What was your first transformative experience reading Stephen King? Mine occurred many moons ago while perusing the shelves in the library of my hometown of Hormigueros, where, oddly enough, I was the librarian and it was my first full-time job after graduation. (Pop quiz: name one field of work English majors pursue after graduation. You guessed it, librarian. Another is English teacher. Yep, I was one, too.)
One (fateful) day my hand lands on a copy of Carrie. (How it got there, I have no idea. It was probably donated, however, since the library had no budget at the time.) In retrospect I would like to believe that I was drawn to that shelf, my hand trembling mysteriously like a dowser's divining rod, but that would be stretching it.
So I retrieve the paperback book, open it and begin reading. Three or four minutes into the story, I'm saying to myself, "pruf (short for prufrock), this sh--t is pretty good." Hooked, I continue reading and finished Carrie in one day.
All the while I'm thinking I haven't read anything this good in the horror field since Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Horror and the Macabre. Which I had read even before college. Needless to say, since that transformative experience (not an epiphany, to be sure, but it did motivate me to continue to pursue poetry and the writing of short stories) I was converted. I became one of the faithful. I became a Constant Reader (genuflect, and say thankee).
Under what circumstance was your first experience reading Stephen King? I've told you mine, would love to hear yours.
One (fateful) day my hand lands on a copy of Carrie. (How it got there, I have no idea. It was probably donated, however, since the library had no budget at the time.) In retrospect I would like to believe that I was drawn to that shelf, my hand trembling mysteriously like a dowser's divining rod, but that would be stretching it.
So I retrieve the paperback book, open it and begin reading. Three or four minutes into the story, I'm saying to myself, "pruf (short for prufrock), this sh--t is pretty good." Hooked, I continue reading and finished Carrie in one day.
All the while I'm thinking I haven't read anything this good in the horror field since Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Horror and the Macabre. Which I had read even before college. Needless to say, since that transformative experience (not an epiphany, to be sure, but it did motivate me to continue to pursue poetry and the writing of short stories) I was converted. I became one of the faithful. I became a Constant Reader (genuflect, and say thankee).
Under what circumstance was your first experience reading Stephen King? I've told you mine, would love to hear yours.