Best Stephen King Book

[Stickman]

Stephen (why write 400 pages when I can write 750) King

 

 

Although I did think Salem's Lot was pretty good.

[Vampire Blues]

Reading 'Everything's Eventual' (short stories) on my hols, first 3 or 4 stories all good.

[Paul]

 

The book is really good to be fair. Really enjoyed it.

 

Agreed except for the fucking ridiculous ending. King fucks up the end of so many of his stories in my opinion.

[Paul]

The audio book to under the dome is great listen to that rather than watch the tv series.

Tommy knockers is still my favorite though I find all king books to have shite endings.

 

Ha! Great minds.

[Sugar Ape]

I don't think Bobby is right to say all King books have bad endings. It is one of his weak points though.

[Sut]

Doesn't he just have a general idea in mind of where the story is headed and just aims that way, seeing how it unfolds himself as he writes? Sure I read that somewhere.

[piscinin]

Doesn't he just have a general idea in mind of where the story is headed and just aims that way, seeing how it unfolds himself as he writes? Sure I read that somewhere.

 

Yeah, he said that in 'On Writing'. One of the funnier books I've read BTW. His inferiority complex and resentment at being tagged a 'storyteller' really comes through.

[Paul]

 

Yeah' date=' he said that in 'On Writing'. One of the funnier books I've read BTW. His inferiority complex and resentment at being tagged a 'storyteller' really comes through.[/quote']

 

I think he's a really great writer as well as storyteller. He can definitely craft a sentence and evoke an image. His characterisation is good too - especially of minor characters.

[Sut]

I love reading the "dear reader" introductions he writes to his books. A collection of those would be great.

[piscinin]

I think he's a really great writer as well as storyteller. He can definitely craft a sentence and evoke an image. His characterisation is good too - especially of minor characters.

 

Really great writer? He's a salami writer. A Big Mac and Fries.

[Paul]

 

Really great writer? He's a salami writer. A Big Mac and Fries.

 

I've no idea what that means except you disagree.

[piscinin]

I've no idea what that means except you disagree.

 

Those are stephen king quotes.

 

I like the tension in how he simultaneously embraces and resents the characterization.

 

And I guess, I'm just more miserly in handing out the not just "great", but "really great" writer epihtet.

[Paul]

 

Those are stephen king quotes.

 

I like the tension in how he simultaneously embraces and resents the characterization.

 

And I guess' date=' I'm just more miserly in handing out the not just "great", but "really great" writer epihtet.[/quote']

 

Or maybe we just define "great" according to different criteria. I much prefer writers who can deliver pace and immersion for me than the literary ponces who win awards. Ostentatiously clever writing leaves me completely cold.

 

That's not to say I don't love some clever writers. James Elroy's prose is as crafted as anyone's but he resolutely rejects poncery.

 

For me, great writing is about the all round experience as a reader rather than simply artistic merit. I'm the same with film too. I'd take Steven Spielberg over, say, Kieslowski, any day of the week. I want to be entertained.

 

That's not to say I can't appreciate the craft of literary writers; just that their books usually bore me.

[piscinin]

Or maybe we just define "great" according to different criteria. I much prefer writers who can deliver pace and immersion for me than the literary ponces who win awards. Ostentatiously clever writing leaves me completely cold.

 

That's not to say I don't love some clever writers. James Elroy's prose is as crafted as anyone's but he resolutely rejects poncery.

 

For me, great writing is about the all round experience as a reader rather than simply artistic merit. I'm the same with film too. I'd take Steven Spielberg over, say, Kieslowski, any day of the week. I want to be entertained.

 

That's not to say I can't appreciate the craft of literary writers; just that their books usually bore me.

 

Seems to me, you and Mr King share a tender spot.

[Paul]

 

Seems to me' date=' you and Mr King share a tender spot.[/quote']

 

Nothing tender about it. I just like what I like and also think some stuff is wildly over-praised. I much prefer literary craft in poetry rather than prose as the form far better suits the style in my view.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Or maybe we just define "great" according to different criteria. I much prefer writers who can deliver pace and immersion for me than the literary ponces who win awards. Ostentatiously clever writing leaves me completely cold.

