The man of horror and thriller. One of the most recognised writers in the world. What movies and books have you read of his? What is considered his best and worst works?

Well I haven't seen a few of his classics like the Shining, Cujo, Salem's Lot :eek I love his short stories best though. I'm part of the way through reading Nightmares & Dreamscapes. I love stories with twists in them. The movies don't do the books justice though, but isn't that the way with most movies based on books!?! He has a certain way to keep you interested in reading so that you don't want to put it down and you can just picture everything with his way of describing the characters, the landscape, the atmosphere.



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*Sheree*
http://www.microtech.com.au/sheima/shei/sheree.htm

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Believe it or not I have never read any of his books. But I saw the mive The Stand and it's one of my favorite movies.

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Keep The Faith, These Days And Always ;)
Amy Livin
P.S.I Love BlueOmega!!!!!

The movies may not be as good as the books, but they still kick! I've seen most of 'em, we got The Shining, The Stand, Pet Semetary, Thinner, Carrie, Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, The Tommyknockers, Silver Bullet, Sleepwalkers, and Needful Things. I've only actually read Pet Semetary, Carrie, and Needful Things (I loved that one http://www.80sxchange.com/ubb/biggrin.gif)

He definitely knows how to write a good twist http://www.80sxchange.com/ubb/smile.gif

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- Roemello
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He certainly does know how to write and keep you interested. I like twists in stories, that's what makes him so good. None of his stories end the way you think they will. Amy I can't beleive you haven't read any of his books! There is a download only book called Riding The Bullet on the net. Haven't downloaded it yet.


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*Sheree*
http://www.microtech.com.au/sheima/shei/sheree.htm

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I don't read much Shei. In fact, I only read books when I have to for school. At the exeption of like 2 books that I read in my life by choice. Maybe one day I'll pick up one of his books.

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Keep The Faith, These Days And Always ;)
Amy Livin
P.S.I Love BlueOmega!!!!!

I've always loved his books! He's the master for sure! I've read a lot of his books, "Children of the Corn", "Carrie", and "Firestarter" to name a few. I've always loved the movie "SilverBullet", man, that movie kicks!

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Check ya later-I'm outta here!*Nikki*

The best thing about Stephen King is his ability to write and speak and it brings you to a specific time/place better than almost any modern author. I have read just about every book he has published. His best work, in my opinion is his short stories. If you can hunt down a copy of "the body" the short that the movie STAND BY ME was based on, I highly recommend it. He makes you feel as if you are back in the 50s or 60s and walking alongside the boys in the story.
Without a doubt, the scariest (in my opinion) book he has produced was definately PET SEMETARY. Forget the movie, read the book. It scred the bejesus out of me! I usually can ready a "scary" book and know that it is SUPPOSED to scare me, and I appreciate that, but that was the first of about 3 books that actually DID scare me. (with IT and Nightstalker, the Richard Ramirez story being the other two)Great work by King in PS. had me scared to turn out the lights when I was going to sleep.

Remember, Sometimes dead is better!

Ron

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My morals are beyond reproach and I will brutally murder anybody who says different.

I know where you're coming from with the Pet Semetary comment...one of the very few I actually read. I don't even know if I still have it anymore http://www.80sxchange.com/ubb/frown.gif Definitely a scary book from what I remember of it... <IMG SRC="http://spiffyentertainment.homestead.com/files/VIBRATOR.gif" border=0>

I second the motion....Sometimes dead is better. Or in that book's case, dead is ALWAYS better!

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- Roemello
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I adore Stephen King. "Pet Semetary" is the one I read over and over! Second on the list is "Bag of Bones," then "It."


http://www.80sxchange.com/ubb/eek.gif

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I used to read more than I do now. So, I haven't kept up with his newer books, though I did find Gerald's Game at the library awhile back. He still has it. I have read most of his books. It IS impossible to put them down, which is the mark of a great writer! Most of his movies weren't very good. Though I did like Carrie, Creepshow, Needful Things and Misery! Maximum Overdrive was dumb but is worth mentioning because of the all AC/DC soundtrack (Who Made Who). Thats the other thing I like about Stephen King, he loves hard rock/ heavy metal!!!

