Recently read King books

[Shane]

I just finished Blaze... penned by the late Richard Bachman. I thought it was fantastic. I didn't expect much considering he said it was an old book found collecting dust somewhere, but it was a really good read. Reminded me a lot of the story Of Mice And Men, and I read in a professional review that there were "shades of John Steinbeck" in the story.

No monsters in this one, except maybe the human kind.

Anyone else read it? What did you think?

[Dan]

Haven't got around to reading Blaze yet. I just finished Thinner, which was good but not great. Of all the Richard Bachman work I've read, I think I enjoyed Roadwork the most.

[Ira]

Insomnia... I've read it five times so far... still love it!.... Going to read Salem's Lot....

[Sarah]

I enjoyed it as well. It's not a uber creepy King book but it was really well written and I couldn't put it down.

[Katie]

I haven't read it yet though I picked it up as a present for someone else. My favorite Bachman has always been The Long Walk. I read it once every couple of years.

[Steve]

Currently working my way through Dark Tower again, up to Song Of Susannah. Recalling the Harry Potter reference in Wolves, I'm looking forward to the King-nod that someone tells me occurs in HP and the Deathly Hallows!!

Not in a hurry to get to Blaze...sounds depressing from what I read (child abuse stories really bother me..)

[Karen]

I just finished Lisey's Story which seems to be a novel that many people didn't like. I, however, rather enjoyed it.
Haven't read Blaze yet. It is on my TBR shelf along with several other King books.
I want to re-read The Dark Tower; I had stopped after The Waste Lands, really want to get through them again and on to the next 4 in the series.

[Shane]

Lisey's Story was great I thought... a Stephen King Love Story if that makes any sense.

And I though CELL was fantastic as well. It seemed to be a nod to the "Night of the Living Dead" stories, but Stephen King's version of course. I heard that he wrote the story out of frustration after heading into the city for some reason of other and noticing every person on the street walking around with a cell phone to their ear. He didn't tell me that himself and I can't recall where I read it but it made good sense to me ;-)

[Tricia]

I love the variety I can find in King's books. The "horror" is different every time - it touches a place in the main character(s) that the rest of us hope never to encounter for real.

When I read "Cell", I didn't own a cell phone and was quite happy for it. Lisey's Story was different again, but I enjoyed it. Blaze was a great character study, and I felt sorry at the ending, but liked the development of the whole story. It was eerie, and I kept asking myself what was real and what was not.

[Sarah]

I loved Lisey's Story and Cell. My mom is a huge King fan too. I lent her my copy of Cell and called her a couple of days later and she joked with me about how crazy I was to be calling her on the cell phone. I think the best part of King's books are when you get a little freaked out in real life based on what you just read. How many of you felt a cold chill every time someone sneezed near you while you were reading The Stand?

[Shane]

Right! The sneezing. You're right about King's stuff being great partly because the stories freak you out in real life.

[Steve]

Lisey's Story was pretty good, but the only thing that made me mad was how King (view spoiler)[



never fully explains just what the heck Lisey sees in her man. (hide spoiler)]

[Steve]

Cell is a great homage to Romero...especially in the first couple chapters...

[Shane]

Reply to Agrimorfee: I think maybe that was King's way of saying that he didn't know what Tabitha saw in him. I know his stories aren't autobiographical, but I still think there's a little bit of his real life in many of them; this one especially.

[Thee_ron_clark]

I just finished The Waste Lands recently and started on Wizard and Glass. Over the last few months, I read The Cell, The Black House, The Gun Slinger, and The Drawing of the Three.

I will admit to some disappointment at the ending of The Cell. I fully comprehend leaving some things to the readers' imagination, but I felt that one left a bit too much for me.

I was disappointed in one thing about The Black House and that is that it was not as closely related to The Talisman as I had originally hoped for. Both are fine stand-alone novels, but I suppose I was hoping for some of the other character-types from The Talisman to return.

As for The Dark Tower series, the nods to it in The Black House drove me to purchase the entire series and I have not been disappointed yet.

[Steve]

Hear, hear on Black House! So very little returns to the "other world", and what a anticlimactic rescue. I only kept it in my house just because of the DT canon.

