Novel Navigation: How should I proceed?

So it feels like I’ve arrived at the party far too late, everyone is fun drunk and I’ve barely had a sip of my wine. I’m referring to the party of Stephen King literature of course. I’ve stumbled into the party this year that has been going on for decades so how do I get stuck in? For a new Stephen King reader it can be quite overwhelming.

Well I have already started hence King of Macabre but it’s difficult to know what order I should read his work in? I had planned to read The Dark Tower series after I finish It however today it was recommended to me that I should read The Stand after It as apparently there are a lot of connections between the two. Also I read on a forum recently that you’ll “get a good dose of debauchery in The Stand” which immediately appealed to my senses. The Stand is therefore next on my Stephen King reading list.

Once I have read The Stand however, do I do as previously planned and move onto The Dark Tower series? Here is my reasoning why I am attracted to it: I do love reading book series, I’ll have eight books to read that are all connected and the latest Dark Tower novel only came out last year. I have to confess that another pulling factor is that I recently found out “The Dark Tower: IV: Wizard and Glass” is set or is based on the Land of Oz – OMG! I kind of LOVE anything to do with Oz so you can imagine how amazing this revelation was to me.

So I have read King in this order so far: The Shining, Carrie, Misery and I currently reading It – I appreciate that this is chronological chaos but then should I really read King in any type of chronology? Should I read the entire King books before I move onto the Richard Bachman books? I know I will definitely read Danse Macabre and On Writing but should I read this only after his non-fiction work?

I’m not going to worry about it too much as I have probably another two weeks of getting through It, I’ll then watch the film and then I can write a whole blog devoted to the book and film (and the upcoming re-make!). I will then move onto The Stand. I will need to make a decision however after The Stand. Joyland probably would have been released after I finished The Stand so should I read that next?

I thought that all of Stephen King’s books were contained in the list at the beginning of his books published by Holder & Stoughton. When I looked into Joyland on Wikipedia I found out that it will be his second book published by Hard Case Crime and his other book is The Colorado Kid (2005) which not contained in the list. How many other books are there then that I’m yet to find out about?! Perhaps it would make sense to read Joyland after reading The Colorado Kid?

I know I will definitely read Dr Sleep as soon as it comes out and I can’t wait to write a huge blog about it and include my analysis and thoughts on the Shining as well!

Any suggestions on what to read after The Stand will be much appreciated.

PROLOGUE: Stumbling across Stephen King

2013: the year I decided to finally read Stephen King. Of course I have always been familiar with his stories and from a very young age I was exposed to the films based on his books – even though I wasn’t supposed to. I’ve always been attracted to material that my evangelical childhood household would certainly not approve of in fact prohibit. The attraction was much more than just the fact that such material was prohibited however, I’ve always felt connected to the dark and the strange. It was only however in 2013 did I finally make the conscious decision to read Stephen King.

It began after listening to a radio 4 discussion about The Shining just before Christmas 2012. In a nutshell, it was commented that the novel simply must be read. I remember watching Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining when I was about 11 and I just devoured its apparent obscurity. This memory and the radio 4 commentary were persuasive enough for me to decide that The Shining will be the next book I’ll read.

One of my 2012 Christmas presents was a Waterstones’ voucher and knew exactly how I would use it. After Christmas I went to Waterstones to look for The Shining. Stephen King’s books were ‘buy one get the other half price’ so, like a good consumer without necessarily intending to buy a second Stephen King book, I decided it would make sense to see if there was another one that looked enticing. I then came across It.

Picking up It, I remembered the news agent down the road where I had grown up had the iconic film poster of It next to the videos to rent for most of my childhood. I remembered watching the beginning of the film when I was very young, Pennywise talking to Georgie from the drains, but I didn’t actually watch it all the way through for some reason. These familiar memories of It were good enough reasons to buy the book together with The Shining to make good use of the ‘deal’.

Not being an overly cynical person, I do make new year’s resolutions. One of my 2013 new year’s resolutions was to read more. I had my copy of The Shining and my copy of It which would enable me to fulfil this resolution. As I bought It as consequence of buying The Shining, I decided to read The Shining first – also It is 1376 pages long. I have to confess that reading The Shining took me longer than I first imagined. Not because I didn’t enjoy reading it, but because I had been out of the habit of reading and didn’t commit to reading every day.

My birthday is in February: my partner, among other things of course, bought me Carrie and Misery to read. I have to confess initially I wasn’t thrilled. Perhaps it was the guilt of still not finishing The Shining and then having 1376 pages of It to read after that. I do have a track record or starting books but not finishing them. I may have initially been concerned about my growing reading list, but this was indeed crucial to me becoming an avid Stephen King reader – I won’t use the term ‘fan’.

I finished reading The Shining in February 2013 on a Saturday morning. I had recently bought Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining DVD in preparation to watch after I would finish the book. Straight away after finishing the book I put the DVD on – I hadn’t watched the film in about 15 years so it was almost like watching it for the first time. After watching the film, I was completely taken aback at how different the book and the film were. Specifically I was very disappointed with the portrayal of Jack Torrance in the film – criticising the film however I would find out is sacrilege.

Comparing the book and the film of The Shining, I immediately developed a raw appreciation, which would become passion, for Stephen King in book form. I needed to start my second Stephen King book. Although I intended to move on to It, I now had Carrie and Misery. At the beginning of a Hodder and Stoughton Stephen King book, it lists all the books they have published for Stephen King. Reading through this impressive list, I discovered that Carrie was Stephen King’s first published novel. Carrie is a very small book so it made sense to me to make this book my next read. I also remember watching the film as a pre-adolescent so I thought it would be fun to watch the film again after I would finish the book – although my memory of it was very poor.

I started reading Carrie and unsurprisingly it was a page turner. In anticipation that I would read the book quickly, I thought I should buy the DVD. I found and purchased on Amazon a Stephen King box set which consisted of Misery, The Dark Half and Carrie. Perfect. I was unfamiliar with The Dark Half, but when I would read Misery, I would be able to watch the DVD straight away afterwards. I’d finished reading Carrie within a week without much effort and could watch the film straight away.

The differences between the book and the film of Carrie were nowhere near as stark as The Shining, but they were still there – specifically the ending. Of course a book and a film are never going to be the same. I suddenly became fascinated with the process for a screenplay writer to turn a novel into a film. I needed to discuss this with someone, anyone.

Straight away after watching Carrie I moved onto Misery – probably because I was still intimidated by 1376 pages. Again, like The Shining and Carrie, as soon as I finished reading the book I watched the film. As described in Misery, I had well and truly developed the ‘gotta’. I needed an outlet, space to analyse, discuss STEPHEN KING.

2013: a year to be excited about Stephen King. The sequel to The Shining (1977) is set to be released in September. Joyland, Stephen King’s second published novel by Hard Case Crime is set to be released in June. A re-make of the film Carrie is being released in cinemas in time for Halloween.

With my new found obsession in the same year that big upcoming events are taken place led me to conclude that I needed a forum to express all things Stephen King. I know I was attracted to Stephen King because of my natural curiosity and interest in the macabre so I wanted to consolidate my related interests within the same space. This finally gave birth to King of Macabre – a space to analyse, discuss, debate etc. all things King and all things macabre.

I am currently reading It and I am no longer intimidated by the 1376 pages because it is not a chore and I am so glad I made that off-the-cuff decision to purchase It. After reading It, I will watch the film and now I have the forum to write about it! My plan is to then read The Dark Tower series. I am so excited!