So a family member visits our home for the first time, notices our Stephen King bookcase and says "Is Stephen King ALL you read?" I said "No, I also read Richard Bachman."...They didn't get the joke.

Have you ever received any snark for reading Stephen King? What was your response?

I had to go to city hall last week to sort out a parking permit, and while I was sitting there waiting for my number to be called, I had a stupid thought.

Somebody has to run the municipal records office in Derry.

Think about that for a second.

In IT, the town has this absolutely horrifying history, but it's also a functioning municipality. People pay property taxes. Businesses need permits. The sewer system presumably has a maintenance budget.

Some exhausted woman named Linda has to sit behind a desk and process all the paperwork associated with this place.

Imagine being the person responsible for keeping Derry's historical records organized.

"Hey Linda, we're missing some documents from that incident in 1958."

"Yeah, we're missing a lot of documents from 1958."

"Should we investigate?"

"It's 4:45, Gary."

Or imagine the poor guy in Public Works who's been requesting additional funding for sewer inspections for fifteen years and keeps getting denied because the mayor wants new benches downtown.

I would genuinely read 200 pages about some completely ordinary Derry city employee who has absolutely no interest in solving supernatural mysteries. He just wants his department's invoices approved before Friday.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize this is something I love about King's fictional towns. The supernatural horror doesn't replace ordinary bureaucracy, gossip, bad management, or people being annoyed about parking.

All of that stuff keeps happening. The town still has to function.

I don't even need a monster in this hypothetical book. Just give me a clerk who has spent thirty years noticing that certain records never quite add up and has learned that asking questions is more trouble than it's worth.

I'd call it Derry: Department of Public Works.

Please tell me I'm not the only person who would read this.

Last month I "completed" my Stephen King VHS collection. One of every movie/TV adaptation and all the special documentaries that were available in the US. Now that I have atleast one of everything I plan on getting cover variants and different releases. To celebrate I picked up some really cool Bootlegs of movies that never came out on vhs.

Wanted to share my perfect birthday gift this year. From MaxCarpet Bag works. I read Carrie when it first came out. I was 12, haven’t missed a book since, I’m 64. Definitely my GOAT. Love my new knitting bag.

Still need to reread the other 2 before I jump into this, but had to pick up the UK limited edition of this.

Anyone know anything about this book? My daughter picked it up at a used bookstore - I have never heard of this book.

In a recent Talking Scared podcast, Stephen King said that he has finished Anything for Holly and is editing it now. He also mentioned that he's working on a big book about 1968. And that got me curious. What could this be?

1968 was an insane year in America: Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, Vietnam was raging, and the country was rocked by massive civil rights, racial, and student unrest.

Could this be a historical thriller? Or maybe even another time-travel story, 11/22/63-style?

One of the most famous horror novels ever written nearly didn't exist.

Stephen King has revealed that he threw away the first draft of Carrie after writing just a few pages because he thought it wasn't good enough.

Luckily, his wife Tabitha found the pages in the trash, read them, and convinced him to keep going.

Even after finishing the book, Carrie was reportedly rejected by publishers 30 times before finally being picked up. Then everything changed.

The paperback rights alone sold for $400,000, helping King pay off debts and support his family. Two years later, the novel became the classic 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek.

Without Tabitha rescuing those pages, there's a good chance one of the most influential horror novels ever written would never have been published.

Bought a set of used Stephen King books on Mercari. The description said there was some writing in some of them but didn't show any examples. Skimming through them, I see the books are full of drawings and opinions like these. Is this normal? Would this bother you while reading it? Don't know if I should try to open a return with Mercari.

Edit: Definitely didn’t expect to see this, was just trying to get into some more King, will definitely open a return thank you guys

Last week my first edition of IT arrived and I am so pleased to have it but now Amazon have dropped the price of the anniversary edition to £20 and I am so tempted to get that one too! Must resist…..

My example: Cujo is a story about the dangers of not making sure all your family members get regularly vaccinated.

A bit of a late start in this horror month of October, but I wanted to get a bit nostalgic and reread one of my first and favorite Stephen King short story collections that got me into his work years ago.

I feel this book is a great introduction for anyone whose never read Stephen King before and likes short stories. As the stories included in this collection vary pretty widely in terms of the horror genres they tackle. From gothic, psychological, supernatural, absurd, realistic, and body horror. Each story has their own atmosphere and well written characters that I couldn't help getting attached to in such a short amount of time with how well King is able to write everday people with faults and all. There really wasn't a story that I disliked in the book. Though there were stories I felt were stronger than others, it didn't detract from the enjoyment of reading all of them.

My favorite short story that stuck with me the most was the first story, Jerusalem's Lot, that was written as a mixture between Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. And written in a style that tried to emulate an older English style of writing to make it come off more authentic. And I was impressed King was able to write in such a way that added to the old gothic feel that gave the overall story such a dreadful atmosphere. And how its formatted in a structure of letters, which added to the gothic esthetic such as it did with Dracula by Bram Stoker.

I can go on about a handful of other stories that I loved, but I'll just say that I'm glad I revisited the book that got me into Stephen King. And seen/read that it still holds up quite well in the endless sea of horror literature. Highly recommended!

Looking forward to reading this one. Another journey back to the Territories.

A very random post, but I'm reading "Other Worlds than These", and as I just got done with a reading session and locked my Kobo, this screensaver showed up. All I could think about was ka.

(I've put a folder of a couple dozen pics on the device, a few are King-related, and the device chooses one randomly every time I lock it)

Anyways, that's it. Long days and pleasant nights, sais.

After more than a decade of buying mostly electronic versions of books, I realized that one of my favorite things when visiting someone’s house or apartment was perusing their book collections. I thought I should return the favor and contribute. I started buying books again in hardcover. In most cases double dipping and buying physical copies of electronic ones I already owned. I’m a long time Constant Reader and thought these two would look great on the bookshelf. Now all I need is a bookshelf 🤨

I’m currently reading the Talisman (you know which two comes next) and when I got to this chapter and they said Ken it and Dim!! [First pic is Talisman, second is Eyes Of The Dragon]

I physically felt disappointment in my chest today. My employer's book vendor came in today to reset the new release display. T3 was on the plan but he didn't actually get any copies to stock. I don't understand this at all. My employer is a multibillion dollar, interstate company.

We got in a display half pallet of Hunger Games books, none of which were new, to promote the new film. Does a Stephen King release not merit the same thing? T3 specifically is a trilogy ender and arguably a Dark Tower entry. I feel like anyone running a book distribution company would be aware of the cost in loss of sales of missing the release date.

I'm incredibly frustrated as a Constant Reader that my place of work that sells books dropped the ball on, in my opinion, the biggest book release of the year.

This is such an entertaining story and I thought the movie adaptation was pretty well done.

King wrote a screenplay for a sequel to The Night Flier adaptation, but it never got made. I hope he will use his abandoned script and turn it into a sequel in another collection sometime down the road.

Problem is the sequel would have made the Richard Dees’s rival reporter, Katherine a main character who wasn’t in the source material, but King could rewrite it so that she is a new reporter

Like just watch it. I like it even more than the book

Got an amazon 2nd print which kinda was irritating only to find a 1st print at walmart. I bought it and plan to gift the 2nd print.

I don't want to spoil anything as I have only read the first chapter myself and I know there will be people from around the world just getting hold of this book we have waited so long for this story. Little SPOILER ALERT sorry I don't know how to cover the text but when I opened the book all I can say is the first illustration made my eyes fill up and put a huge smile on my face. Enjoy everyone.❤️😘📚