Quote:
Originally Posted by burnafterreading
i came across this other SK thread, about his worst book. got me to thinking - i generally loathe and don't watch ANY movie that's based on SK's books. sure, i saw The Shining but didn't like it. Misery. yuck. Shawshank. passable. i'm sure a few have been ok, but for the most part the movie-versions don't excite me.
so, are there any BOOKS of his that are NOT horror/slasher/macabre garbage? i once physically drove through northern Maine on my way from PEI to Ontario, and Jesus H. Christ i couldn't wait to get the hell out of there! crossing the border into Quebec (i hate Quebecers, mostly for their "distinct society" and "language police") was such a relief.
so, yeah. any SK book that isn't a "SK" book?
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If you think Shawshank Redemption (from the novella
Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption) was only "passable", then I think King may be a total loss for you. There is another novella,
The Body, in the same collection (the collection is called
Different Seasons) - that was also made into an excellent move called Stand By Me. These and
The Green Mile are some of the most accurate and well done book/movie pairings I have seen.
If you don't like those movies you probably won't like the books. And, it seems to me, that if you don't like these movies/books, and you don't like the more macabre stories either, then King is probably not for you.
I can perfectly understand not liking Cuji, The Shining, Carrie - movies or books - I really don't like these either. The Dead Zone movie was pretty awful, but the book was excellent (IMO) - if you like how King writes. And that's the point.
I always think that King gets a misleading rap with his reputation for slasher/horror - that has never been why I read his books, and that's not how most of his books really are (at least, that's not how I see them). I read King (his earlier books, anyway) for his characters.
My favourites, if it is of any interest after what I've said above, are:
The Stand (the TV mini-series was reasonably accurate but not very well done),
The Dead Zone and
It - and the two novellas mentioned above. There are some other good ones, but if you don't like any of my choices so far, then there's no point saying anything more.
