First off, it's only a mere nine days from Halloween. Could there be a better time to crack open your dog-earred Salem's Lot paperback or pop in that dusty VHS copy of Cujo? There's no better season for Stephen King than during the howling winds of autumn. And, from what I can tell, it's been a killer year for SK. Not only did he publish two new full-length works (Joyland & Doctor Sleep), but his novel, Under the Dome, was adapted into a semi-successful television show. I will refrain from any specific commentary regarding that particular program except that it was disappointing to see that it deviated so much from the source material.
If you are an SK fan and are on the fence about which new novel to read this year, I would hands-down recommend Joyland - even despite the fact that I am only one hundred pages deep into Doctor Sleep. In Joyland, Stephen King is at his storytelling best -- writing a lean, well-oiled story about a college-age guy getting over his first real break-up and working the summer at an old-timey amusement park -- that just might have a ghost haunting the dark corridors of its scream house! It is as Hardy Boys-esque as it sounds and that is half the fun. Trust me, if you need a good book to get you through the rest of October, this is the one!
Stephen King is always a perennial favorite for me and I've recently taken to re-reading some of his classics like It and The Stand. Even during the second read, his stories still make my skin crawl and his characters remain so delightfully nasty. I have to say that reading these books again through a more mature lens makes it all the better. Sure, you're more likely to be less forgiving during his long-winded passages, but to be able to revisit some old friends, read sections of a novel you completely forgot and understand some jokes you may not have fully understood as a teenager is just terrific. If you've been thinking about picking up one of his novels, I say there is no time like the present!
I'm going to close this post with some graphics I put together almost two years ago when Ryan got his Wacom tablet. I've always thought it would be fun for a publisher to release a handful of Stephen King novels with covers that are a little artful and weren't primarily black and menacing -- but still gave off a little bit of the ick-factor. This was my crude attempt to strike this balance. Hope you enjoy.
If I don't see you beforehand, Happy Halloween!
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