth it. Agreed so much. I know I read it back in the day but I've seen both of these so many times.
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Jun 23, 2013 05:05
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Helsing posted:So after years of not reading anything by Stephen King I picked up IT earlier this year and blasted through it in a couple of extended sittings. I'm honestly blown away. I've read a handful of King's novels - the Dark Tower Series, Eyes of the Dragon, Salem's Lot, The Stand, Insomnia - but I never thought they were anything extraordinary. I figured King's real talent was in his short stories. I have this book: http://www.amazon.com/Bare-Bones-Co...th+stephen+king and if I remember correctly, he was in a subway, and just had the idea of some horrible THING that lived in the tunnels and ate kids (everyone is sleeping here, so I can't go grab the book & check for certain). Also, if you guys like "Danse Macabre", you should check out "Bare Bones". It's just transcripts of interviews over the course of 10-ish years, but it's really fun to see how SK's answers change as he gets older and more confident/experienced, and also, how some of them stay the same. Anybody else read it? ETA: The TV version of "It" is so loving awful compared to the book. So, so, so bad... I can't even come up with a word for it.
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Jun 23, 2013 12:03
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I think King said "It" came from crossing over a bridge and he was reminded of the Three Billy Goats Gruff with a monster eating children and he just took it from there. Or April is right and I'm just misremembering something. Yeah, "It" the series is loving horrible except for Tim Curry's scenes. PLEASE read the book.
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Jun 23, 2013 19:13
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I got a copy of Bare Bones at a garage sale for $1. Really cool book. I dunno if I still have my copy, but I remember there being some interesting things, like how he would lay in bed at night in college dreaming of being interviewed by Playboy, and I remember some interesting insights on Cujo and why he chose to end it the way he did, and then have the movie change it. I haven't read it in years, but it's full of facts and anecdotes about where his story ideas come from. If you manage to find a copy, it's pretty cool.
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Jun 23, 2013 20:06
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What's a good Steven King book for a 12 year old girl? Has to be appropriate as well..
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Jun 24, 2013 11:51
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Lascivious Sloth posted:What's a good Steven King book for a 12 year old girl? Has to be appropriate as well.. Eyes of the Dragon maybe? That's his most "Young Adult" novel, pretty much anything else is going to have something that isn't quite appropriate for a 12 year old. Also, just a reminder that Under the Dome is starting tonight on CBS.
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Jun 24, 2013 12:15
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I think the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon would be fine for a 12 year old. I'm assuming you want a book that is somewhat scary without sex or rape scenes. If that's too much, there's always Christopher Pike!
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Jun 24, 2013 12:22
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Hey, Under the Dome starts up on CBS tonight. Here's the TVIV thread, for those interested!
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Jun 24, 2013 13:55
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crankdatbatman posted:I really want to read IT but have seen the TV movie so many drat times I don't feel like it's really worth it. I watched the miniseries after reading the book and while a lot of memorable scenes do get reproduced in the miniseries the overall feel of the two is pretty different. The book takes a lot more time to establish both the main characters and the town of Derry itself. The book includes an additional confrontation with Pennywise, a lot more character building, more chapters focusing on peripheral characters who were victims of Pennywise, and some really interesting chapters about the history of Derry. Another great thing about IT compared to some of King's other early works is how accomplished the structure of the novel is. It gets just slightly creaky toward the end when he rushes some of the payoffs that he set up earlier one of the antagonists who has been built up a bunch in the book unexpectedly dies off screen and this event is given about two lines of description but on the whole it felt like a much better constructed book than some of King's other long novels. There's a particularly brilliant and unsettling sequences where King digresses into a description of the psychology of a young psychopath named Patrick Hockstetter. Hockstetter is already a murderer, having smothered his younger brother in the crib, but what makes this chapter interesting is the way that King describes Patrick's firm conviction that he's the only being that really 'exists'. Nothing in the universe is real to him except his own existence. He kills his younger brother, in part, because he fears that he might be 'real' as well and finds this threatening. Patrick is only a minor character but the reason this is interesting is because later we get a chapter describing IT's psychology, and it turns out to be virtualyl the same as Patrick's. IT is also a solipsistic predator who doesn't think anything in the universe is truly real except for itself. When IT begins to perceive that there may be another living being in the universe IT becomes afraid for the first time. King never rubs your face into the comparison, but its pretty cool the way he sets up this parallel between the mind of a ten year old sociopath and the mind of an ancient demonic spirit that was born in the darkness between the stars. So yeah, read IT! April posted:I have this book: I will definitely check out the interview book, thanks for the recommendation. I don't know why but even though I'm not a diehard King fan I always really enjoy reading his nonfiction. He's one of the few author's whose introductions I will always read. Maybe because "On Writing" was actually the first book by him that I read. quote:ETA: The TV version of "It" is so loving awful compared to the book. So, so, so bad... I can't even come up with a word for it. Yeah its bizare how the movie joylessly reproduces so many scenes from the book without even attempting to capture the actual feel of the book. Every scene that doesn't have Tim Curry in it feels like its completely function and just designed to move the narrative to the next monster scene. Also I couldn't believe how bad the actual cintematography and camera work were: so dull and flat and uninspired. However, apparently they are gonna remake IT as a two parter with an R rating! And the director behind it is a young guy named Cary Fukunaga who directed, Sin Nombre, a movie that makes me think he might be well suited for this project. I rarely get excited for movie adaptations of books but this one could be really good. oldpainless posted:I think King said "It" came from crossing over a bridge and he was reminded of the Three Billy Goats Gruff with a monster eating children and he just took it from there. Or April is right and I'm just misremembering something. There's an explicit reference to the Billygoats Gruff in the book so this would make sense.
