any STEPHEN KING fans out there?

[NinaAusten]

you can also pay by credit card (they have an arrangement with amazon) para sure ang dating ng payment mo.

it's a relief na reach ang target ni sk. he was targeting 75% will pay, and mga 76.something ang nagbayad. else, he wouldn't have continued the novel. kinda restores your faith sa human nature, doesn't it?

ang ayaw ko lang is medyo hassle such na you have to print it and bind it pa. storywise, medyo funny siya and i'm hoping ok yung overall. i was disappointed with gerald's game kasi. i kept waiting for the punch line and then, "yon na yon?"

[juve_grrrl10]

Originally posted by asterisk:
Have you paid na ba for the story? Ito ba yung story ni Stephen King na puwede mong idownload muna and then just send the money to him all the way to Bangor? It is also meant to test people's honesty.

Siempre naman! 'wawa naman si SK kung magda-download lang ako...Yes, he said in his site mga 75% ang nagbayad so it's really cool! Nakaka-tempt ngang huwag nang magbayad, pero he IS my favorite author and I liked what I read, at siempre if I want to read the entire thing I have to pay, di ba? Buti na lang pwede sa card... Pati $1 is cheap na, considering na noong binili ko yung Green Mile series, P70 each yata noon, eh ngayon nakakakita ako sa BookSale mga P10 na lang!

I think you can also pay by sending your checks/money orders to Amazon.com.

Actually for me it's kinda "neat" that I printed it out, parang ang dating kasi SK made the story just for me! Pati mas madali ring basahin, aayusin mo pa kasi sa computer, atsaka hindi mo na kailangang buksan ang computer!

[quisty13]

it's true...his earlier buks are better...
Salem's Lot made me watch the window constantly... Bag of Bones bored me, Hearts in Atlantis is just plain odd, and his short stories are fantastic.

oh, and anybody read his Bachman books like the Long Walk and Rage? Ang ganda...lalo na Long Walk... i don't think masu-survive ko iyon!

[neth_row]

i borrowed 2 SK books from my friend (eyes of the dragon and salem's lot)...i'm currently reading the eyes of the dragon, and it's a little bit dragging....

[sadirmata]

i like "the shining" and "misery". napanood ko ang mga movie ng dalawang ito, ok rin pero mas magandang basahin sa libro ang "the shining" while mas maganda yung movie ng "misery" kaysa libro kasi feel mo talaga ang suspense...

i have yet to buy/read more of stephen king's books...

nakabili ako sa booksale ng "a different seasons" pero di ko pa sinimulang basahin...

na-download nyo ba (when it's still free) yung e-book na "riding the bullet"? this is classic stephen king creepy thriller. maikli lang pero matindi ito!

yung "the plant" daw ay itinigil na ni king ang serialization nito sa web at gagawin nang printed na book talaga imbes na e-book, totoo ba?

[joe_cool]

i have to say the earlier works of SK is much much better than his latter works!!! aside from carrie, i've completed collecting his works, but i haven't read them all!!!
it's true, lahat ng books ni SK na ginawang movies ay dud!!! syempre, with an imagination like SK, ang hirap i-visualize ang novel nya into a movie di ba?
still, ang maganda ngaka SK, connected and mga characters nya. mayroon syang "caslte rock stories." ang setting ng it, insomnia and bag of bones(the earlier part) ay derry,maine, in which some characters interacted with one another(in bag of bones, mike noonan spoke with mike hanley, the black librarian in it and raplh robertson of insomnia who suggested to him to take a vacation in the first place!!!).then there's his masterpiece, the dark tower saga. galing nya talaga!

[Pwe Pwe Pwe]

I just want to share something I made a few years back...

· Background on the author

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947. He won a scholarship award to the University of Maine, where he taught English for a time. He lives in Bangor, Maine with his wife, the writer Tabitha King, and their 3 children, Naomi, Joe and Owen Philip. He is the author of over 30 books, all of which are worldwide bestsellers. His first novel, Carrie, and its film adaptation gave him the present position as perhaps the bestselling author in the world. He is a recepient of the O. Henry Award for short fiction.

Stephen King sees his wife, Tabitha, as his ideal reader because she is also a writer and that she knows him the best. This combination enables her to criticize his works effectively, for she knows when he is cutting edges or writing too much. So when she says that what he did is good, it most likely is.

· Why he writes

Contrary to what tabloids and his critics say, Stephen King does not write for the money, but because he loves it and that he cares for his readers. In the introduction of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, his 5th collection of short stories, he writes:

"The job is getting to you, Constant Reader, getting you by the short hairs and, hopefully, scaring you so badly you won't be able to go to sleep without leaving your bathroom light on. It is still about first seeing the impossible... and then saying it. It's still about making you believe what I believe, at least for a little while."

