@RusA #9856730
I got on a kick of reading Stephen King novels when, as a teenager, I picked up a copy of The Shining after seeing the movie. I always dismissed King as a pop author who wasn't worth reading, no matter what a celebrity he was. But I was curious to see how the movie compared to the book, and reading it changed my mind about him. I started checking out his books from the library in the order they were published, starting with Carrie, which I didn't like at all, but I thought the ones that followed - Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, The Dead Zone - were all pretty good, though with some aspects I didn't care for. I actually skipped The Stand at first because it was such a large book, but I bought a cheap copy and kept it around. Then one time, I was sick in bed with the flu; I had slept as much as I could, but wasn't well enough to get out of bed, so I decided I'd spend the time reading that book. Mind you, it's about the population of the United States being decimated by a virulent, fast-spreading, and deadly strain of the flu.
I read a few more of his books after that, but didn't like them as much, and after The Dark Half I sort of gave up on him. I haven't read any of his other books, though I've seen some of the movie and TV adaptations of his work, and I enjoy seeing him on a talk show.
And here's a remarkable thing that happened to me: After I'd been reading Stephen King novels for a few years, I randomly picked up a paperback book in the library called The Long Walk by Richard Bachman. I hated that novel more than about anything I've ever read. Besides not liking the story or the characters, I thought it was the worst attempt at somebody copying Stephen King's style I ever read. Some time later, I found out that this was actually the first novel King wrote (but didn't publish back then), when he was a messed-up 18 years old. So it wasn't some amateur writer copying King's style - it was a young King trying to figure out what his style really was. It had been known for some years before that King used the name "Richard Bachman" to publish his juvenile work, including The Long Walk, as well as a few later books that he considered knock-off pop novels and didn't want to put his name on; but I didn't think of that at the time.
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@RusA #9856730
I got on a kick of reading Stephen King novels when, as a teenager, I picked up a copy of The Shining after seeing the movie. I always dismissed King as a pop author who wasn't worth reading, no matter what a celebrity he was. But I was curious to see how the movie compared to the book, and reading it changed my mind about him. I started checking out his books from the library in the order they were published, starting with Carrie, which I didn't like at all, but I thought the ones that followed - Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, The Dead Zone - were all pretty good, though with some aspects I didn't care for. I actually skipped The Stand at first because it was such a large book, but I bought a cheap copy and kept it around. Then one time, I was sick in bed with the flu; I had slept as much as I could, but wasn't well enough to get out of bed, so I decided I'd spend the time reading that book. Mind you, it's about the population of the United States being decimated by a virulent, fast-spreading, and deadly strain of the flu.
I read a few more of his books after that, but didn't like them as much, and after The Dark Half I sort of gave up on him. I haven't read any of his other books, though I've seen some of the movie and TV adaptations of his work, and I enjoy seeing him on a talk show.
And here's a remarkable thing that happened to me: After I'd been reading Stephen King novels for a few years, I randomly picked up a paperback book in the library called The Long Walk by Richard Bachman. I hated that novel more than about anything I've ever read. Besides not liking the story or the characters, I thought it was the worst attempt at somebody copying Stephen King's style I ever read. Some time later, I found out that this was actually the first novel King wrote (but didn't publish back then), when he was a messed-up 18 years old.