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Jun 24, 2013 16:20
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Ok, it was driving me nuts, so I flipped through my copy of "Bare Bones" quickly, and I think we might BOTH be right:page 138 posted:A cab driver told me once that there was an abandoned subway tunnel under Central Park. I thought, "This is fantastic!" In fact I've even had a book that I've wanted to write for about three years where that would work right in. page 120 posted:I've got a book that I've wanted to write for two years, and I haven't had time. It's a book about ... Jeez. Scary. You know. About this--this thing in a kind of a subway system. It's a scary idea, and I just haven't had time to write it. page 87 posted:People ask me, "Where do you get your ideas, man?" ... They come. That's the huge part of it. You get an idea. Inspiration! Maybe it's a good idea, and maybe it isn't. File it away. Maybe you'll use it, and maybe not. Anyway, this particular day I was walking across a bridge at dusk. This was an industrial park community~way out~but you could see the town through this marshy area. It was real spook stuff. I could hear my boots on the bridge. They made a very echoey sound, and then 1 got this "telephone call" from my childhood. I thought any second I'm going to hear a voice say, "Who's that walking on my bridge?" Then the troll would just jump out, grab me, and eat me up. It's amusing, but I hurried to get off that bridge. All those things seem much more real when you're by yourself.
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Jun 24, 2013 17:08
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Lascivious Sloth posted:What's a good Steven King book for a 12 year old girl? Has to be appropriate as well.. Depending on how mature she is for her age Carrie might be a good read since it's basically about what she herself is probably going through in becoming a teenager.
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Jun 24, 2013 17:37
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Thank you so much for digging up and transcribing that interview. Its really interesting to see how the basic germ of the story mutated and developed over time. On a related note I was reading through the stories in Nightshift and its striking how some of them seem to hint at themes that he'd focus on in IT. The story 'Sometime's They Come Back' and 'The Boogy Man' both seem to have similar motif's or themes for instance.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:20
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Ariza posted:I think the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon would be fine for a 12 year old. I'm assuming you want a book that is somewhat scary without sex or rape scenes. If that's too much, there's always Christopher Pike! I read this around that age and hated it. It's way too boring. I would go for Eyes of the Dragon. Carrie might be good if she's more mature. It's been a long time so I wouldn't unless someone else confirms, but I think Firestarter was pretty good for that age.
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Jun 25, 2013 03:00
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I read Christine when I was 11 and read IT shortly afterward, but that's because my mom wasn't paying any attention, please do not let your child read IT.
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Jun 25, 2013 04:21
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I read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon when I was fifteen. All I remember is that there were a lot of descriptions of the little girl being thirsty, getting bit by gnats and mosquitoes, and having diarrhea. A lot of descriptions of diarrhea. Which, in context of a survival scenario it makes sense, but poo poo, I really don't wanna read about diarrhea that much. I read The Shining and 'Salem's Lot when I was 16, and liked them much more. Besides the whole "she felt his seed oozing down her legs My Man MyManMyManMyMan" part and some implied homosexuality, I don't think the Shining is too vulgar. But I haven't read it in years. My first attempt to read The Shining was when I was fourteen, and I read that section in stead of doing work in Bible class (I went to a private school). If that teacher caught you reading a book in class, he would pick it up and read exactly where you were out loud to the class. He didn't catch me reading, but the idea of him reading that to the class made me more uncomfortable instead of the actual text.
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Jun 25, 2013 05:30
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Kingnothing posted:I read this around that age and hated it. It's way too boring. What about The Talisman? It's been a very long time since I've read it, but from what I remember, it wouldn't be inappropriate and has a young protagonist.
