FROM "CARRIE" TO "THE INSTITUTE" - THE GREAT STEPHEN KING RE-READ

Stephen King has been in my life for as long as I can remember. I was originally going to say “all my life”, but seeing as I came into this world in 1973 and I'm pretty sure my mother didn't come home from the library with her first King novel until around 1981, I thought that would be stretching the point a little. Everything before 1980 is a little hazy to me. I remember scraps of things - holidays down in Newquay, having a picture taken with a monkey on my head (I'll talk about that some other time), burning my hand on the hot tap at my Aunty June's house, watching Episode 4 of Robots of Death air for the first time – but almost everything else is a little blurry as though I was trying to peer at it through a thick veil of smoke.

But I remember the first time a Stephen King book came into our house.

I can't begin to tell you how much of an influence, how much of an inspiration King's work has had on my own writing. On my passion for reading. Ever since I could hold a pen I've been writing stories, and King's books were what convinced me that I could write for a living too. Even during those moments when I had my doubts, when others around me were getting “real” jobs. When I felt that those around me might have been wondering when this writing fad would run its course and I'd start thinking about learning a proper trade.

It was around 1983, when I was 10 years old, that I borrowed the book from the library. That very same book that my mum had brought home with her just 2 years earlier. We called it the container library; it wasn't a permanent library, but a mobile one that was a converted trailer of a lorry and only came around every Tuesday, but that's not relevant to this story and I'm sure I'll talk about the library again in an upcoming post. So, anyway, this book was a hardback published by Bounty Books and contained the first three of King's books: Carrie, 'Salem's Lot and The Shining. The cover had a montage of stills from Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of The Shining. Inside the books were presented out of order – The Shining first, followed by 'Salem's Lot, and finally Carrie. But I didn't read them that way. I noticed on the copyright page that Carrie should be read first. Then Salem's Lot. And finally The Shining. So that's how I read them. In reverse order in the book, but in the correct order in which they were published.

The next time I came across his books was in 1985. I wasn't feeling too well and I was off school and spending the day in bed. My mum had gone out to the mobile library and promised to bring me a few books back. Amongst the stack of books she came back with under her arm was a certain fire-engine-red paperback with a cover depicting a sleek 1950s American car emerging from the open door of a dark, ominous garage. That book was Christine and I absolutely devoured it. I finished it in two sittings over the course of two days.

And that, ladies and gentlemen of the court, was the exact moment I fell in love with King's writing. And I've been smitten ever since.

Over the past few years I've been toying with the idea of going back to the very beginning, all the way back to 1974 and Carrie and re-reading all of King's novels from the very beginning, in published order. I was curious how all these books – these books I had loved and cherished as a kid - would seem to me now, after all these years.

And now I figured that it was time for me to do just that!

Only I've decided to open it out just a little and include the four books of novellas, plus a novella from Skeleton Crew, as well as a novelette.

And as I read each of the books I'm going to blog about it. Actually, two of us are going to blog about it - adult me in the here and now, and the young me who's reading it twenty or more years ago. It'll be a joint effort. I'll be sharing with you my thoughts and feelings on each of the books as I read them now, and he'll be telling you his thoughts and feelings from the way back when.

Obviously, first up will be Carrie (coming very soon). But here's the full list of all the books I'll be revisiting over the coming months (and years too, probably!!)

Carrie

'Salem's Lot

The Shining

Rage

The Stand

The Long Walk

The Dead Zone

Firestarter

Roadwork

Cujo

The Running Man

Different Seasons  (novellas - Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body, The Breathing Method)

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

Christine

Pet Semetary

Cycle of the Werewolf  (novelette)

The Talisman

The Eyes of the Dragon

Thinner

The Mist  (novella from Skeleton Crew)

It

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Misery

The Tommyknockers

The Dark Half

Four Past Midnight  (novellas - The Langoliers, Secret Window Secret Garden, The Library Policeman, The Sun Dog)

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

Needful Things

Gerald's Game

Dolores Claiborne

Insomnia

Rose Madder

The Green Mile

Desperation

The Regulators

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass

Bag of Bones

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Hearts in Atlantis   (novellas - Low Men in Yellow Coats, Hearts in Atlantis, Blind Willie, Why We're in Vietnam, Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling)

Dreamcatcher

Black House

From a Buick 8

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla

The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susanna

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

The Colorado Kid

Cell

Lisey's Story

Blaze

Duma Key

Under the Dome

Full Dark, No Stars   (novellas - 1922, Big Driver, Fair Extension, A Good Marriage)

11/22/63

The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole

Joyland

Doctor Sleep

Mr. Mercedes

Revival

Finders Keepers

End of Watch

Gwendy's Button Box

Sleeping Beauties

The Outsider

Elevation

The Institute