my Stephen King library

Title	Published	Audio Book	Book	Film (IMDB Rating)
Carrie	Apr-74
Salem's Lot	Oct-75			6.6
The Shining	Jan-77			8.5
Rage	Sep-77
Night Shift (20 short stories)	Feb-78
The Stand	Sep-78			7.1
The Long Walk	Jul-79
The Dead Zone	Aug-79
Firestarter	Sep-80
Roadwork	Mar-81
Danse Macabre	Apr-81
Cujo	Sep-81			5.9
The Running Man	May-82
Different Seasons: Apt Pupil	Aug-82
Different Seasons: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redeption	Aug-82			9.3
Different Seasons: The Body (aka Stand By Me)	Aug-82			8.1
Different Seasons: The Breathing Method	Aug-82
Christine	Apr-83			6.5
Cycle of the Werewolf	Nov-83
Pet Sematary	Nov-83
Thinner	Nov-84
Skeleton Crew (22 short stories)	Jun-85
IT	Sep-86			6.8
Misery	Jun-87			7.8
The Tommyknockers	Nov-87
The Dark Half	Oct-89
Four Past Midnight: 1 The Langoliers	Sep-90			5.9
Four Past Midnight: 2 Secret Window Secret Garden	Sep-90			6.5
Four Past Midnight: 3 The Library Policeman	Sep-90
Four Past Midnight: 4 The Sun Dog	Sep-90
Needful Things	Oct-91
Geralds Game	May-92
Dolores Claiborne	Nov-92			7.2
Nightmares & Dreamscapes (24 short stories)	Sep-93
Insomnia	Sep-94
Rose Madder	Jun-95
Desperation	Sep-96			5.2
The Regulators	Sep-96
Green Mile, The	Aug-98			8.5
Bag of Bones	Sep-98			5.7
Storm of the Century [SCREENPLAY]	Feb-99			7.2
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon	Apr-99
Hearts in Atlantis: 1 Low Men in Yellow Coats	Sep-99
Hearts in Atlantis: 2 Hearts in Atlantis	Sep-99			6.8
Hearts in Atlantis: 3 Bind Willie	Sep-99
Hearts in Atlantis: 4 Why We're in Vietnam	Sep-99
Hearts in Atlantis: 5 Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling	Sep-99
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft	Oct-00
Dreamcatcher	Mar-01			5.4
Everything's Eventual (14 short stories)	Mar-02
From a Buick 8	Sep-02
The Gunslinger	Jul-03
The Colorado Kid	Oct-05
Cell	Jan-06
Lisey's Story	Jan-06
Blaze	Jun-07
Duma Key	Jan-08
Just After Sunset (13 short stories)	Nov-08
The Gingerbread Girl	Nov-08
UR	Feb-09
Under the Dome	Nov-09
Blockade Billy	Apr-10
Full Dark No Stars: 1922	Nov-10
Full Dark No Stars: A Good Marriage	Nov-10
Full Dark No Stars: Big Driver	Nov-10
Full Dark No Stars: Fair Extension	Nov-10
Mile 81	Sep-11
11/22/63	Nov-11
The Wind Through the Keyhole	Feb-12
Joyland	Apr-13
Doctor Sleep	Sep-13
Mr. Mercedes	Jun-14

My name is Paul and I am a Stephen King fan. (There. It's out!) And this is my story...

 

I started reading Stephen King the year I left school (1976) and he immediately became my new author of choice. I went on to hungrily devour each new book, my enthusiasm only waning as the end of the century loomed. Odd really, because at the time I missed out on his acclaimed book on the craft of writing, only receiving it years later as a gift.

 

Stephen King is often dismissed as a "horror" writer, catering to the market for cheap thrills. How woefully wrong. Yes he made his name writing scary fiction, lending new slants on the supernatural, the paranormal and the gory, but his body of work contains so much more. Starting with 'Hearts in Atlantis' and before that to a degree, notably in 'The Green Mile', SK's stories, and he is at core a storyteller, shifted subtlely toward the mainstream. Examine his novels with a critical eye on subsequent readings and many themes, metaphors and motifs emerge. Consider his seemingly effortlessly chosen names, then consider their symbolism.

 

He has always had a knack for bringing his characters to life, and making you root for them. Now that his premises are closer to reality I find myself caring even more. Lisey's Story is entirely character driven, Duma Key is too, although the latter suffers from a recurring difficulty, that slightly unsatisfying ending.

 

This isn't meant to be a critique of his work or even a reminder of his real literary status (I'm sure to address both those issues in due course) but an acknowledgement by me that King remains the single biggest influence on my own writing. His masterly turn of phrase, his vivid creation of scenes, his realistic dialogue and his unswerving accuracy concerning human nature are the reasons why he occupies substantial shelf space with me, figuratively and literally.

 

My chart above lists the novels, novellas and collected short stories and indicates whether I have the book, the audio book, the film, or indeed all three. I have excluded his fantasy work, a genre which just doesn't float my boat. The blue annotations in the book column indicate that I recently gave my copies to my eldest son. If I have the film I've shown the IMDB rating, which confirms that Stephen King seldom translates well to the big screen. Outstanding exceptions are of course Shawshank (No. 1 on IMDB), The Green Mile and The Shining.

 

In later years I have been absorbing most literature on audio book and have been steadily re-collecting Stephen King in that format. I now have most of his novels on audio book and am working on plugging the few remaining gaps in my list. The results easily rip to mp3 and are available for my iPod for going-to-sleep listening. Tonight on the pillow I will be returning to the very beginning.

 

Some  early recordings are out of production, but serviceable copies can be found on YouTube. I downloaded them, converted them to mp3, chopped the whopping files into convenient hour long chunks (hundreds of them), cleaned them up significantly using Audacity (to remove tape hiss, echo, clicks, pops and occasional sweet reminders of analogue days - "this ends side fifteen. Insert cassette eight to continue")!