I got this book today. Hold on, doesn't it look like it belong to the Outsider?
Showing posts with label book covers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book covers. Show all posts
This Book Cover Whispers Of The Future
I got this book today. Hold on, doesn't it look like it belong to the Outsider?
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Final Cover or Bazaar Of Bad Dreams
The Guardian notes that the book will also include notes from King on the craft of writing. Of course, King hasn't taken on the subject of writing since his classic book, On Writing.
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, due to be published on 3 November, will bring together 20 short stories by King, a mix of new writing and work already collected in magazines. But it will also include an introduction to each story by the writer, in which he will provide “autobiographical comments on when, why and how he came to write it”, as well as “the origins and motivation of each story. His editor at Hodder & Stoughton, Philippa Pride, predicted the inclusion would “delight all his readers including those who love his insight into the craft of writing”.theguardian.com/books
DUTCH Revival Cover
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| source: liljas-library.com |
This is the Dutch cover for Revival. I found this at Lilja's Library. Lilja is currently seeking obscure foreign editions of Stephen King's work. It's a pretty neat project. Of course, Dutch isn't obscure. AND -- I like this cover A LOT. It may be just the complete let down of the American edition.
I wrote to Cemetery Dance and asked them if they would be producing a special edition of Revival. I opted for the CD edition of both Doctor Sleep and Full Dark, No Stars, over a First Edition. Their books are always beautiful. However, the publisher emailed back to say that they did not have plans for a special edition of Revival.
What exactly is Revival? There is a book description out, that still doesn't reveal much. King said it was a nasty little novel. Are we in for a treat?
UK REVIVAL
This is from my favorite King website, liljas-library.com. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I'll be getting the BRITISH version of Revival.
The Shining Wraparound
This is from my favorite Stephen King website: LILJA'S LIBRARY
Vincent Chong has done an extra piece of artwork for The Shining to be used on a wraparound dust jacket that would be sent out exclusively to those who had purchased the Limited Edition and as you can see Vincent used of the fact that this would be a wraparound dust jacket and came up with the idea for an image which would have Jack chasing Danny down the corridors, in a way so that you would only see Jack on the front of the book, and Danny on the back.
Collecting Rules
Every collector has their own "thing" that they like to chase down. Most of us love first editions. But, as you collect, you have to develop some rules, or you'll create a giant pile of stuff that will lead to a divorce or an eviction.
So I used to buy anything with King's name on it. Now. . .
1. First edition hardbacks of books pre Duma Key. So that means book club editions are out. I used to hold on to them; but they're really only worth about $5, and it can get confusing in a collection to keep up with which ones are true firsts, and which ones are reproductions and book club editions. Truth is, after Duma Key, the market seems so flooded with first editions, they don't really matter. Besides, I stopped buying them because I know someone in my family is sure to give me the latest Stephen King novel.
When it comes to some rarebooks, second editions will have to do. Such is the case with The Gunslinger, which is hard to find as a first edition, but hte second edition has the same cover and is almost identical.
2. Post Duma Key, special editions are preferred. A signed copy of Under The Dome, the Cemetery Dance edition of Doctor Sleep and Full Dark No Stars are all good options. When a new King book comes out, usually a specialty publisher will secure the rights to do something really cool with the book. Donald M. Grant has "artist" editions of the Dark Tower books that are pretty cool.
3. No books on tape. The tape days were great, but they're worthless. Two exceptions: The original reading of The Stand and The Mist. As the Mist can only be obtained in tape format, and The Stand in its 1978 format only exists on tape.
In general, audio books have no value. So get them to listen to, not to collect. I recommend a subscription to audible, which will give you the new release at midnight.
4. Toys -- not. Sorry, but I read books, I don't really collect a lot of Stephen King toys. I don't need a Pennywise -- whatever. I do have a toy Christine; but I don't really "get it." I mean, it's blue. . .
5. Red Leather editions are also out. I have some, but I stopped collecting them because they're not that special. yeah, it's bound red leather; but so what? There are no special introductions, no pictures, nothing that makes the book itself more desirable. They don't even look that cool on the shelf.
