Scarred and Scared
Stephen King's first published novel -- 1974. I was six when it came out. Yes, it scared the shit out of me; not because I read it when I was six, but because I watched the movie when I was sixteen.
[insert shudders]
I might as well have been six. That movie blew my mind with horror. I'd convinced myself that I could never read Stephen King books or see any more of his movies.
My Favourite Style of Novel
Little did I know that Carrie was an epistolary novel, one of my favourite styles.
A King 'Konvert'
Consider the time I've lost. It would take me how many years to read another Stephen King? Let's see...about 20 years before I read Dolores Claiborne, not realizing who the author was until I got into a few crunchy bits. I loved it!! I especially loved the way King made Dolores the only speaker in the entire book--brilliant! Nevertheless, I now had the license to continue reading King, though I still hadn't searched his back-list until this spring (Mar.26, 2016: Stephen King Did Too Good A Job)--such a scaredy cat. Instead, I'd read more recent novels like these:
Still no movies, though. Too visceral!
The King Canon Reading Challenge
So, in two and a half months, I've read:
- The Shining, King's 3rd novel, -- incredibly-done, couldn't read it in the nighttime when I was home alone--typical for me.
- Carrie, his 1st, --so simply horrific, takes bullying to unheard of heights, long before the 2000s and
- Now I'm in the middle of Different Seasons, a collection of 4 novellas,
- Namely the first: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, (sub-title: Hope Springs Eternal) more commonly known as the movie title: The Shawshank Redemption.
