I used to think I bought my first Stephen King paperback from a rotating book rack at Mark Steven's Factory Outlet store at Diamond Hill Plaza. But though that bright yellow book may have been pulled from a wire book rack, I don't know why I would have been up at the Plaza in East Woonsocket when in 1980, at the age of 16, my life revolved around my home, school and part-time job, all far from that location. Well, not FAR per-se, just not within usual walking distance feasibility, which was my mode of transportation back then. Likely, I bought it either at a store somewhere in the path of my walk to and from school, or HoJo's where I worked, or, maybe, using my second most frequent mode of transit, the bus, at Lincoln Mall.
Of course the walking distance argument may be off the table considering around this time I, on a whim, decided to walk to a NAJAC delegates meetup at the state advisor's house in Warwick. From my house in Woonsocket. Just checked it on Google Maps...a distance of 22.5 miles. Ah youth. Google says it would take about seven and a half hours to walk. Sounds about right.
That first paperback, bought with the hard-earned dollars from my dishwashing job, was read in a pretty-much one-off read. Whether it took just one night or a couple, I'm sure I was bleary eyed from intense reading and lack of sleep. Oh, but it was worth it.
Which book? "The Shining." It was prominently displayed on shelves, not because it was new (having been first published about three years earlier) but because Kubrick's movie adaptation of it was newly out and it was a hit.
I think this and "Carrie" were, for decades, the only SK books I read AFTER seeing the movie. Sixteen years old and I'd already seen R-rated fare like these films? Oh yeah. My parents didn't give a shit and theater ticket counter kids were just a few years older than me so they didn't care either. I never remembered anyone back then being denied entry to an R-rated movie 'cause they were too young. I sure wasn't.
I'm not gonna play the game of which was better in either of those two cases since, in both cases, I think the books and the movies were equally great in their own right. People who are so triggered by changes in movies based on books need to get a life. It happens. Take it for what it is.
Soon after finishing "The Shining," I made haste to "catch up," went and bought most of his previous works I could find and read them with such devotion right from the get go. I was hooked. By the time "Cujo" came out in September 1981, I had "caught up" and it was the first book of his I'd bought "hot off the presses" and in hardcover to boot. And it proceeded like that for years. Book release, visit to Walden Books, Barnes and Noble or Borders, didn't matter, they all sold them and pretty well discounted in order to get that SK fan foot traffic and "oh, and this too" sale.
Some years were a little leaner than others, as well you know by just a cursory perusal of this blog, of course, so I had to wait 'till the paperback came out. Some years, I had to wait even longer than that. Some years, especially culminating with Koyo, I had to forgo my reading hobby for the hobby of surviving. But at the dawn of the new century it wasn't only my personal finances affecting my devotion, it was also a general decline in reading altogether. And throw in the fact that I, like other fans, so I've read, became convinced that after his accident, SK kinda lost his mojo.
So since the beginning of this century, I've read less than half of what he's written. I got "Cell" after a long hiatus and it was so bad I almost dropped my intent to re-catch up for good. I've gotten so far behind, I've seen some movies or TV adaptations BEFORE reading the source material.
And it's one of these depictions that inspired this post. I'm right in the middle of watching the series "Lisey's Story" on AppleTV+. Man, this is THE SHIT! It's like I'm reading this but it's being acted out in front of my on my TV screen. And it seems like old times. This is the stuff I fell in love with! You know I got to get the book. The book's been out since 2006, and this show's been available since just this past summer. Like a new spark in my lifelong love affair.
Here's a run-down of the SK works and the order I read them over the years. From "The Shining" in 1980 to "Doctor Sleep" in 2020.
The Shining
Carrie
'Salem's Lot
The Stand
The Dead Zone
Night Shift
Firestarter
Cujo
Different Seasons
Christine
Skeleton Crew
Pet Sematary
Cycle of the Werewolf
The Talisman
Creepshow
Danse Macabre
The Eyes of the Dragon
Four Past Midnight
The Bachman Books
Thinner
It
Misery
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
The Tommyknockers
The Dark Half
Needful Things
Gerald's Game
Dolores Claiborne
Insomnia
Rose Madder
Hearts in Atlantis
The Green Mile
The Plant
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Desperation
Bag of Bones
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Dreamcatcher
Everything's Eventual
From a Buick 8
Cell
Duma Key
Under the Dome
11/22/63
Doctor Sleep
EDIT: Within a day or two of this post I'd finished the miniseries and though I thought it had a lot of promise to be great, it really, once again, fell short for me. Like the other novels of his in this 21st century that I've read, there's just something missing. And what's left feels either manufactured artificially or cookie-cutter. Kind of a wash of 8 hours. I don't think I'll be reading the book.
Maybe it is time to find me another lover?