6. No book cover -- no sale. The book cover is part of the book, and that said, I want my books to have their covers! I've thrown out more than one copy of the mid eighties novels because they didn't have a book cover. Is a copy of Different Seasons without its cover valuable? Not really.
7. Old magazines -- OH YEAH! In the late seventies and early eighties, Stephen King was everywhere. His stories could be found in detective magazines and, well, porn. I don't buy the porn because . . . you know why. But there is a LOT of stuff out there. People magazine, Time, Disney, magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and so much more. Even TV guide with a King article is pretty cool. In fact, it's fun to get these old magazines and get a sense of time warp.
8. Books by King's family members are not really collectible's to me. I don't seek first editions. I've read some stuff by Joe Hill, and liked it a lot. But I don't collect Hill, I read him.
9. Anything signed by King negates all other complaints. Do I take books with no covers? No. Unless it's signed by King! However, I actually prefer signatures that fans got from King as opposed to "flat signed" copies. I know, most collectors prefer the flat signed, but I don't see the point. If King wrote a fans name and a little note to them in the book, that makes it a little more personal. It's connected to someone.
The mass flat signing that happens today is just a cold grab for money on the publishers part. For the most part, I have no interest in slapping down lots of my savings to grab a book that was flat signed.
10. Bachman books are good, so long as they have Bachman's name on them, not King's. This means finding old paperbacks. By the way, the bookclub edition of Thinner with Bachman's name is worth about $5. But find Rage, Roadwork or The Long Walk as paperbacks, and you're in business.
Tell me some of your collecting rules.
Awesome Cover For THE SHINING
I found this on my favorite Stephen King website, www.liljas-library.com
Lilja posted:
The 44th language that a King book is translated into has been found. Today I found out that The Shining has been translated into Breton. Breton is a celtic language that's spoken in western France, the Brittany region and what’s extra interesting is that only 200,000 people have Breton as their native language. Very impressive that they now got their own translation of a King book if you ask me.While you're at Lilja's Library, you can send him a photo of yourself and Mr. Mercedes and be sure to take the "Author Photo Quiz." --no, it's not that easy!
The Shining by Stephen King (1977): Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy
I really like Will Errickson's blog, Too Much Horror Fiction. It's like a cave full of horror books from the 60's and 70's.
I also enjoyed this article on The Shining, which he declared, "unputdownable." I think it's insightful. And is reposted here with permission.
By the way, the first cover Errickson posted (the silver) is the version I first read. I never liked that faceless, silver cover -- but the book grabbed me anyway. My favorite is actually the first edition. I wish they would print a paperback with that cover.
Reviews and insights on The Shining are all the more fun now that we have Doctor Sleep.
Be sure to check out, toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.co.uk
The Shining by Stephen King (1977): Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy
by Will Errickson
Although it may be Stephen King's most famous horror novel and certainly the one that made him a household name, I must confess that for many years, The Shining was not a novel I really liked. It was never a book that I revisited as I did with many of King's other works, although I knew its reputation was stellar. About five years ago I skimmed through a copy and was even more disheartened as it seemed to me - yes, it's true - poorly written and conceived. Well, I don't know what the hell I was smoking: I picked up my recently-acquired Signet '78 first-edition paperback (only edition with that fantastic, yet easily faded, Mylar cover) on Friday morning, ready to give it another try and... could barely put it down all weekend: this time I got it. I raced through The Shining and barely gave myself the time to jot down a note or page number. It is awesome fun to find that a reread of a once-dismissed book is so rewarding. If you haven't read King, The Shining would be a fine intro.
Do I even need to recount the plot and the characters? Jack Torrance is a struggling writer, trying to create believable people and conflicts in his play, when he's had no shortage of conflict in his life. His alcoholism has put serious rifts in his relationships with his wife Wendy and five-year-old son Danny; he's lost his job as prep school English instructor; he's also had two very grave moments of violence. But all that, he hopes - they all hope - that's in the past now that he's hired to be the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, thanks to an huge favor from an old drinking buddy who's cleaned up. Sitting high atop a frigid, panoramic Colorado mountain, the enormous hotel is closed for the season and the only occupants will be the Torrance family.
