Tell Us About Your "first Time"

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Hall Monitor

All bars serve the Beam.
Nov 7, 2013
187
1,013
New Jersey
How's that for a title? :biggrin-new:

Actually, I'm curious. How many of you remember your first experience with Sai King? What was the book/story, how old were you, why did you get it/who did you get it from, etc.

I'll start it off. I was 12 years old and home with a fever and a bad case of chicken pox. Earlier in the week, I had bought my mom a paperback copy of Pet Sematary, as she often took me to see horror movies and we both loved to read. I was home and bored, so I found my way into her room and took the book off her bookshelf. For the record, she had no idea I was reading it, and I probably shouldn't have. I was done for. I had the book read by the end of the day, and as soon as I was healthy, I went out a picked up a copy of 'Salem's Lot, and I was firmly established as a Constant Reader ever since.
 

Todash

Free spirit. Curly girl. Cookie eater. Proud SJW.
Aug 19, 2006
8,293
5,621
52
Kansas City
I was probably about 11 ... staying with my older brother and his wife. The Shining was on the coffee table, near where I was sleeping. I started reading it. My brother saw me and said "Should you be reading that?" I'm like, "Yeah, it's fine."

I didn't have nightmares that night. Because I didn't sleep.
 

Hall Monitor

All bars serve the Beam.
Nov 7, 2013
187
1,013
New Jersey
I was probably about 11 ... staying with my older brother and his wife. The Shining was on the coffee table, near where I was sleeping. I started reading it. My brother saw me and said "Should you be reading that?" I'm like, "Yeah, it's fine."

I didn't have nightmares that night. Because I didn't sleep.
That's awesome!
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
I think I bought the PBs of The Stand and Night Shift at the same time. I was in junior high--8th grade, maybe? I was hooked from the author's note at the beginning of Night Shift, & never looked back. I read The Shining next (the chapter "Inside 217" squeezed between my parents on the couch--lol). Different Seasons was the first hardback book I bought with my own money, & I still have it--my kids have read it, now. If I could have one book signed by Mr. King, that would be it. I love that book to distraction.
 

fljoe0

Cantre Member
Apr 5, 2008
15,859
71,642
62
120 miles S of the Pancake/Waffle line
I was in high school and there was a bit of a buzz about The Shining so I bought it. It was in paperback (the silver one with the boy with no face) so it had been out a little while. It was the most awesome book I had ever read and I bought the other 3 (imagine only 4 SK books in print) and read those by the time The Stand came out in paperback.
 

fushingfeef

Finally Uber!
Aug 14, 2009
10,194
21,965
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I read The Long Walk paperback around 1979, but at the time no one knew it was Stephen King. My mother of all people had recommended it, she saw it in the teen fiction section at the library. That was technically my first Stephen King book. Not much later I saw Night Shift in paperback, the hand with the eyes on it, and I picked it up. Since then Stephen King's writing has never been off my mind.
 

AnnaRose

Well-Known Member
Oct 26, 2013
110
650
27
California
I was camping in Mendocino and one day that week we always go thrifing. I found Desperation and bought it for 50 cents. It was the hardback but didnt have the sleeve over it. There's a note written in it from when it was given to the original owner as a 49th birthday present. I was 13 (?) when I got it and that was when the obsession began.
 

The Nameless

M-O-O-N - That spells Nameless
Jul 10, 2011
2,080
8,261
42
The Darkside of the Moon (England really)
Wow, some of you guys started reading his books before I was even born, and I was starting to feel old at 31. I am amazed when people say they read a book in a day or the first 4 Dark towers on a 1 week vacation, at best I can get through maybe 40 pages a day.

Anyway, I always remember my Dad having 4 past midnight in his book case, and wanting to read it just because of the cover, but as a child, when I picked up a book, I very seldom made it past page 2, I just had no enthusiasm for reading. So fast forward to my mid 20s and I decided after watching IT on TV for about the 10th time (and loving it just as much as the 1st) that I would like to read it one day. When I was about 27/28 I was staying in my Brothers house and he had Carrie in a book case, so I thought "I'll try this, see if I can actually stick with a full SK novel past the 1st few pages", and I did, I read about half of it. But finishing it was never my aim. I bought a very used paper back of IT for £2.60 (ish), and slowly but surely read all 1116 pages of extremely small print. I was astonished at the amount of stuff left out of the movie, and astonished by his story telling. IT is my favourite book, and on the back of reading it, I have since bought well over 50 SK books. I have since bought a hard back version in good condition, but I will always keep and love my faded, heavily creased, slightly water dampened paper back with the back cover and last few pages cellotaped in place.

