While I've read a lot of Stephen King's work, I have a lot to catch up on. My recent dig through Roadwork was like reading the work of a completely different person. I know it's published under the Bachman name, but it was written by Stephen King; unlike, say, Thinner -- which was written by Bachman. What is mean is that Thinner was the first book King wrote knowing he was writing as Bachman. The others were older stuff later put under the Bachman name.
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Anyway, I'm getting quite the wake up call as I dig through the world of Stephen King. I began reading -- the first time -- in the early 90's. So The Stand revised, Needful Things, Four Past Midnight, Gerald's Game, and Dolores Claiborne are all very familiar to me. But with Insomnia, I dropped off for a long while. When I returned to reading King, I started with the early stuff. This, of course, leaves a whole body of work I know nothing really about.
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So, this is a crazy list, but here are 10 works by King I don't know much about -- but I do intend to learn!
1. The Regulators and all things Bachman.
3. Insomnia. Sorry, I don't know much about this one.
4. Rose Madder.
5. Hearts in Atlantis. I haven't even seen the movie!
6. The Talisman. My recent omission of this book as an "epic" is evidence that I just haven't dug in yet.
7. Black House.
8. Lisey's Story. I did try to read it -- and will go again soon. The magic just hasn't happened for me yet on this one.
10. Duma Key. Again, i started this. But (this is crazy) mid novel my kids lost one of the disks. Or I think it was the kids! Anyway, I was enjoying it very very much, but somehow got distracted and didn't return soon enough. Now I'll have to start over.
11. Wizard and Glass.
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I'm kind of excited by this list. There is so much more to discover and enjoy. I realized with Roadwork that I don't understand Bachman yet. I enjoyed Running man a lot, but the rest of the books aren't making a deep connection yet.
I have read all of the above, and just finished reading Black House yesterday. All of these are great stories, but Black House was my least favorite of all of them (of anything that he has written). My only recommendation is to read them in order in which they were published, many of the stories connect to the Dark Tower series and it is better to learn about certain events in the right order.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, I enjoy reading it!