How did you get to know Dean Koontz ?

[Matīss]

Karen B wrote: "Gee Dustin I met Dr. Koontz too, but he was quite friendly and had this beautiful Golden Retriever. We were sitting on his porch when he offered me something to drink and not wanting to make the p..."

You're damn lucky if you are still alive. Geez, I would avoid that Beautiful Golden Retriever. Why all you people don't learn from others mistakes - making contact with intelligent Golden Retriever gets you into SERIOUS TROUBLE!!!

[Karen B.]

*LOL* but the golden retrievers always help to rescue you.

Seriously I am a bit of a pet lover. We had a King Boxer when I was a child and he was my best friend. Now I am the servant to four cats. I love that expression that if you call a dog it will come to you, but if you call a cat it's response will be leave a message and I will get back to you when I feel like it.
I guess it's a good thing I have never read or scene the movie Cujo because I am sure my love of dogs ... especially big dogs might be altered.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Karl wrote: "Reading too much Midnight methinks!"

By The Light of the Moon in this case :-) I prefer BTLOTM to Midnight although it is possible to work By the Light of the Moon at Midnight depending on the moon cycle and current weather conditions.

Of course to fully Seize the Night, it also helps to Fear Nothing, have The Key to Midnight, know What the Night Knows, be immune to Night Chills and hear The Voice of the Night.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Matīss wrote: "You're damn lucky if you are still alive. Geez, I would avoid that Beautiful Golden Retriever. Why all you people don't learn from others mistakes - making contact with intelligent Golden Retriever gets you into SERIOUS TROUBLE!!! "

I agree. I know of a man who was walking a Golden Retriever and got shot right on the sidewalk. A gardener witnessed the event when he was working on a client's yard. Golden Retrievers are bad news - do not underestimate their intelligence. They may not be who they appear to be. Some of them write books and other ones play scrabble. There is a belief that Golden Retrievers are really angels in disguise but I think they are aliens from another planet are here studying the human race for possible take over. Just be careful out there - appearances can be deceiving.

[Karen B.]

Believe it or not that is one of the things that got me confused with the Koontz books, I will look at a title and think, that I read it because I can remember it had something about the night in the title.
I think too there might be a few titles that have "eye" or "sight" or "vision" in them. There's almost a sort of word association game I can play with Koontz titles. Then there is light, moon, all the ones that contain night. On the opposite end I categorize The Good Guy and The Husband together because they are both good guys.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Karen B wrote: "Believe it or not that is one of the things that got me confused with the Koontz books, I will look at a title and think, that I read it because I can remember it had something about the night in t..."

I do the exact same thing. Great minds think alike and maybe Koontz is targeting people with minds like ours :-)

One example is Fear Nothing, The Face of Fear, The Face and it's not too far to associate The Face with The Mask.

Another example of association: Darkfall, Twilight Eyes, Servants of Twilight...

I find it a fascinating phenomenon of the Koontz universe :-)

I also connect The Husband and The Good Guy.

[Matīss]

Karen B wrote: "*LOL* but the golden retrievers always help to rescue you.

Seriously I am a bit of a pet lover. We had a King Boxer when I was a child and he was my best friend. Now I am the servant to four cat..."

Only a cat can make human his servant :)
Mr. Koontz should write more about cats. I know only one so far - Mungojerrie from Chris Snow series.

[Matīss]

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "I know of a man who was walking a Golden Retriever and got shot right on the sidewalk."

He got what he deserved!

[Matīss]

Here is my story bout how I did get to know Dean Koontz.

I was about 15 or 16 years old. Actually I haven't read anything so thrilling and mystical before I got my first Koontz. Except The Exorcist.
I found in bookstore that thick book about a murderer who is murdered but after a week he returns again. Whispers is still one of my Koontz favorites and I wonder that it has not been a group read yet.
And actually I love pictures of early Dean better. This is how I saw him first.
http://amsaw.org/pic0704-koontz005.jpg
When I saw new Koontz (with hair and without moustache), I thought it was some mistake and didn't believe this is the same Dean Koontz.

[Callaghan]

at the age of 13 my father was desperate for me to like reading so use to pay me to read book s $100 for moby dick $90 white fang ( still wasn't interested ) so even though he didn't really like his writing paid me $ 50 to read the watchers and I haven't stop reading since only ones of Dean I haven't read is odd Thomas series lost me on second book and Frankenstein although I read alot of fantasy horror and si fi few books a week lol watchers will always be one of my favorites ,wish I could give him the $50 back ive got a life time love of books now !

[Callaghan]

at the age of 13 my father was desperate for me to like reading so use to pay me to read book s $100 for moby dick $90 white fang ( still wasn't interested ) so even though he didn't really like his writing paid me $ 50 to read the watchers and I haven't stop reading since only ones of Dean I haven't read is odd Thomas series lost me on second book and Frankenstein although I read alot of fantasy horror and si fi few books a week lol watchers will always be one of my favorites ,wish I could give him the $50 back ive got a life time love of books now !