The 1st new book I ever bought was actually Joyland, because the 1st new book he released after I started reading his books was 11/22/63, and my Mum bought me that for Christmas, then my Brother bought me WTTKH for my Birthday. The 1st hard back I bought was Dr Sleep less than 2 months ago.
 

Ben.

Well-Known Member
I didn't read it, but my first interaction with King was via The Tommyknockers. I was six years old, at my Aunt's (who was babysitting my sister and me), and found it on her bookshelf. I can still remember the cover: a loosely padlocked door ajar, with glowing green light coming from the other side and an alien eye peering through. In 2002 - my first year of high school - I picked it up at the library (different cover, I think it was just the green light shining from under the door this time) and read it in a week. Next came IT - but I didn't read another until 2006, when I picked up Cell at Kmart. After that; Duma Key. Beyond that - well, I've bought every single novel of his in hardcover (except for the ones that I can't) and have read probably 60% of his work.
 

Hall Monitor

All bars serve the Beam.
Nov 7, 2013
187
1,013
New Jersey
Wow, some of you guys started reading his books before I was even born, and I was starting to feel old at 31. I am amazed when people say they read a book in a day or the first 4 Dark towers on a 1 week vacation, at best I can get through maybe 40 pages a day.

Anyway, I always remember my Dad having 4 past midnight in his book case, and wanting to read it just because of the cover, but as a child, when I picked up a book, I very seldom made it past page 2, I just had no enthusiasm for reading. So fast forward to my mid 20s and I decided after watching IT on TV for about the 10th time (and loving it just as much as the 1st) that I would like to read it one day. When I was about 27/28 I was staying in my Brothers house and he had Carrie in a book case, so I thought "I'll try this, see if I can actually stick with a full SK novel past the 1st few pages", and I did, I read about half of it. But finishing it was never my aim. I bought a very used paper back of IT for £2.60 (ish), and slowly but surely read all 1116 pages of extremely small print. I was astonished at the amount of stuff left out of the movie, and astonished by his story telling. IT is my favourite book, and on the back of reading it, I have since bought well over 50 SK books. I have since bought a hard back version in good condition, but I will always keep and love my faded, heavily creased, slightly water dampened paper back with the back cover and last few pages cellotaped in place.

The 1st new book I ever bought was actually Joyland, because the 1st new book he released after I started reading his books was 11/22/63, and my Mum bought me that for Christmas, then my Brother bought me WTTKH for my Birthday. The 1st hard back I bought was Dr Sleep less than 2 months ago.
Awesome story Nameless . . . and let me say, it doesn't matter how fast or slow you read, as long as you take your time to enjoy the journey.
 

Hall Monitor

All bars serve the Beam.
Nov 7, 2013
187
1,013
New Jersey
I was wondering this when I started the post, and so far it is true . . .so many of us had our first experience because somebody else had a book and we picked it up. While I love my Nook/iPad for the convenience, that is one of the reasons I keep a bookshelf and make sure that I buy every book in traditional form as well . . . nobody is going to pick up my Nook and start reading it (at least I hope not).
 

VultureLvr45

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2012
2,650
13,707
Maryland
Think I told this story before..My first experience with Stephen King was whe Salem's Lot was on TV. My sister was baby sitting me while my parents were at bible study. (Ironic..eh?). Being the hyper child I was, she decided to sit on me for a while and have me watch it with her. The Vampires were going up to windows..in and out biting people. Parents came home, I was sent to bed, had screaming nightmares. Of course it didnt help my bed butted in front of a window... I decided after several nights of bad dreams and night terrors that I better read the book to see if I could figure out one of their reasoning so I could reason with them When they came to bite me.. If that didn`t work then I should try to figure out their weaknesses so if I needed to defend myself I could. After Salems Lot was Carrie..Being a`rigid` minister`s daughter I really related to Carries story. I often felt like an outcast.
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
:hmm:Let's see - I was 16, he was 26... Oh! first time I read Stephen King? :a11: yeah - pretty sure it was Carrie and also went to see the movie at the Drive Inn - now don't get the wrong idea - it was not with a boyfriend just my older brother - ew, wait a second - nah that's okay - you guys aren't that sick, are ya? :umm:

So I guess I was about 17 when the book came out and then the movie (although it came out in about 1976) I did not see right away. We were in a small town and movies did not come out for a year or so after being released in the big cities.
 

MadamMack

M e m b e r
Apr 11, 2006
17,958
45,138
UnParked, UnParked U.S.A.
I did not see right away. We were in a small town and movies did not come out for a year or so after being released in the big cities.

Sounds like my hometown . . .for the good movies we had to go to the next town over about 17 miles away. The local theater played the same two movies over and over again . . .Bambi and Gone with the Wind!