Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 15, 2004 My top five (not in order): Eyes of the Dragon It Pet Semetary Salem's Lot The Shining I also love all his short story and novella collections. Great stuff! I know I'll get attacked for not mentioning The Stand. Sorry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted March 15, 2004 Top 5 The Long Walk Rage Desperation Eyes of The Dragon The Dark Tower series The Long Walk is just awesome, definatly my favorite. Rage is good too. You can get those in "The Bachman Books." 3 of the 4 stories in the book have been rereleased a few times, but Rage hasn't...since it's about a teen taking holding up his classroom with a gun. Of the books I've read Gerald's Game is far and away the worst Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Mosaicv2 Report post Posted March 15, 2004 I cant think of some... theirs alot of them: Night Shift Pet Semertary Christine It they come to my mind Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest frowned Report post Posted March 16, 2004 bleh - cannae remember which ones I've read: Carrie Rose Madder Running Man (as Bachman) Salem's Lot The Green Mile they're the ones that stick out - also read Gerald's Game, which I didn't enjoy, found it kinda boring. I'm sure I've read more though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
spiny norman 0 Report post Posted March 16, 2004 Four posts, no mention of The Stand. You're all mad! The Green Mile is in second place though. And I'm also going to have a mention of On Writing. That was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I know nobody else will list it, but I found it a very good read. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 16, 2004 Four posts, no mention of The Stand. You're all mad! The Green Mile is in second place though. And I'm also going to have a mention of On Writing. That was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I know nobody else will list it, but I found it a very good read. Hey, I love THE STAND! It just didn't crack my top five. I own GREEN MILE and haven't gotten around to reading it. ON WRITING was very interesting. As was DANSE MACABRE, his other non-fiction book. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Patrick Report post Posted March 16, 2004 5. Firestarter 4. The Long Walk 3. Cujo 2. It (the ending ruined it for me) 1. Pet Semetary Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2004 2. It (the ending ruined it for me) How so? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2004 A FRIGGIN SPIDER! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2004 A FRIGGIN SPIDER! ??? "It" took the shape of a spider. This was a problem? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Patrick Report post Posted March 17, 2004 Well by ending, I mean the last 350 or so pages. As soon as they got into the Ritual of Chud, the book started going downhill. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nighthawk 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2004 It wasn't really a spider. Try not to let the movie influence your perception of the end of the book. The spider and the turtle were just loose representations of entities which couldn't be comprehended or expressed in words. He was pretty much channeling Lovecraft there. It is my favorite book he's written, and the only one I really like. The rest are pretty good at best, It's the only one I'd call great. After that, I like The Regulators and it's companion Desperation, probably his most frenetic and bizarro work. Danse Macabre is interesting, though he's dead wrong about a lot of stuff, both factually and in my opinion. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 I really liked Desperation, but didn't care much for The Regulators. Although I might give those two a re-read Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HarleyQuinn 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 The book with the head of the bear on the jack in the box in the middle of a road(Can't remember the damn title, can't even remember if it was King or not). #1: IT #2: Christine #3: The Shining #4: Thinner(Also loved the movie) #5: Cujo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henry Spencer 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 I don't too much care for King, but The Stand is a nifty book. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaosrage 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 Well by ending, I mean the last 350 or so pages. As soon as they got into the Ritual of Chud, the book started going downhill. You didn't like the 11 year old gangbang? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaosrage 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 #1. Wizard and Glass (DT4) #2. The Long Walk #3. Misery #4. IT #5. Eyes of the Dragon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 After that, I like The Regulators and it's companion Desperation, probably his most frenetic and bizarro work. I can't remember which is which. I got half-way through one of them and never finished it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 Danse Macabre is interesting, though he's dead wrong about a lot of stuff, both factually and in my opinion. Elaborate! Let's have some discussion! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 #1. Wizard and Glass (DT4) #2. The Long Walk #3. Misery #4. IT #5. Eyes of the Dragon REPRESENT! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nighthawk 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 Danse Macabre is interesting, though he's dead wrong about a lot of stuff, both factually and in my opinion. Elaborate! Let's have some discussion! Ok. It was mostly the film sections I took issue with. The book sections were pretty ok to me. Being a writer, I guess it's only to be expected that he'd be better informed in that area. The main thing I remember disagreeing with is he seems to have a problem with gore in film. He calls it exploitative trash, sometimes in as many words, sometimes not. I could go on about the virtues of gore (and in fact exploitation), but that's another thread. Suffice to say, he's condemning something which he just doesn't 'get'. It's also hypocritical, as he writes more exploitative trash than would ever be allowed to be shown on film, but I suppose he consideres it different because it's in a book. It's not. The difference is he has to pad that out with a (hopefully good) narrative. But gore and sex don't enhance that, there's lots of good horror writers who don't use that sort of thing. And I know King doesn't have to if he chooses not to. It's there cause his readers (and himself) like it. You can watch a gore movie, enjoy yourself for 90 minutes, or read one of his books, which takes much longer, and enjoy the exploitation in it like the weed baked into a batch of brownies. He's in no position the be talking down about gore. He also makes the statement that if you've seen one Wes Craven movie, you can skip them all. All Wes had out at the time was Together (which I haven't seen), Last House On the Left, and The Hills Have Eyes. This is actually a good example of him blasting low budget exploitation. The two of those movies I've seen are good, and Last House On the Left particularly is reminiscent of King's own work. Anyway, obviously in hindsight, his dismissal of Wes Craven seems ridiculous and stupid, and completely undermines the point