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Hands down his best is The Stand. It's like 1200+ pages but well worth the read. I've actually read it twice. The first time I did, I was in high school and I was scared to read it at night. Just some creepy stuff. I also liked Carrie.

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"And when you spit you better mean it, you gotta make them all believe it"

I have some of his books but I never got around to reading them To long but I have seen almost all of his movies.

My favorites:
Carrie
Pet Cemetary
Misery
Cujo
Dolores Claiborn
Fire Starter


The Worst:
Graveyard Shift
The Tommy Knockers
The Stand(I thought it was boring)
It(although alot of people liked it)

I endulge in the odd Stephen King Book. I am amazed at his characterisations. He actually makes you believe that the characters are real and that you actually know them. When you finally finish the book, you feel sad because you will not be reading about the characters anymore.

The Stand was fantastic, but I think my personal favourite was IT. Over 1000 pages, like the Stand and it's not possible to put it down. (Also like The Stand). It was so brilliantly done!

My only complaints about King is that he tends to go into detail on certain activities which most normal people would rather not know about. Seems rather unnessary at times. :eek:

I also find that his characters are sometimes inconsistent with the times and places they live in.

He gets to break a lot of rules of fiction writing. But of course he can do, he's so successful. :)

I have read Christine and Thinner. Both were great of course! The one I want to read that I haven't is The Stand. I think my favorite movie is Pet Semetary. That one scared me the most! :eek:

To be honest, I've never read a Stephen King novel. I have however, induleged myself into his cinematic masterpieces!
My favorites include:

The Shining
Misery
The Stand

Originally posted by Trixter:
<STRONG>To be honest, I've never read a Stephen King novel. I have however, induleged myself into his cinematic masterpieces!
My favorites include:

The Shining
Misery
The Stand</STRONG>

Do you like the one with Jack Nicholsan better or the one with Steven Weber?I can't say because believe it or not I still haven't seen the one with Jack Nicholsan yet.

I have read all his books and my favs are the The Dark Tower books. Of movies based on his novels I think Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me are the best. I also enjoyed IT, The Stand and Storm Of The Century mini series. :)

I have to agree with Flix on this one... Did you read the Talisman and Insomnia? Both have ties to the Dark Tower series.

I just bought the new book, the sequel to the Talisman and I have to say, I wasn't impressed. I didn't get past the first chapter because the extreme detail and run on sentences turned me off. I own every Stephen King book, some in paperback and hardcover, and I have to say, he's losing it. He's not as good as he used to be.

I've only read Wizard and Glass from that series and I thought it was great. Will have to get hold of some of the others.

I haven't read any of the Dark Tower series, but I have read The Talisman . I'm rereading that in preparation for the sequel.

On a side note...The movie The Shawshank Redemption was based on the short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption . It was in one of King's short story collections like Skeleton Crew or Night Shift. :)

Originally posted by jen*
On a side note...The movie The Shawshank Redemption was based on the short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption . It was in one of King's short story collections like Skeleton Crew or Night Shift. :)

It is from Different Seasons, which consists of four stories. Among them are The Body, which was adapted into the Stand By Me script. The four stories are short stories, but not as short as the Skeleton Crew/Night Shift collections. King also used the same form of collecting stories for Four Past Midnight.

Originally posted by Flix


It is from Different Seasons, which consists of four stories. Among them are The Body, which was adapted into the Stand By Me script. The four stories are short stories, but not as short as the Skeleton Crew/Night Shift collections. King also used the same form of collecting stories for Four Past Midnight.

