Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The King of Horror On My Mind

I've been doing more writing and art lately than reading.  But when I look at what's next to my bed, I've found that I'm getting my nose into Stephen King books a lot more than I did two years ago.  When I began this blog a little over 3 years ago, I was a huge Stephen King reader and found myself in a massive rut where I couldn't find much else to read.

However, as the years have passed, I have pushed past those boundaries and read other books.  Some were good, some great and some downright dreadful... but I've always come back to my staple of the King of Horror to get my kicks.  Yeah, if you're reading this post, Stephen, you scare the crap outa me, but your writing is addictive.  I love it.  
I love Stephen King's writing for a reason.  I'm a writer as well, and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have learned the things I have about writing and editing that I have.  This great author writes great, adverbless writing that pulls you long and keeps you turning the pages even though your brain is telling you it's time to turn out the light.  What makes Stephen King the best in story-telling is that you feel as though you're sitting at a campfire in the middle of a forest and he's telling you a good, old-fashioned ghost-story... with his own twist at the end which will keep you from sleeping for months to come.  How he does this is beyond me, and I really admire him for it, but it's something I'd love to learn to do.

I have, over time, collected together books by him and about him.  I'm currently reading 'The Dark Tower' Series (I'm up to 'The Wastelands' book 3) and there's 8 books in the series; and I love it.  The first book I ever read of his was 'Christine'; which scared the crap out of me at the tender age of 16... and I had to con my parents into letting me read it.  I next read 'Salem's Lot' then, 'Carrie'... and I knew I was hooked on his style.

More recently - today in fact - I bought 'The Shining' and 'Doctor Sleep' from K-Mart.  I'm looking forward to reading the old with the new soon; as they ought to be a great comparison of what has taken place in his writing over time and how it's matured like a good wine since he wrote 'The Shining'.  I haven't seen the movie, but then, I'd rather read the book first before a screen-writer and director changes a book and misses points a writer puts into a book on purpose for readers to notice.  I think that's why I much prefer books to movies, don't you?  Until my next post, happy reading.

No comments:

Post a Comment