 

That's not to say I don't love some clever writers. James Elroy's prose is as crafted as anyone's but he resolutely rejects poncery.

 

For me, great writing is about the all round experience as a reader rather than simply artistic merit. I'm the same with film too. I'd take Steven Spielberg over, say, Kieslowski, any day of the week. I want to be entertained.

 

That's not to say I can't appreciate the craft of literary writers; just that their books usually bore me.

 

I feel the same way, mate. About writing, photography, painting, music, and most other forums of art. I feel the same about TV and Film. Yes, you can learn dactylic hexameter or iambic pentameter, but does that mean I enjoy the content of what you've written? You can learn how to compose a photograph, read the light meter, adjust the f-number, but it doesn't mean the photo of your cat licking its arse is art, or that I want to look at it. Just because you put alliteration into your article, it doesn't mean your pompously pretentious pontifications interest or excite anybody. Who wants a screenplay written to a formula if it's not an interesting subject matter? There are more important components, aren't there?

 

Creativity is a much more significant ingredient. The end result of creativity coupled with passion for the project - whether the project is a song or a book or a film or a picture postcard - is way more interesting for the end-viewer than a bravura display of classical methods. Although, yuh know, that's important too. Fitting your vision into somebody else's dogmatic approach is rarely interesting to me. Creativity, originality, and a subject matter that's actually interesting. That'll do me.

[piscinin]

Nothing tender about it. I just like what I like and also think some stuff is wildly over-praised. I much prefer literary craft in poetry rather than prose as the form far better suits the style in my view.

 

Fair enough, I don't get your idea of Literary craft because to me, done well, not for the sake of it, it enhances all forms. From poetry to advertisements. Cacophonous constructs to increase tension, varying tempo to match the action, all enrich rather than detract IMO.

[Paul]

Fair enough, I don't get your idea of Literary craft because to me, done well, not for the sake of it, it enhances all forms. From poetry to advertisements. Cacophonous constructs to increase tension, varying tempo to match the action, all enrich rather than detract IMO.

 

I mean when the craft is prioritised over the entertainment (for want of a better word). I don't find clever writing entertaining for its own sake. For example, Salman Rushdie's novels are beautifully crafted but fucking boring; ergo, he's a poor novelist, in my opinion. Of course I'm aware that I'm therefore not his target audience, but as we're discussing my taste that's irrelevant.

[Fink]

Probably been said but the sequel to the Shining is out this year

[Sut]

Probably been said but the sequel to the Shining is out this year

 

Doctor Sleep. I read an extract from it (published along with an extract from his son Joe Hill's NOS4R2 in a e-short story they wrote together called In the long grass) and thought it was pretty good.

 

Here's King doing a reading from it (about 2 mins 30).

 

King doing a reading of a different section at an event:

 

[YOUTUBE]ATChLGnJLrg[/YOUTUBE]

[Saucepan]

I just finished book 4 in the Dark Tower series and I've loved them all to this point. It's the only King books I've read so I voted for that series. I've been binge reading up to this point so I needed to take a break from the series. Guess I'll have to check out The Stand at some point.

The "dear reader" at the end of book 4 is brilliant if you're looking for some insight into his own thought about his penmanship. Especially interresting is how all his other novels are somehow tied to the Dark Tower series and it's various worlds.

[sir roger]

Adaptation of 'Under the Dome' starting on television soon.

 

Not a book I have read , any background to it ?

[The Great Jacko]

Adaptation of 'Under the Dome' starting on television soon.

 

Not a book I have read , any background to it ?

 

Really good book - supposedly really poor TV show. I'd read the book - it's about a small town that has a mysterious dome suddenly appear that cuts it off from the rest of the country - think Lord Of The Flies

[sir roger]

Really good book - supposedly really poor TV show. I'd read the book - it's about a small town that has a mysterious dome suddenly appear that cuts it off from the rest of the country - think Lord Of The Flies

 

Cheers GTJ, will download that to my Kindle.

[Sut]

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/21/rereading-stephen-king-the-dark-half