He sees stories as a great thing which enhances our lives and save it as well. He believes that good writing/stories are the imagination's firing pin, that it's purpose is to offer solace and shelter from situations and lifepassages which would otherwise prove unendurable. Such is also the reason sleep is important, for when we sleep, we usually dream, and this keeps us sane and intact to face another day. And this is his main reason for making horror stories. In the introduction of his 5th collection of short stories, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, he writes:

"The imagination which so often kept me awake in terror as a child has seen me through some terrible bouts of stark raving reality as an adult."

· What he writes about

Stephen King writes fiction with a bit of truth. He is sometimes inspired by what he hears in music or reads in poems. For example, he based The Dark Tower series on the poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower by Robert Browning, which is also in debt to King Lear. The Tommyknockers came from a Mother Goose rhyme. They are the ghosts of miners who died of starvation but who are still knocking for food and rescue. Stephen King also includes excerpts of songs, poems, speeches or sayings at the beginning of each novel.

Stephen King can take something which is based on actual happenings and create a story explaining it. He can also take any eerie and thought-provoking cases or ideas which circulate among us, and make up a story about it. He then adds a little bit of his imagination and presents it to us in the way he thinks it is supposed to be. He writes about the things he knows, things which bother or fascinate him, things he knows. But even if he wants to scare the readers out of their wits, he doesn't leave them all alone in the dark. He tries to explain things clearly and guides them to reach the end of every story he makes. For example, in the foreword of his first collection of short stories, Night Shift, he writes:

"Grab onto my arm now. Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark places, but I think I know the way. Just don't let go of my arm."

· Works as Richard Bachman

Stephen King used to write by his pseudonym, Richard Bachman as a relief from being himself. He believed that novelists are role-players themselves, and it was fun to be someone else for a while. He developed a personality and a history to go along with a author photo on the back of Thinner and his "wife," Claudia Inez Bachman, to whom he dedicated the book. Bachman was a fairly unpleasant fellow who was born in New York and spent about 10 years in the merchant marine after four years in the Coast Guard. He then settled in New Hampshire, where he wrote at night because he suffered from chronic insomnia, and tended to his medium-sized dairy farm during the day. The Bachmans had one child, a boy who died in an accident at the age of 6, falling through a well cover and drowning. A brain tumor at the base of Bachman's brain was discovered in 1983, but was removed through tricky surgery.

When Stephen King wrote straight fiction as Richard Bachman, no one asked any questions. Thinner, his 5th novel as Richard Bachman, sold 28,000 in hardcover before a Washington bookstore clerk got suspicious and went to the Library of Congress to uncover Stephen King's name on one of the Bachman copyrights. Hardly anyone read his books as Richard Bachman, and he was fine with that. But then Richard Bachman "died" in Feburary 1985, when Bangor Daily News published a story that Stephen King was Bachman, to which he confirmed. Thinner then sold 280,000 as Stephen King.

[b]· Comparing his written works with those made into movies[/i]

Most of the Stephen King stories that have been made into movies lack the detail which the book clearly portrays. You not know the thoughts of the characters, unless it is said out loud or if it is seen well enough in the faces of the characters. This would need good actors, but most of these are B-movies, so facial emotions are most likely to be unseen. If you don't believe me, read the book then watch the movie, and you'll see what I mean. But if you really want to appreciate Stephen King's works, I would suggest that you stick with the original material.



[Edited by *happy*phantom* on 04-24-2001 at 07:52 AM]

[Cerberus]

It. Stephen King in his Nostalgic Best.

[jackryan]

Nothing can beat King's (almost) new novel: "Bag of Bones"! It's either you can't put the book down 'cause ur too engrossed reading or you have to put the book down 'cause ur already too darn scared! creepy book, possibly one of King's finest.

[*happy*phantom*]

bump!

[Hot Pants]

Originally posted by jackryan
Nothing can beat King's (almost) new novel: "Bag of Bones"! It's either you can't put the book down 'cause ur too engrossed reading or you have to put the book down 'cause ur already too darn scared! creepy book, possibly one of King's finest.

i'll definitely buy that one! next on my list is Dreamcatcher . i can't wait to read Dreamcatcher because i'm a UFO junkie.

[DLX]

i've already read The Dreamcatcher. it's a great read. u should definitely have a copy of that soon.

TRIVIA: Its title was supposed to be "Cancer" but his wife Tabitha King recommended to change it.

[This is God]

I didn't like Dreamcatcher at all .... it started out great and ended like a bad sci-fi flick. I bought it in hardcover too ..... guess i was expecting it to be like hearts in atlantis or bag of bones (both of which i enjoyed very very much).