Jack's feelings of inadequacy are front and center in the opening chapter, in his humiliating job interview with that infamous officious little prick, Mr. Ullman (one of my favorite scenes in the book is when Jack calls Ullman and tells him he's going to write a book about the history of the Overlook and Ullman freaks the fuck out). But Jack knows it's time to do right by his family, and taking this job is the classic point of starting over. He's not drinking and he's writing again, but Jack's about to go on one hell of a dry drunk, and have one motherfuck of a writer's block.
As for "the shining" itself: Danny's psychic power comes in the form of Tony, a little boy a bit older than Danny who appears inside mirrors and as a tiny shadow down a midnight street, always with some bit of information that Danny would have no other way of knowing. It is this ability of Danny's that the Overlook "wants," so it "employs" Jack's troubled past as it spurs Jack on to murder his family, to truly own the Overlook and inherit its foul nature. You almost ache for Danny, who so wants to please his parents, his daddy most of all (which makes Wendy feel guiltily jealous), who wants his daddy to be well and not do the Bad Stuff. King is great at getting inside kids' heads, their goggle-eyed yet strangely rational perception of the strange adult world that surrounds them.
Thematically, The Shining is one of King's richest. Yes, the Overlook Hotel is a repository of human evil; Jack knows this when, in the basement, he finds the scrapbook containing clippings of its unsavory past. Generations pass on their faults; sons pay for their father's transgressions. Abuse becomes a family trait. These are all very much in the grand tradition of haunted house and Gothic tales. Jack's creativity suffers; the real first sign of his madness is a complete 180-degree reversal of his feelings towards his play's characters. The relationship between Jack and Danny is mirrored in the memories of Jack's relationship with his own father, as both are fraught with a heartbreaking mixture not only of love and concern, but also of violence and alcoholism.
UK paperback 2007
It is the back-story in which King *ahem* shines, as he reveals what he wants when he wants for maximum impact. There's the Overlook's blood-drenched past, of course. We get glimpses throughout the novel of Jack's fearsome father, as well as harrowing moments from his drinking days with a colleague. The tortuous memory of accidentally breaking little Danny's arm plagues him, as does his beating of a debate student of his whom he had to kick off the debate team because of a stutter. Both Danny and this student had destroyed something of Jack's: Danny, as a toddler, pours beer over the manuscript of Jack's play, while the student slashes Jack's car tires. He was drunk when abusing Danny but sober when attacking the student, but no matter: it's all Jack Torrance.
The novel is easily one of the most "unputdownable" - wretched word - I've ever read, at least it was this read. The pacing is relentless, lulling you at one moment and then shocking you the next. Suspense wracks up in the final chapters by interlacing chapters on the family's last stand against Jack - or whatever he is at that point - with Dick Hallorann's journey through the snowstorm, the Overlook head cook who also has "the shining" and is heeding Danny's psychic call. But still, we must ask: are there faults in The Shining? Of course. King's writing can be thin in places, too familiar, too pedestrian; there are times where a character's feelings of horror are told to us, instead of simply letting the horrific scenarios speak for themselves. The constant italicized interior thoughts, or maybe too many flashbacks. That final chapter, perhaps (King has intimated he may write a sequel).
Holy shit, they made a movie out of it?!
But these are to quibble; when you're reading King you know you're not getting an elegant flight of poetic prose or a delicately composed novel of modern manners and foibles. Fuck no! You're getting shrieking blasts of icy terror happening to real people. That might sound like one of the myriad cheesy critical blurbs from the first page ("REAL SCARE-ABILITY!" "DELICIOUSLY SHIVERY READING!" "BACK-PRICKLING!") but I don't know how else to phrase it. My moments of fear? When the wasps come back. When Jack hears his dead father's voice on the radio. When the unmanned elevator starts to clank into use. When Danny enters Room 217. When Wendy turns around and sees Jack. When the long-dead masquerade party guests screech "Unmask! Unmask!" and reveal rotting insect faces...