[Angie, Constant Reader]

How do you add books to the group? i tried to add a book but can't figure it out.

[Thee_ron_clark]

Angie,

On the main group page, at the bottom of the screen is a link for "Add Books". Click it and add.

[Kathy]

I loved Blaze! It really surprised me, too. I totally agree with you on the John Steinbeck feel of it. I also just reread Salem's Lot....amazing! His books just get better and better....or am I biased?

[Kathy]

I really liked Lisey's Story. I think the relationship w/ Lisey and her husband is very sweet. And don't we all wish we had our own Boo'ya Moon to get away to!

[Salma]

Did anyone read Cell? I tried getting through it, but the imagery was too graphic (even by King standards for me). Didn't help that I was eating something red at the time.

[rishi]

my one and only read the dreamcatcher

it is a great book

the character are well portrayed

and olso bought cell

[Matthew]

I have ready Cell Salma and i enjoyed it. I guess i didnt find the imagery to graphic, although it was a change from earlier works which were of a similar plot (thinking of "the Mist"). Lisey's story was a page turnner but i cant say i was overly impressed with it. The Dark Tower is still the baromiter with which i will judge all King works. Oh yeah, one final thought, Black House was a disapointment, i never felt any connection with the caracters and it all seemed so anti-climactic.

[Salma]

I read the synopsis Lisey's Story and wasn't really that interested. Did anyone read his short story that came out in the New Yorker last year? Gingerbread Woman, it was called. I kept on reading hoping to get scared. Didn't happen. The good thing is, if someone ever straps me to a chair in the kitchen of some damp, rotting house in southern Florida, I'll know exactly how to escape. Thanks for the tips, Steve!

[Thee_ron_clark]

I just finished Wolves of the Calla last night and have just started Song of Susannah. I hope to have the entire Dark Tower series read by March.

[Chrystal714]

The most recent king book I read was Stationary Bike. It was good but left me wanting more. I think I am just not used to shorter stories.

The long walk is my all time fave. Bachman Book.

I really enjoyed Cell. I was nervous every time I picked up my cell phone after that one.

I thought Blaze was ok, I did like it, just not one or my favorites.

[Salma]

Stationary Bike? Where's that from? Never heard of it! Something to check out.

[Chrystal714]

I checked it out of the library on Audio. I am a huge Audio fan. It's mostly how I take in books now a days. Allows me to listen obsessivly and still get stuff done.

[Thee_ron_clark]

I just finished Song of Susannah. It was pretty good until about the last 20 pages or so. What the hell was he thinking? "I have a pretty good story here. Let me throw in some nonsense to ruin it instead of leaving it at a cliffhanger to be continued in the next volume of the series."

[Angie, Constant Reader]

For recently read Stephen King,it is not one of his books but one of his articles. I get Entertainment Weekly magazine in the mail, and Stephen writes pop culture articles in the magazine and they are always so fun to read. here is this week's article: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20172...

so even if you don't get the magazine you can go to www.ew.com and read it there for free!

[alicia]

I haven't read anyhting by him in awhile.My most recent attempt was over the summer.I got Lisey's Story from the library but got to page 150 and had to bring the book back unfinished.I do want to buy it though i here it's good.The one I read before that was Cell which I really enjoyed.I need to make sometime and return to my beloved author again.

[Lonnie]

I picked up Duma Key last Tuesday when it came out. I began reading it over the weeekend and am currently a couple of hundred pages into it (I am NOT a fast reader).

So far, I am glad to be back reading King. His flow and his stories always 'take me away'. Nothing too spooky or scary has happened yet... just good story and character devlopment.

[Chris]

Reading Lisey's Story right now. Started out slow but it's getting better.

[[deleted user]]

Idle, I'm reading Lisey's Story too - little over halfway thru and MAAAAAAAAN it gets hard to read, like...... you know hard to stomach. Blech.

[Salma]

Christy- Maybe you wanna give on Lisey and pick up Duma Key. :-D I'm really liking the latter so far.

[Joanie]

I listened to Lisey's Story on tape and I wound up loving it. Hang in there!

