Welcome to my nightmare

Stephen King released his first novel, Carrie, in 1974, the year I was born. When I was 12, I read my first King book, Skeleton Crew. It's a short story collection, so it was easier for me to sink my teeth into than some of his longer works. And it scared the shit out of me.

I had other favorite authors before King. Douglas Adams, for example, remains pretty high on my list, even though I first read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when I was about 10. But from age 12 to probably age 19, I was obsessed with Stephen King. I'd read anything he put out. He was my first gotta-read-everything writer, and no matter how silly his books got, or how much I felt he was doing it for the money sometimes, his work remains important to me.

I lost track of King some time ago. I think I read From a Buick 8, his shorter 2002 story about a haunted car (Really? Another haunted car?), and gave up. I know I've missed later works like Duma Key and the well-reviewed Under the Dome, and I've never read the last four Dark Tower books. But something about his writing still calls out to me. I know, I know - he can be fairly pedestrian at times, and his strictly scary novels have gotten rote. But I think King has always been about so much more than just spooks and chills. Odd as it may be to say about a guy who has written nearly 60 novels and story collections, I think King's a real writer, and he deserves critical analysis.

That's what The King Review will endeavor to provide. This is kind of an impulse thing for me, but I've decided to re-read all of King's books, and then take on the ones I haven't yet devoured. I was in college last time I read books like Salem's Lot and Pet Sematary (although I know The Stand by heart), and I really want to revisit them. So here's my excuse to do so.

As I finish each book, I'll analyze it here. This means this will be a very sporadic blog, so no need to check back too frequently, but I think I can do it all in a year. I'm doing it chronologically, from Carrie to the new story collection Full Dark, No Stars (and whatever else King writes between now and then) and I'll include what I remember of my initial impressions from my teen years, too. (As a side note, I'll be saving the Dark Tower stuff for the end. I know those seven books are scattered throughout King's timeline, but I want to read them all at once, and from what I remember of them, they seem like a good way to cap off this experiment.)

Yes, I have a million other books to read, but I think this will be fun. Hope you agree. Now, if you'll excuse me, for the first time since high school, I'm going to read Carrie. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done.