Mmm, now that's good horror, from a good little boy.
toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.co.uk
Original 1977 hardcover
Do I even need to recount the plot and the characters? Jack Torrance is a struggling writer, trying to create believable people and conflicts in his play, when he's had no shortage of conflict in his life. His alcoholism has put serious rifts in his relationships with his wife Wendy and five-year-old son Danny; he's lost his job as prep school English instructor; he's also had two very grave moments of violence. But all that, he hopes - they all hope - that's in the past now that he's hired to be the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, thanks to an huge favor from an old drinking buddy who's cleaned up. Sitting high atop a frigid, panoramic Colorado mountain, the enormous hotel is closed for the season and the only occupants will be the Torrance family.
Jack's feelings of inadequacy are front and center in the opening chapter, in his humiliating job interview with that infamous officious little prick, Mr. Ullman (one of my favorite scenes in the book is when Jack calls Ullman and tells him he's going to write a book about the history of the Overlook and Ullman freaks the fuck out). But Jack knows it's time to do right by his family, and taking this job is the classic point of starting over. He's not drinking and he's writing again, but Jack's about to go on one hell of a dry drunk, and have one motherfuck of a writer's block.
UK hardcover 1977
As for "the shining" itself: Danny's psychic power comes in the form of Tony, a little boy a bit older than Danny who appears inside mirrors and as a tiny shadow down a midnight street, always with some bit of information that Danny would have no other way of knowing. It is this ability of Danny's that the Overlook "wants," so it "employs" Jack's troubled past as it spurs Jack on to murder his family, to truly own the Overlook and inherit its foul nature. You almost ache for Danny, who so wants to please his parents, his daddy most of all (which makes Wendy feel guiltily jealous), who wants his daddy to be well and not do the Bad Stuff. King is great at getting inside kids' heads, their goggle-eyed yet strangely rational perception of the strange adult world that surrounds them.
Thematically, The Shining is one of King's richest. Yes, the Overlook Hotel is a repository of human evil; Jack knows this when, in the basement, he finds the scrapbook containing clippings of its unsavory past. Generations pass on their faults; sons pay for their father's transgressions. Abuse becomes a family trait. These are all very much in the grand tradition of haunted house and Gothic tales. Jack's creativity suffers; the real first sign of his madness is a complete 180-degree reversal of his feelings towards his play's characters. The relationship between Jack and Danny is mirrored in the memories of Jack's relationship with his own father, as both are fraught with a heartbreaking mixture not only of love and concern, but also of violence and alcoholism.
UK paperback 2007It is the back-story in which King *ahem* shines, as he reveals what he wants when he wants for maximum impact. There's the Overlook's blood-drenched past, of course. We get glimpses throughout the novel of Jack's fearsome father, as well as harrowing moments from his drinking days with a colleague. The tortuous memory of accidentally breaking little Danny's arm plagues him, as does his beating of a debate student of his whom he had to kick off the debate team because of a stutter. Both Danny and this student had destroyed something of Jack's: Danny, as a toddler, pours beer over the manuscript of Jack's play, while the student slashes Jack's car tires. He was drunk when abusing Danny but sober when attacking the student, but no matter: it's all Jack Torrance.
UK paperback 1984
The novel is easily one of the most "unputdownable" - wretched word - I've ever read, at least it was this read. The pacing is relentless, lulling you at one moment and then shocking you the next. Suspense wracks up in the final chapters by interlacing chapters on the family's last stand against Jack - or whatever he is at that point - with Dick Hallorann's journey through the snowstorm, the Overlook head cook who also has "the shining" and is heeding Danny's psychic call. But still, we must ask: are there faults in The Shining? Of course. King's writing can be thin in places, too familiar, too pedestrian; there are times where a character's feelings of horror are told to us, instead of simply letting the horrific scenarios speak for themselves. The constant italicized interior thoughts, or maybe too many flashbacks. That final chapter, perhaps (King has intimated he may write a sequel).