[[deleted user]]

Thanks pals.... gonna see it thru, it's funny now that I have kids, ANYTHING having to do with children in a negative way (not giving too much away there right?) is just like murder to hear/see/read about etc. But Salma, Duma will be next on my list.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Lisey's Story and my first reaction, simply WOW. It's so funny how different phases that you're in your life can affect your reaction to a story. Mine, a mommy of two whose whole world revolves around them and this new family I'm building, made it incredibly difficult to read this story. Just focusing on the family dynamic of Scott's brother and father and the outcome for those characters was .... ROUGH.

Then you have the way King weaves his storylines. He truly is such a master at laying the foundations for his plots, how little and not so little pieces reveal themselves in just the right way, but the way he'd jump back and forth between time points got a little confusing at spots. And then of course you have that language between Lisey and Scott.... bordering on reading a foreign language. I did enjoy the fact that they did have their unique methods of communication which obviously went beyond the verbal, but almost obnoxious the frequency of these "weirdo words".

All in all, another fantastic story, and wonderfully written, just a little hard to handle for me n' my little family of four.

[Salma]

You know, Christy- the whole private language between characters thing is a peeve of mine when it comes to King. He doesn't do it all the time, of course, but I remember in "The Body" they were all talking in early 60s slang in every sentence- I absolutely didn't understand any of it and was ready to cry.

[Meghan]

I didn't love The Cell. It's not my least favorite SK book, but to me, it didn't feel like him.

[Kyle]

I read Cell when it first came out and thougt it was great, I havnt been able to get back to it yet though. My favorite Bachman book so far is Roadwork. It was just so sad but had a rememable ending. (Thinner was also pretty creepy)

[Hayley]

Kyle I like your style, Cell is one of my favourite SK books - I recently read Dolories Calibore and throughly hated it, to me this wasn't a SK book.

[Lisa]

I am a huge King fan but I have to say I didn't really like Cell or Lisey's Story. I was really disappointed in both, I didn't care about the characters and I had to force myself to finish both books. It came as a bit of a shock to me - I was gutted. But then I bought Duma Key and Blaze together just a few months ago and I absolutely loved both of them. Phew, relief! I could not put Duma Key down. Classic King where you have to keep reading the next page and the next to find out a bit more! I know Blaze is not everyone's cup of tea but I found it very short and easy to read. Don't want to include any spoilers but I love it when you sometimes find yourself hoping "the bad guy" wins.

[Shane]

Just finished the expanded version of The Stand. I read the original when it was first published, so the years between then and now as well as the added content from The Master himself made this reading of the story seem like the first time. It was great all over again.

I'm also more convinced than ever that The Stand was the beginning of Roland Deschain's "when".

[Angie, Constant Reader]

That is interesting Shane. I never thought of the Stand like that but it makes sense that it is the beginning of the Dark Tower's time!

[Steve]

Shane/Angie, have you read DT 4:Wizards & Glass yet? There's evidence there of a Stand connection!

[Angie, Constant Reader]

Possible spoilers:

I have read the 4th one. And I do think the evidence that you are talking about is where they are at the train station right? Totally the Stand! So I do think that the Gunslinger passed through the Stand's world.

[Katarina]

Salma wrote: "He doesn't do it all the time, of course, but I remember in "The Body" they were all talking in early 60s slang in every sentence- I absolutely didn't understand any of it and was ready to cry."

What? English isn't even my native language but I had no trouble undertsanding the lingo in The Body! I love the slang, I love all those old expressions!

[Rachel]

Just finished Night Shift, some good stories but for whatever reason not my favorite collection. Starting in on Misery. It's weird cuz I've seen the movie so Annie Wilkes is mix of Kathy Bates and a nurse I work with who calls everyone sweetie and honey at 7pm (she works night shift) and once by 10:30 ( i leave at 11:30) had made me cry!

[Tek]

Dan wrote: "Haven't got around to reading Blaze yet. I just finished Thinner, which was good but not great. Of all the Richard Bachman work I've read, I think I enjoyed Roadwork the most. "

I'm actually the opposite. I've read all the Bachmans except Thinner and Blaze, but Roadwork was by far my least favorite. I would probably rank them from fave to least...Long Walk, Running Man, Rage, Regulators, Roadwork.