[Patty]

I read his books many, many years ago and I loved them! I haven't read a book of his in a very long time. I think I like I read certain genres of books to this day because of him. I am hoping to get back into ready his books

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Matīss wrote: "Only a cat can make human his servant :)
Mr. Koontz should write more about cats. I know only one so far - Mungojerrie from Chris Snow series. "

Ozzie has a cat in Odd Thomas. I think named Chester or something like that. Also there are some bad kitties in The Bad Place.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Patty wrote: "I read his books many, many years ago and I loved them! I haven't read a book of his in a very long time. I think I like I read certain genres of books to this day because of him. I am hoping to..."

We have several group reads going on or upcoming right now so we will give you plenty of opportunities to get back into reading Dean Koontz books :-)

[Scribblescribe]

My mom was dating this lawyer when i was 16, and he gave me some books to read. One of the books was The Taking by Dean Koontz.

I got hooked and the rest is history.

[Suzanne]

My ex-sister-in-law had lent me some of her books. Dean Koontz was one of them. I read The House of Thunder and Midnight. I found the novels very intriguing and wanting me to read more. Ever since then I read at least one of his books a year. Last summer I read Cold Fire. I am presently reading Odd Apocalypse.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Suzanne wrote: "Last summer I read Cold Fire. I am presently reading Odd Apocalypse. "

:-) I love Cold Fire and Odd Apocalypse

[Holly]

The first Dean Koontz novel I read was Dark Rivers of the Heart when I was in high school. I fell in love instantly and have been a Koontz fan ever since!

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Holly wrote: "The first Dean Koontz novel I read was Dark Rivers of the Heart when I was in high school. I fell in love instantly and have been a Koontz fan ever since!"

Dark Rivers would not be one of my favorites, but I'm glad it brought you over to the Koontz side :-)

[Holly]

Thanks Dustin. :-)

[Karen B.]

I don't know what made me pick up Strangers that day in the bookstore. But after that I read every Koontz book I could get my hands on. Then I discovered that Koontz was also "Leigh Nicols" and "Owen West" and got those books. I figure if there were still books on shelves listing Owen West and Leigh Nicols as authors that had to be awhile back.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Karen B wrote: "I don't know what made me pick up Strangers that day in the bookstore. But after that I read every Koontz book I could get my hands on. Then I discovered that Koontz was also "Leigh Nicols" and "..."

There are no coincidences. The Koontz psychic magnetism will attract only the oddest and most brilliant of people. Welcome to the Koontz Universe!

“In spite of where we were, how we had gotten here and why we had come, I felt that at this moment of our lives, this place was exactly where we belonged. We were not drifting but rising, rising toward something right and of significance.”
-Dean Koontz, Relentless

[Karen B.]

A nice way you put it, Dustin. Really it was an odd experience, the first time I couldn't put a book down to sleep since the time I was in grade school, finishing Nancy Drew under the covers with a flashlight. It just seemed I couldn't get my hands on the next Koontz book fast enough to read. Every book of his held the same mystery, excitement and unpredictability. It is only now, since joining this group, that I see some of the same similar elements in books and look forward to them. Koontz books were originally like Girl Scout cookies to me, I couldn't get enough and I think I inhaled them. Now, with this group, I have slowed down and taken time to savor the books like fine wine as I reread them a second or third time. Reading Strangers for the Mini Group Read will be an exciting journey, being the first time I will revisit that special "first" since it came out in paperback.

One little interesting effect of my reading was and incident I think around 87 when I had taken the book with me to school to be able to read snatches during lunch and break. As I was preparing to leave class one day, my Koontz book was on top and a student was gathering his things and a King book was on the top of his pile. It was kind of like the commercials for Reese's candy where peanut butter and chocolate lover meet. I introduced the student to Koontz, who read Strangers and came back the next week thrilled and asked what to read next. I, on the other hand, had always avoided King as he seemed a little too much to me. My student suggested I start with The Talisman and I found a new author to like. I don't like all of King's works. I have started a few that got a little confusing and never finished them but it did get me searching for King's books. Interestingly enough that same student showed up on Facebook last year. I had just downloaded King's wonderful book, 11-22-63 and my former student had just gotten Odd Hours. Each of us still die-hard fans of the one, but fans also to a lesser degree of the other. What happened though the year this man was my student, was open a door to student/teacher rapport.

[Jen]

That's a wonderful story about you about you and your former student, Karen! How great to find out he's still reading Koontz, while you still read King. :-)

[Karen B.]

Not everything King, mind you. A few of them have me too confused. 11/22/63 is probably pretty close to my favorite which is The Stand. Tied for second is IT. I could not get into Rose Madder at all but I am going to give it another try some day. Dolores Claiborne was disappointing as I kept waiting for it to get to the horror. And Desperation just was above my head along with another one and I can't remember the name of that one.

[Rebecca]

I was young when I read my first Dean Koontz book. My first author was Stephen King. But one day some one gave me a Dean Koontz book and I read everything. I think my first book was the Funhouse. There might have been another one but I am not sure.

[Lee]

I found out about Dean Koontz when I was at a thrift store a few years ago. I read the back of "Intensity" and it seemed like a really good book. I read it and have been hooked ever since.