Holy shit, they made a movie out of it?!But these are to quibble; when you're reading King you know you're not getting an elegant flight of poetic prose or a delicately composed novel of modern manners and foibles. Fuck no! You're getting shrieking blasts of icy terror happening to real people. That might sound like one of the myriad cheesy critical blurbs from the first page ("REAL SCARE-ABILITY!" "DELICIOUSLY SHIVERY READING!" "BACK-PRICKLING!") but I don't know how else to phrase it. My moments of fear? When the wasps come back. When Jack hears his dead father's voice on the radio. When the unmanned elevator starts to clank into use. When Danny enters Room 217. When Wendy turns around and sees Jack. When the long-dead masquerade party guests screech "Unmask! Unmask!" and reveal rotting insect faces...
Mmm, now that's good horror, from a good little boy.
toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.co.uk
Cover: Stephen King A Face Among The Masters
Stephen King, A Face Among The Masters -- Available Monday, May 5.
98 pages
$9.89, paperback, Also a Kindle book.
by Brighton David GardnerStephen King, A Face Among The Masters, makes the passionate argument that Stephen King deserves to be taken seriously as a literary master whose work might well be regarded with those of Poe, Dickens and Lovecraft in years to come.
Edited by Kristen House
Cover art: Misha Richet
Is there more to Stephen King than just haunted cars, rabid dogs and cities trapped under a dome? Will his work be lost in histories unforgiving shuffle, or has he created a lasting body of work? In Stephen King, A Face Among The Masters, Brighton Gardner discusses how King’s work compares to other outstanding artist.
Exploring not only King’s lasting legacy, Gardner takes a closer look at the novels themselves. Did Stephen King write the father who abandoned his family into his novels? What Stephen King movie did Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds inspire?
What it's not: Stephen King, A Face Among The Masters, is not a biography of Stephen King. It is also not an in depth treatment of literary criticism. It is not a series of book reviews.
What it is: The book is a discussion comparing King's work and life to artist who proved their merits in years past.
Contents
CHAPTER
1: THE LONG SHADOW OF STEPHEN KING
Carrie Still Grabs Us
The Eyes of H.P. Lovecraft
CHAPTER
2: THE GHOST OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
Twisted Grandpa Poe
Welcome To The Stand, Mr. Poe
CHAPTER
3: STEPHEN KING, A MODERN CHARLES DICKENS
He's Telling Our Story!
Is A Christmas Carol King Territory?
CHAPTER
4: WHICH BOOK WOULD ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILM?
Maximum Overdrive, A Touch of Hitch
Nine Books Hitchcock Would Have Loved to
Film
CHAPTER
5: SHIVERING THROUGH THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Under The Dome and The Twilight Zone
Richard Matheson
Lincoln Instead of Kennedy
Gramma
CHAPTER
6: THE MAN WHO SCARED STEPHEN KING
Arch Oboler: Turn off The Lights
Orson Wells: Radio Scares
Ray Bradbury: Mars Is Heaven
CHAPTER
7: DARK THEOLOGIAN
The Green Mile: Retelling Redemption’s
Story
Pet Sematary: Dark Resurrection
The Shining: What about Hell?
Salem’s Lot: The Power of Faith
The Apocalypse Comes to America:
Spiritual Tones in The Stand
The Dark Tower—Searching For Redemption
CHAPTER
8: NAVIGATING THE WORLDS OF STEPHEN KING
Revival Cover
The cover to Revival has just been revealed. It will be hitting bookstores on November 11th.
Under The Dome Comes To Paperback In Two Volumes
Under The Dome has finally come to paperback in a normal size. By normal, I mean it's not the large, oversized paperbacks recently popularized. So how do you get Under The Dome in paperback without the massive tome falling apart before your finish? It's being released in two parts.
Now this makes me wonder -- why? The Stand was a longer novel and was released in one single volume that was not oversized. Of course, my copy quickly wore out in a single reading, but I did make it to the end. I've never been a fan of books in multiple volumes. What's more, while Under the Dome is long, it's not two thousand pages.
The book is selling at Books a Million for a little over $8 for each part. So that's $16 for a paperback edition of Under The Dome.
So what's going on with the paperback version of Under The Dome? That's a question Kevin Quigley (CharnelHouseSK.com) jumped on in his January 10 article at Fearnet. As always, Quigley's article is wonderful. He even explains why paperbacks got taller. Turns out, the people who read paperbacks are getting older! Quigley also discuses changes Scribner has made in their approach to King's book cover designs.
