Constant Reader!

 If you know what I mean by "Constant Reader" you might be a Stephen King fan. No, not the drivel that passes in Hollywood for Stephen King's work. That has it's place and I like a good movie with artery clogging buttered popcorn and a 62 oz cup of pure adrenalin caffeine and sugar. Coke or Pepsi as much as the next guy. 

Actually I can enjoy a bad movie in a theatre much easier than I tolerate a bad book. A movie simply asks that I be a passive observer for around 90 minutes and enjoy the eye candy. But, a book demands the majority of my complete attention over a few days or a week or more. So a movie that critics bash such as several years ago "Lost in Space" might have enough cool alien space ships or deep space battles to at least keep my attention. But, a book has to grab me by the throat and throttle me with the absolute need to find out what ultimately happens to a character or to think about the plot while I'm eating lunch. 

Also as I have become more and more disenchanted with far right and far left echo chambers I've found myself cringing at some of the stupidity of otherwise intelligent "celebrities." my favorite author included. 

Full Disclosure: i'm not a religious conservative. I'm not a secular humanist leftist. But, I am absolutely free speech. I'm anti censorship. I will defend my opinion to you. But I will also defend your right to state your opinion. I'm appalled at how quickly some folks I agree with politically or admire for their work will casually defend censorship when the speaker makes them uncomfortable. 

I remember my grandmother as a woman who lived her faith. You might have honestly disagreed with some of her religious views but, you could never rightfully call her a hypocrite. She had  good old fashioned Southern Appalachian common sense. She used to say it was better that you not know every little human fault of your pastor. Because on Sunday morning if he's bringing the word of God you might not listen if you're thinking about how rude he was to the waitress during dinner yesterday.

Same thing with authors, actors and baseball player's. We know so much now from social media that it colors our view of their work. When it comes to Stephen King. I remember when he wrote characters based on their actions and not on how they voted or how they felt about men becoming women or if a female writer such as J.K. Rowling has the right to defend what it means to be a woman and might know a little more than he does about what that means. 

So. Now for the fun part. Before Twitter and The Donald. Before Sleepy Joe and vaccine wars. All I knew about my favorite authors, rock stars and movie stars was their work. I liked them all much better then. Here are the 5 early Stephen king books that made me a fan or Constant Reader. Ranked in order of my favorites.

1. Salem's Lot:

 I'm somewhere between 18 and 19 years old. Mid to late 1970's. I read mostly horror back then. I was at the bookstore in the Gadsden (Alabama) Mall. I pick up a book and read the blurb on back. Sounds like something I might like.A clerk comes over and says "this young King guy is really getting popular." you'll like this one. The rest as they say. Is History. I devoured it. I was hooked.I actually felt bad that I had to finish it. I wanted more as soon as possible. How had this Yankee writer made a small New England town seem so much like a small Southern town characters and all. Of course now Stephen King is well known for his Americana. But, then? He was unique. 

Also for younger folks we didn't have Netflix or YouTube and we had only 3 tv networks. So getting lost in a book wasn't as hard as it is now.

2. The Shining:

Before the Kubric movie (which is classic)this was my introduction to a large haunted hotel in the middle of no where. A little boy with a special ability and an "imaginary friend" loving (unlike the movie) mother and father. The dad was flawed but not mean and not bat crap crazy. Not yet anyway. The atmosphere, the hedges and the room. A fun haunted read.

3. The Stand: 

Some people used to joke about how a Stephen King novel always had Stephen King in bold letters on the cover and the title as kind of an afterthought. One of the books that helped that along was "The Stand" Talk about a thick character driven taste of Americana. As he called it in that long ago forward to the book "This dark tale of Christianity." Great stuff.

4. Carrie: 

I loved the Sissy Spacek movie. Having graduated in the 70's I think they did a great job.The book is told in a series of newspaper articles after the fact. Unique for it's time and still holds up. I recently re-read it. 

5. Night Shift:

I loved this first short story collection. If memory serves John D. MacDonald a very popular mystery author of the 1960's wrote a really good forward for the still young author Stephen King. For some reason I connect this book with the old Agricola Shopping Center in Gadsden. But, I don't think it had a bookstore. Funny how memory works. I do still remember I enjoyed it.

I don't read as much fiction as I once did. I'm easily distracted in my old age and I prefer ebooks. Easier to adjust the font and lighting. But, I always enjoyed the heft and smell of a good thick book back in the day. A six pack of beer (which I no longer do.) and that's a good thing. With a thick Stephen King novel would provide a sometimes blurry but always fun adventure into an alternate universe.

Peace!