First Transformative Experience with the King ( and I don't mean Elvis)

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Blake

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Feb 18, 2013
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recitador

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Sep 3, 2016
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i read It when i was in fifth grade, so would've been 9 or 10 depending on which part of the school year we're talking about (i certainly don't remember). even back then i was bringing books to class to read in spare time. my teacher commented on my choice of reading material (in a sort of fascinated way for what i was reading, not disapproving). no idea whatsoever how i got my hands on the book, but i imagine my mom had something to do with it. she may have owned a copy, back then she read a lot of different horror authors. she was into john saul and dean koontz too.
 

Paddy C

All Hail The KING...
Sep 18, 2017
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Visited my Dad in Dublin for a few weeks one Summer when I was about 14 and he had a lot of paperbacks as he was an avid reader. I took Firestarter from the shelf and asked if I could read it and he said, 'of course you can', and that was my introduction to Stephen King. I was hooked from then on.
 

swiftdog2.0

I tell you one and one makes three...
Mar 16, 2010
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Christine was my first King book. I was in 8th grade when I read that one. It combined three of my favorite things. Scary stories, music, and cars! The way each chapter was set up by a song was pretty dope. I was hooked from then on.

Moved on to 'Salem's Lot from there (which is still my favorite). That was the book that made me realize how freakin' good Stephen's writing was. I made my way through his entire back catalog up to his most current novel (which was The Tommyknockers at the time). Loved all of it except for Cujo. Then I discovered The Dark Tower in 10th grade when The Drawing of the Three came out. Man, that was a game changer!
 

Wab

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Oct 29, 2017
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First book was Firestarter. I was reading it at school when a friend said that he liked SK. That really struck me at the time. Call me obtuse, but I never thought of writers existing in the wider world. Then I found out my sister had most of his books and worked through them. For several years after that, a traditional Christmas gift was the new hardback. The first was Skeleton Crew which hooked me on short stories which are in a lot of ways my favourite form of fiction.
 

not_nadine

Comfortably Roont
Nov 19, 2011
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Can't speak for swiftdog2.0 , but Cujo made me very sad.
It was they way Stephen King wrote it, through the eyes of poor Cujo. And how can he do that? That's SK for ya. He was a good boy.

The way a buzz saw was hurting his ears, and could not understand why he felt upset with the people he loved.

Just felt bad for poor Cujo. He didn't mean it. Just got sick.
 

not_nadine

Comfortably Roont
Nov 19, 2011
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Behind you
I did enjoy reading about the movie where there were a bunch of Cujo's. And the trainers had some trouble with them being happy licking the rabid corn syrup props off themselves, instead of being mean and in character.

:flustered: But the movie:

Five St. Bernards were used, one mechanical head, and a guy in a dog costume.
The dogs would be enjoying themselves so much that they would wag their tails during filming. This tactic was missed once in the editing where they show Cujo from behind ready to attack and his tail is wagging energetically.


To make the St. Bernards attack the car, animal trainers put the dog's favorite toys inside the car so the dogs would try to get them.
 

Blake

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Feb 18, 2013
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In 1990, I saw this paperback at the grocery story and after reading the back I bought it. I lost two days in bed reading and exited this story as if from a dream. The following week I went back to the same rack and picked out Pet Sematary which to this day remains my favorite.
So that made you about ten years old when you read your first ever Stephen King book, that's pretty young. Pet Sematary is my favorite as well. He is one of the best writers who can understand characters: describing them, understanding them, what they're thinking. That's why I like him as a writer for the most part because of how he develops characters, and in some I've seen myself which is a bit off-putting.
 

Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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I did enjoy reading about the movie where there were a bunch of Cujo's. And the trainers had some trouble with them being happy licking the rabid corn syrup props off themselves, instead of being mean and in character.

:flustered: But the movie:

Five St. Bernards were used, one mechanical head, and a guy in a dog costume.
The dogs would be enjoying themselves so much that they would wag their tails during filming. This tactic was missed once in the editing where they show Cujo from behind ready to attack and his tail is wagging energetically.


To make the St. Bernards attack the car, animal trainers put the dog's favorite toys inside the car so the dogs would try to get them.
Lol...yeah, I remember that wagging tail in that one scene. That's one happy demon dog.
 

Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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Can't speak for swiftdog but I find Cujo a hard read because it's incredibly sad. He wanted to be a good dog.
I understand what a lot of you are saying but it's just a story. I have compassion for the dog to the extent that I'm entering a fictional world and temporarily embracing that reality but I'm not put off by it, no more than I'm put off by reading about the
death of Tad, the innocent boy in the novel.
It's sad, it is, but it's only fiction.
(I didn't intend that to be harsh, just my opinion) :)