Here's a snippet from Quigley's article, explaining Under The Dome's long road to paperback publication:
While previous mega-long bestsellers like It and The Stand fit easily in regular mass-market editions, the split and staggered release of the Under the Dome mass-markets makes sense for today’s market. With the new “easier to read” edict for the 7.5” paperbacks, these books are also easier to hold – at nearly 1,300 combined pages, a single paperback might actually turn off potential new readers. Setting the release dates of the two paperbacks a month apart also keeps these new readers in mind, especially those who enjoy the serialized storytelling of the show and might be eager to replicate the experience. New American Library did the same with Desperation and The Regulators in 1997: though the books – which tell different stories with the same characters – came out on the same day in hardcover, in paperback, Desperation came out a month earlier than its altered twin.It's an interesting approach Scribner is taking. Of course, it makes me wonder if people will really read half the novel, then wait for the other half to come out. Don't they know they can buy the whole thing? Would you go to Burger King and buy half a Whopper, eat it slowly, then buy the other half? Even if it's big, you want the whole thing.
Qigley notes that "For the first time, Under the Dome will be available in every existing format--" Which actually is exciting. In fact, I'm willing to buy a volume 3 if King would give us more.
Kevin Quigley's article, The Long Road to 'Under the Dome' in Paperback, can be found at fearnet.com
Check out my recent discussion with Quigley about all things related to The Mist at talkstephenking interview-with-kevin-quigley
Polish Cover For Mr. Mercedes
This was posted at Lilja's Library, my favorite Stephen King website. Lilja notes, "Can't say I like it very much though, what do you Think?" I think a car should be involved in the cover.
Carrie Gets A New Cover
Hot off the presses -- new editions of Carrie by Stephen King with the movie art just arrived at the publisher's office! (From Facebook Fans Of Stephen King)
THE SHINING a strange cover
Wow! Gabe Habash at Publishers weekly has a fascinating article about a very Strange cover he found on The Shining.
I've posted, with permission, the first bit of the article. Be sure to check the whole thing out at publishersweekly.com.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
About a month ago, I was searching for something Stephen King-related to put on this fantastic blog. Scrolling down through rows and rows of Google images for The Shining, most of them screengrabs of Nicholson and the pre-chopped-up girls in the hallway, I saw, in thumbnail size, the above cover for O Iluminado. It looked strikingly similar to an 80s Pantene ad.
I saved the cover on my desktop, knowing I wanted to share it with you all in some way, but not sure how. For weeks, I’d open the file and stare into O Iluminado‘s eyes, and then into her smaller set of eyes. I would look at it for so long it would change; I named the mysterious woman Flavia; she became strange to me and then familiar in her strangeness. I had so many questions.
Who is Flavia? In what public place is she on the cover? Why is she also in a little window?
But let us parse why this book cover is either the worst book cover ever or, perhaps, the most brilliant book cover ever.
The tale of this thing’s creation begins in Brazil with Grupo Editorial Record, the largest publishing conglomerate in Latin America, founded in 1940. We’ll fast forward through the dry publishing history, but it’s important to note that Record has published authors like Márquez and Hemingway (and, of course, King), and that it publishes covers that look like this:
The point I’m trying to make here is that Grupo Editorial Record is capable of making covers that, you know, make sense. When I was doing the research on them, trying to find other nonsense covers, I thought maybe I’d find other Record covers with Flavia’s likeness–maybe she was Record’s mascot and maybe different covers had Flavia doing different things, posing in various ways, like how Keebler sticks the leader Keebler elf on different cookie packages in different celebratory positions. But when I found out Record’s other covers were normal, I was, at first, disappointed that there wasn’t some rogue publisher in South America challenging the world to make sense of its covers. But then, because of its singularity, the O Iluminado cover became even more incredible to me.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Okay. . . are you intrigued? I was.
For the rest of the post, head over to PWxyz
(When you read the article be sure to also read the comments section -- there are answers!)
Also check out my article bad-spanish-book-covers and book covers that annoy
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