Thanks Flix. I knew it was from a short story.:D I started out reading King's short stories. It was at least a year before I read a full length novel.:eek:

I'm racking my brain trying to remember the name he used for Different Seasons. Wasn't it Richard Bachman - I loved those short stories :)

Favorite Books - The Stand, Carrie, Pet Semetary, Salem's Lot,
Scariest to me - IT I hate clowns and this just cemented my feelings but it was good.
Tommyknockers was okay but I was a little disappointed.

The Shawshank Redemption is one of my all time favorite movies. :)

I need to reread The Talisman too because it was a good book. I hope the sequel is just as good.

Favortie movie - The Shining

He used Richard Bachman for the Running Man also

Sorry, but King didn't use Bachman for Different Seasons. He only used the Bachman name for the more (at the time) outrageous stories. The Bachman books were Running Man, Long Walk, Roadwork, Thinner and the latest - The Regulators.

I enjoy King quite a bit. I've read several of his books and short stories. It's hard to pin down a favorite though. It's been awhile since I read one. I still haven't been able to bring myself to read It. Clowns in general are evil and straight outta hell, so reading it all by myself and leaving Pennywise to my imagination just spells major trouble. No Thanks!
My favorite story was The Mist. Oooh, it just creeped me out something awful. That one and The Boogeyman. Yikes that was creepy! Specially that part about the dead child's eyes looking like the glazed and glassy eyes of a stuffed animal. *shiver*
The movies are pretty cool too. I love how he tends to play a bit part. It's a little like playing Where's Waldo. Hehehe. I loved The Green Mile, Carrie, Pet Sematary (Ramones on the title song! woo hoo!), and Christine. Good stuff man.

My first novel was 'Christine'. I thought it was pretty cool, so I went to the bookshop and got all his other works, including the Bachman novels.

But, my crave for King´s horror stories faded in the mid90s, when I finally (slow learner here :D) figured out that almost all stories followed the same scheme, and the details went too graphic and disturbing for my taste. Adding to my dismay was the fact that the German translations are rather poor, and they have edited out whole sequences from the original version.
Nonetheless, I´m picking a book of King from time to time.

For the movies and TV mini series...well, I always thought that the books were better. I like to create my own movies inside my head...

Favourite stories: almost all except Dolores (plain boring)
Favourite movies: Christine, Stand By Me, Pet Semetary, Shawshank Redemption, Maximum Overdrive (with AC/DC providing the soundtrack, it can´t be bad... ;))

The only movie I enjoyed of Stephen Kings that was based on a book was "Storm of the Century." It was a three day miniseries, and it was incredible! The whole plot kept revolving around this weird guy saying "give me what I want and I'll go away." So, of course, I had to run out and buy the book.

The book was written as a movie....which made it easy to follow!

I like his movies but not to fond of his books. :) In high school I read Dead Zone.

He is an excellent author, but not my style. ;)

I really only saw the shining, which I loved. :)

In the Different Seasons collection, the only story that wasn't made into a movie was The Breathing Method.

Apt Pupil (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0118636) was made into a movie but it tanked in the theatres. The guy who plays one of the main characters is Ian Murray McKellen, the man who plays Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings.

Someone gave me a hardcover collection of the Bachman books when they were first produced, with no mention of Stephen King's name. I wonder how much that's worth these days?

I've never read a single one of his books nor will I ever because well, they are just not my style. :) However, I have seen almost all of the movies based on his books or his movies in general. My favorite by far is Cujo with The Shining coming in at a very close second. The new stuff, good too, but not the same scare the hell out of ya type stuff, maybe Hollywood has just made me numb! :D

I think Stephen King is cool. I liked the movies It and Pet Sematary, Carrie, Thinner.....etc. :)
For me I actually got to read Thinner before I saw the movie. I didn't really get into reading the books until after I met my husband, who is a faithful King fan! After reading a couple of his newer books, I can't wait for new movies :)
I agree that usually it is hard to find a movie that follows a book very well, but Thinner was almost right on the dot!