[J.W.]

Helen wrote: "I don't remember how I got started on Koontz.I do remember thinking he was too weird for me. Then, I started on the Brother Odd series and I was hooked. I now have to go back and read everything el..."

That mirrors my history with Koontz almost exactly. It must have been about 1989 and my first was Lightning. He was having a good ten year run that forever inoculated me from being too harsh a judge on any of his later efforts. I see him now as just a lover of writing and expressing ideas he finds interesting. To Hell with the critics. I am happy for him because of the artistic freedom he has earned and is enjoying.

[J.W.]

Oh. That last post was a response to a "Rachel" post in 2009. Oops.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

J.W. wrote: "Oh. That last post was a response to a "Rachel" post in 2009. Oops."

It's okay, we teleport and time travel around here.

[Mary]

Used book store--next to Stephen King and who can resist that Hair???

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Mary wrote: "Used book store--next to Stephen King and who can resist that Hair???"

He hasn't always had that hair :-)

[J.W.]

Nope, once he had more in his moustache than on his scalp.

[Jacki]

I came across Dean Koontz at a library book sale. I was looking for Lois Duncan books (I was 14) but couldn't find any, so I lingered around the horror section and I came across a copy of The Mask and The Servants of Twilight. There was another, but I put it back, in case I didn't like him. Of course, I did and at the next sale, I picked up Night Chills, The Key to Midnight, and Winter Moon. Eventually I moved to a place near a book store and then I found a Goodwill only for books. I walked out with a huge box full of Dean Koontz books! :)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Thanks for sharing your story Jacki. It made me smile :-)

[Vicky]

Hi Jacki, I discovered Dean when the book club my ex husband was a member of sent out Lightning. It was the book of the month and I loved it. The husband is long gone but I've still got the copy of Lightning! I've read everything I could get my hands on since but Lightning is still my favourite followed by the Chris Snow books (Fear Nothing and Seize the Night) and hopefully Dean will get round to writing the third one soon.

[Karl]

I found Dean Koontz with ' Intensity.' It was an auspicious start. I remember reading Velocity right after that. I'm finishing the Frankenstein series... again.

[Diane Lynch]

I do not remeber the first book I read. It was awhile ago. I was so in need of a real horror book and found 77 Shadow Street. And things continued from there.

[Barbara]

My first Koontz' book was Watchers and I have been hooked on him since....I read that in my late teens or early 20's.....long time ago!!!

[Barbara]

oops.....wrong. It was Phantoms then Watchers lol

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

I read Watchers first, then Velocity.

[Barbara]

Wow .......there are a lot of books between Watchers and Velocity....so you are a fairly new Koontz's reader!! :-)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Barbara wrote: "Wow .......there are a lot of books between Watchers and Velocity....so you are a fairly new Koontz's reader!! :-)"

I didn't start reading Koontz until 2005. I have read most of Dean's (readily available) books now :-)

[Barbara]

That's good Dustin his books are always entertaining.....I love how I can laugh out loud and then be creeped out and awed all in a few pages.....I have loved him for many years

[Angelique]

My first Koontz book was 77 Shadow Street. It was a little too sci-fi for my liking bit I still enjoyed it. Then I read Breathless and loved it. Next was Watchers and now I'm a total Koontz fan!! I loved Innocence. I am going to start the Odd Thomas series soon.

[Joraya]

I first read Dean Koontz when I was 11, it was because the summary to False Memory seemed interesting. I thought the book was good, but I don't think it is one of his I would start with, especially at that age.

So I'd say around 2004 is when I became an authentic fan. I read The Taking, the ending was the most bizarre subject I've come across in a (fiction) book before, that I found myself fascinated with him again.

So I read a few of his other older books and loved them. Than The Husband and The Good Guy came out back to back, and he officially hit my top 10 writers list because of them.

For years I steered from the Frankenstein reason and Odd Thomas. I prefer to read a book series once complete or near the final book, and I have to say his vision of Frankenstein had me personally invested and engrossed more so than many books I have ever read.

I think he is over the top, ridiculous, and unashamed in his approach to the way he writes. But the almost simplistic way he tackles his plot, the ease the evident hero and villain relish in their normally basic good vs evil battle, flows so well.

I am not a black/white person, and believe more in dualism than not. But it is still refreshing to see a writer blatantly showcase a black and white world, and never wavers in his convictions (at least in the books I've read. The Good Guy is a prime example.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Joraya, I would recommend giving Cold Fire a try when you get a chance. One of my favorites :-)

[Barb]

a friend gave me velocity to read. I was immediately hooked!!.

[Heidi]

The summer I was 13 I was visiting relatives and my aunt had a copy of The Servants of Twilight she let me read and I was hooked. I have pretty much read everything he has written and some books twice :)

[Mary]

In my 20's looking for another Stephen King. Read Watchers and Servants of Twilight and was hooked on Dean Koontz. He has given me and a son following so much reading pleasure. King went by the wayside. My son read Lightening at age 8 and he was hooked. It has become my favorite Koontz book although Icebound comes close behind.