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Jun 25, 2013 10:09
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Can someone spoil Under the Dome for me? I'm going to try to stay current on the show and I never finished the book but I'd like to be able to see stuff coming in the show.
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Jun 25, 2013 10:52
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So I'm reading through Four Past Midnight, and just finished The Library Policeman, and man. I really could have done without having read that. I was pretty loving confident that a certain chapter from IT was the grossest thing King had written, but the brutally explicit description of child molestation from the child's perspective in this one sure as hell takes the cake.
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Jun 25, 2013 12:38
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juliuspringle posted:Can someone spoil Under the Dome for me? I'm going to try to stay current on the show and I never finished the book but I'd like to be able to see stuff coming in the show. The entire down burns in an explosion of a meth-lab that was being run by some of the town's higher ups. The dome was from aliens, but not malevolent ones. They were like little kid aliens. Only a handful of people survive.
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Jun 25, 2013 13:37
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savinhill posted:What about The Talisman? It's been a very long time since I've read it, but from what I remember, it wouldn't be inappropriate and has a young protagonist. Eh, there's a lot of weird sex related stuff in the book that could give a younger reader a bad impression. Which is too bad because other than that its a good young adult story.
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Jun 25, 2013 14:18
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Lazarus Long posted:The entire down burns in an explosion of a meth-lab that was being run by some of the town's higher ups. The dome was from aliens, but not malevolent ones. They were like little kid aliens. Only a handful of people survive. drat, I need to get off my rear end and read the book. I did NOT see that first sentence coming. The rest of it I heard alot in this thread but oh man why can't the entire book just be about that first sentence.
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Jun 25, 2013 15:18
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In the book, the explosion is described something like a nuclear explosion in a bubble. It's pretty awesome.
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Jun 25, 2013 15:25
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I caught the first episode this morning (yay on demand tv), it's a bit early to be sure but so far I think they made some good choices for casting.
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Jun 25, 2013 15:34
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Aatrek posted:In the book, the explosion is described something like a nuclear explosion in a bubble. It's pretty awesome. Hell, it's worth it to skip to that point by itself.
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Jun 25, 2013 16:37
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The Berzerker posted:I read Christine when I was 11 and read IT shortly afterward, but that's because my mom wasn't paying any attention, please do not let your child read IT. I read IT when I was 12 and I'm glad I did. It's the perfect age for max amount of terrifying. It hooked me on Stephen King for life. One of the things I remember liking the most out of it back then was how real the kids sounded. The kids swore all the time, joked about sex, and didn't come off as idiots. Unlike every other kids story I've seen, these kids sounded like me and my friends. The first Ben chapter where he runs away from bullies and meets his first friends in his life is still my favorite chapter in the book. I still think it's more brilliant for the way it developed the friendships than anything to do with the horror.
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Jun 25, 2013 16:57
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I like Insomnia, there are still days when I'm on Netflix and get confused and hopeful for a second before remembering the movie Insomnia has nothing to do with the Stephen King book.
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Jun 25, 2013 17:04
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juliuspringle posted:drat, I need to get off my rear end and read the book. I did NOT see that first sentence coming. The rest of it I heard alot in this thread but oh man why can't the entire book just be about that first sentence. Honestly you could just go read the Wikipedia entry for the book if you want to know all of the plot points, but they're probably going to change some of them for the show, especially because CBS hasn't decided if this is going to be a one-off 13 episode miniseries, or if they're going to turn it into a full series. If it does well and they decide to make it a series, they can't very well blow up the town and kill off a bunch of people right away so don't expect anything like that during these episodes. Super Ninja Fish posted:I read IT when I was 12 and I'm glad I did. It's the perfect age for max amount of terrifying. It hooked me on Stephen King for life. One of the things I remember liking the most out of it back then was how real the kids sounded. The kids swore all the time, joked about sex, and didn't come off as idiots. Unlike every other kids story I've seen, these kids sounded like me and my friends. The first Ben chapter where he runs away from bullies and meets his first friends in his life is still my favorite chapter in the book. I still think it's more brilliant for the way it developed the friendships than anything to do with the horror. I'm glad I did too but that doesn't mean I think it's good parenting to hand an 11 year old a book with a gross preteen sex scene in it, that's all I was saying.
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Jun 25, 2013 17:06
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juliuspringle posted:I like Insomnia, there are still days when I'm on Netflix and get confused and hopeful for a second before remembering the movie Insomnia has nothing to do with the Stephen King book. I do this too. I also think Pacino would make an excellent Ralph Roberts.
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Jun 25, 2013 17:11
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