he was trying to make, about being able to judge a filmmaker. I've got my copy of the book out now, and I'll quote a passage. "There is no such frission in Plan 9 From Outer Space, unfortunately, to which I reluctantly award the booby-prize as the worst horror film ever made. Yet there is nothing funny about this one, no matter how many times it has been laughed at in those mostly witless compendiums which celebrate the worst of everything. There's nothing funny about watching a Bele Lugosi (who may actually have ben a stand-in), wracked with pain, a morphine monkey on his back, creeping around a southern California development with his Dracula cape pulled up over his nose." Sorry Steve... that is funny. But seriously, for one thing here, he has an unnatural love for junkie Bele Lugosi. Reading on, he paints Bela as a hapless victim, visciously exploited (there's that word again) by the Hollywood machine. Wrong. Anyone who's seen the Johhny Depp movie (which, don't worry, is not the sole source of my information) knows that that isn't the way it went down at all. Speaking of Ed Wood, King seems to know nothing about him. Exploitation? Plan 9 was Ed's masterpiece. He did do exploitation later in his career, no doubt, and he was aware of it, but Plan 9 was not it. Ed Wood did not exploit Bela Lugosi (King makes no mention of their other colaborations), and Plan 9 is not an exploitation piece, it's simply a bad movie. I have to question whether King even knows what's supposed to be funny about it. Is he saying that his passion for Bela Lugosi overrides any laughs he might have gotten from the filming mishaps and stilted, Wood dialogue? It must be, there's no other justification for such a harsh condemnation. Besides the fact that as I was just saying, there's no reason to feel sorry for Bela Lugosi, that seems like more of a personal reason to hate the movie. Notice how he indirectly calls someone who laughs at the movie 'witless'. But what if we aren't gay for Dracula like him? Is it then ok to laugh? Anyway, I think I've said enough about that, you get the idea. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 I tried reading Rose Madder twice but just got too bored with it and quit Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thuganomics 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2004 THE mother fuckin STAND The Green Mile The Gunslinger Firestarter Night Shift and Kingdom Hospital is a damn fine piece of television. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2004 He's in no position the be talking down about gore. He also makes the statement that if you've seen one Wes Craven movie, you can skip them all. I wanted to clip these two sentences from your post. You have a good point about the gore but at least he doesn't disqualify any movie because of it. He endorses Dawn of the Dead and Deep Red afterall! I remember him blasting Craven with a comment as if none of his movies were worth a look. I'm a fan of Last House on the Left and A Nightmare on Elm Street (which admittedly, hadn't come out at the time) and a few others so I can't agree with him there. Overall, it's a informative read; I just don't agree with EVERYTHING he says. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty Houle 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2004 As a big fan of King, I find it interesting that he has a couple of books I just can't finish: ROSE MADDER THE TALISMAN DESPERATION or THE REGULATORS (can't remember which) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Eric the Eagle Report post Posted March 19, 2004 IT is by far my favorite King book, andone of my favorites overall (one of the books I usually end up reading once a year or so...). For a top five list, top to bottom... IT Firestarter The Stand (would have been higher - the first half or so is perhaps his best work, but it drags down a bit (not much, mind you) at the ending) Desperation On Writing. I actually enjoy all his books, except I've never managed to really get into the Dark Tower series. On the gore parts... I've never found King's books to be exploitative with gore at all. Sure, there are a few gory scenes, but in my experience, they're there to show the impact the gore has on a character, or they don't go into much detail at all. That is, in effect, no gory details for the pure sake of gory details. (Note: some explanation. In IT, when the creature ears a boy's head off, my definition of "gory details" would have been detailed descriptions of how it felt to have the head come away from teh body, fountains of blood, slinters of... you get the picture. Instead, we get a sentence like "He was still feeling around for a zipper on the creature's back when the head came away from his body.") Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nighthawk 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2004 Fair point, but consider this, also from IT: "[...]he felt a brief hot flare as the thing's sucker poked through his eyelid and began to suck the fluid out of his eyeball. Patrick felt his eye collapse in it's socket and he screamed again. A leech flew into his mouth when he did and roosted on his tongue. [...] Some of them drank to capacity and burst like balloons; when this happened to the bigger ones, they drenched Patrick with almost half a pint of his own hot blood. [...] Patrick ejected a huge spray of blood and leech flesh like vomit." Sure, maybe you can say that was essential to the integrity of the plot. Maybe you can say that Patrick was a character who felt no fear, only disgust, so it was necessary to convey disgust in that scene. And maybe it's true in a way, but we still have a nasty description of being drained of blood by leeches (which King is apparently afraid of himself, them playing a pivotal role in The Body as well). Take for example, the movie Body Double or the book American Psycho as an example of something else where violence is both exploitative and necessary. Jaws (the book and movie) is another example. So, Stephen King is taking the high road in a way, but I wouldn't cut him too much slack. The gangbang scene for example, you might be able to justify it's presence in the book, but a more honest explanation is he's just getting carried away in his own fantasies. Same thing with the gore. Just because it's placed well doesn't mean it isn't there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Youth N Asia 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2004 I couldn't finish The Talisman either. Got about 150 pages in and just couldn't care about the story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaosrage 0 Report post Posted March 20, 2004 I see no Dark Tower on some of your lists. Explain it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EricMM 0 Report post Posted March 20, 2004 since everyone did a top 5, you'd have to include at least TWO dark towers, (drawing of 3 and The Wastelands) And to be honest, King can be a bit lengthy, which is why his novellas and short stories are sooooo great. The Long Walk, Shawshank, Children of the Corn, The Mist, Rage, 1408 (the only King book that actually freaked me out) all those books are good AND good quickly. IT and the Stand and Bag of Bones are all superb but they're HUUUUGE. The short stories are sweet. Bag of bones, god, that's the perfect ghost story, as is 'Salems Lot the perfect Vampire story Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