Have any of you read 'On Writing', King's new book on...well...writing?

my all-time favorites are It, The Shining, (the?)Long Walk, Different Seasons, Desperation and Hearts in Atlantis.

i couldn't get into the stand, tommyknockers, or the dark tower series...and those are all supposed to be really good...it isn't that they were written badly or anything like that. ..guess i'll just get to those when i have more free time

[Ashley_Riot]

I've been reading SK novels since my highschool days. I remember watching the langoliers on studio 23 and was intrigued by the story so I decided to buy Four past midnight, it was good and i've been hooked on it ever since. My favorites would be The Shining, Needful Things and Night Shift. Especially Night Shift, even though its only a collection of short stories and not a novel, its still very good.

Another thing, saan kayo nakabili ng Eyes of the Dragon?

[juve_grrrl10]

Originally posted by Ashley_Riot
Another thing, saan kayo nakabili ng Eyes of the Dragon?

I bought mine ages ago at Booksale! pero minsan may lumalabas na kopya nito doon kaya magtiyaga ka rin. Napansin ko lang ngayon ang dalang na lumabas ng mga SK, noon kasi parating meron kaya nakumpleto ko collection ko : ) Oi, nakakaita rin ako ng EOTD sa National ah!

This is God, you're the first person I know who doesn't like the Dark Tower series!!! You really should give it another go... come on, even SK himself considers this as his "Holy Grail"! (Siempre ito kasi favorite ko, 2nd ang EOTD.) Atsaka maraming "connect" ang DT sa maraming stories ni SK, like similar ito sa story ng The Talisman, may connection din sa The Stand at Insomnia. Basta, basahin mo na lang uli, hopefully ma-appreciate mo rin!

BTW, there's a poignant story SK wrote in this month's issue of Reader's Digest. basically about how his life was when he finally got Carrie published. Very touching.

[This is God]

juve_grrrl10: It's not that I didn't like it, I just couldn't get into it! Maybe it's because I only have Wizard and Glass...I've been looking for the first three in the series but I haven't been able to find them All they seem to carry regularly in national nowadays is hearts in atlantis, bag of bones, the skeleton crew, cujo and dolores claiborne...Hmph. I know i know, look somewhere else
..There are some Dark Tower references in Hearts in Atlantis too, right? I remember Roland being mentioned. I think.
I haven't read Eye of the Dragon either.! What's it about? I always see that too, but have never bothered to pick it up.

............

Have you guys all read the Stand + Tommyknockers? They seem really interesting but I haven't been able to bring myself to finish them. I've read up to around page 300 in The Stand. Thrice.

............

As opposed to the ones that seemed good but I couldn't get into, here are a couple that seemed good......but were not :
Gerald's Game
Dreamcatcher

[Hobbes2001]

I do share the opinion of many King followers that his most recent works have become too predictable - none of the usual macabre suspense that marked his early works. Proof of this the fact that I do rush out to buy the new King books as I dused to before (maybe also because of the rising costs of buying books, paperbacks even). I did buy Bag of Bones but this was after months of debating whether to buy or not (after the disappointment of Desperation, Insomnia, Rose Madder.... uugh!... don't blame me for being this uncertain)

Personally, I believe King was at his best with the short story format... different seasons, night shift, skeleton cre, four past midnight... these stories are really creepy. The Shining, Salem's Lot, The Dead Zone (personal favorite), now these were great books. Please!! no more of Gerard's Game, Tommyknockers, The Dark Half....

[Freakworks]

The first Stephen King book I ever read was CARRIE. I thought the plot was really good, but the ending left me hanging. The next thing I did was a mistake--I bought li8ke, 5 of his other books and, well, we all know that buying lots of books at the same time is bad because you don't know which one to read first. So I ended up reading a few pages of each book and never really finished it. My bad. I do have the short stories collection, NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES..."The Moving Finger" was way cool.
I think the way Stephen King writes is beyond all the fictional crap out there. There was a time when I grew tired of his work, thinking it was kind of corny and not well-written. After reading his book, "STEPHEN KING ON WRITING", I now have this new respect for the genius, and I realized that he's so much like me when it comes to writing---not holding anything back, straight-to-the-point, flat out in front of you.
Stephen King's a geniius.

[Freakworks]

Another thing, saan kayo nakabili ng Eyes of the Dragon?

I bought mine 2 years ago (or somewhat like that) in National Bookstore in Megamall.

[Hobbes2001]

i've read the new semi-autobiography King book and i have to say that he definitly not what his critics take him to be. i especially liked the way he blasted away at some books (which i gleefully recall as having hated as well.... like bridges... uhg! ) and recommended some. His tips on writing are very down to earth with none of the usual bull___t you get from so-called experts.

The stories behind the stories were also interesting. Who could have imagined he wrote such greats stories (Misery, for instance) while caught in the grip of substance abuse!!!

but what i appreciate the most was I got to see the humanity behind the man. Here was a ordinary guy who just wanted to write, who had his share of limitations and moments of depair and who clearly loved his wife (so much!! the helicopter scene was just right out of melodramatic soap opera!)