Lucky 67

[kev_bot]

Today is Stephen King's 67th birthday. I've loved Stephen King most of my life. I inherited most of my first books from my uncle Doug, who had gone away to school and my grandparents shipped a carton of his old books to my Dad's house. I remember loving the lurid covers, and putting them on my shelf next to the kiddie horror books by Daniel

Comments

[delmarmar]

I used to love going places to read. The dizzying dichotomy of being surrounded by people (it's always crowded everywhere, can't be helped much in city life) while being immersed and isolated in a book. With the better books I would have to take a minute or two to "come back to earth" after reading before I could get up and make my way back to me.

[kev_bot]

I still do that, when I have a new King novel. :)

[howlin_wolf_66]

Amen to that! Happy Birthday Mr. King. :-)

[tbass]

Growing up my mom had every Stephen King book and he shaped a very large portion of my life. I specifically remember that in 4th grade the teacher actually questioned my mom for letting us read horror novels at such a young age and in 6th grade the teacher didn't believe that my brother and I had read "It" for our book reports (by that time, we'd read that book multiple times even). My moms response both times was pretty much, "Fuck off and stop trying to punish my kids for actually liking to read."

It's unfortunate that so much of what teens read now is terrible crap. Twilight and such. But, at least they're still reading books, I suppose. change.

[kev_bot]

I think that's sort of a generalization. When I was a kid, people were reading a lot of VC Andrews. When I got a little older, it was RL Stine. But they were also reading Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl. Now kids are reading Hunger Games, which is fantastic (at least at first), and Harry Potter, which is one of the best kids-to-young-adult series ever written. Then you also have someone like Rainbow Rowell, who writes complicated, smart YA fiction, and she's not the only one. Twilight is terrible, but it's not indicative of the entire generation.

[geometrician]

You know I took a long break after Delores Claiborne with a couple of stabs in here and there. I did just recently read Mr. Mercedes and last year read 11/22/63. I loved them both; not as much as It (just reread it again) and The Stand, but a lot. I struggled with Under the Dome, though. Is it him, or is it me? I'm not sure. But he and I seem to be back together, and that's what matters.

[kev_bot]

It's not entirely you. Every long career has peaks and valleys. I'll argue that there's something terrific in every Stephen King book, but not all of them are necessarily top-drawer. Under the Dome was overlong and relied on some Cujo-type coincidences that bothered me. However, Bag of Bones and Duma Key are two long recent(ish) books that captured me, and Joyland really takes on the feel of his first published novels.

[geometrician]

Awesome! I will give those two a try. My time for fiction is pretty thin right now because I'm working on my doctorate, but I need some to take my mind to a different place. Three I can always count on are The Stand, It, and The Talisman, but I want to read new-to-me stuff.