UTD is the first King novel I've liked in a long time. I didn't think he could keep that balls in the air anymore while keeping up that pace.

I've gotten used to his anti-climactic endings.

I think the last book of his I read before UTD was probably Insomnia or The Green Mile. I don't remember why I stopped, but I did. So, if it's been kind of a bad run since those two books (a lot of people thought Insomnia was a bad and boring book, but I seem to remember liking it), that would make sense. I read Full Dark, No Stars after UTD, and while it was good, it was...um...different. The start of UTD really did seem like he hadn't missed a beat for me. The guy still paints near perfect pictures in my head of the scenes he's creating, which was why I was so disappointed with The Stand's TV adaptation.

Doctor Sleep was a good book. It wasn't as good as The Shining but there aren't many King books that can compare to that book.

The ending of UTD was kind of dumb but I don't think it ruined the book like a lot of people think.

11/22/63 was excellent.

Knowing the inevitable bad ending was coming made it easier to get through the book, and I did like it a lot mostly up until I kind of figured out what was going on. It had some really good characters that it felt like he hadn't had since almost IT (though I probably haven't read many of his books since then). It had a really nice cross section of personalities, which is what makes his stories so good.

This. I've read all King's old stuff and much of the new (not including Doctor Sleep or UTD or the new Dark Tower book), but 11/22/63 is in his top ten all time.

Oh, and as far as his endings go, I've never really had a problem with them since the ride was almost always so good. But the discussion reminds me of hearing a lot of complaints on how The Dark Tower ended, which completely befuddled me as I think it's a perfect ending to the Roland saga.

I only have 2 problems with The Dark Tower series.

1. Song of Susannah was horrible. Probably King's worst book ever.
2. I had the ending figured out by the time I finished the 3rd book. Obviously I wasn't 100% positive but as I was reading the series it was the only possible solution I could come up with.

The Wind Through the Keyhole is 1 of my o/a favorite King books.

King didn't know the ending by the time he'd finished the 3rd book.

I like the ending to under the dome. I don't get at all what the problem is that people have. Without spoiling it, I'll say the ending is far fetched. Then you remember you're reading fiction and realize nothing is far fetched.

When watching any kind of TV show, watching any kind of movie, or reading any kind of book, when the response to supernatural events is "It better not be...", and it is, you can get why people get bent out of shape. A lot of time is invested in getting to the ending, so a dissatisfying one, especially in an 800 page book, can be a big let down.

I've read virtually everything King has written, starting with The Shining -- which I read in the summer of 1977. I was in the middle of it, and my parents wanted me to go with them to some auction or some such thing, but I blew it off to finish the book. Shortly after my parents drove off, a thunderstorm rolled in and knocked out the power. I finished the book by candlelight on a dark, stormy afternoon, all alone in an isolated farmhouse. I was fourteen -- old enough to know I was going to be okay, but young enough to still be a little creeped out by it.

There are only a few King novels I haven't liked very much and a great many I haven't been able to put down. I went back and picked up Salem's Lot almost as soon as I finished The Shining; those two, It, and The Stand are probably my favorites, along with some of the sidelight stories in the middle of The Dark Tower. Interestingly, I really did not like 11/22/63, but that's probably because I felt King's political leanings (very different from mine) sneaked in perhaps a little too much.

In any event: subscribed. And waiting for June, when King's next novel comes out.

Is anyone joining me for Carrie.

It's pretty wonderful so far, I'm just up to Prom Night lead up.

[I haven't read the book so this won't be a spoiler.]

Fiction isn't a license to just randomly do anything you want with the plot and have it be okay or not far-fetched. If the world of that book is basically our world where a dome appears, you need to treat it as such. You can't end it with like all the townspeople using toy Harry Potter wands on the dome until Harry Potter himself comes down from the sky and helps them destroy it, and then have everybody have sex with each other right then and there.

I hate to break it to you, but you just spoiled the ending of UTD.

Yea I think most of that stuff did happen anyway in The Dark Tower and It.

I need to finish A Dance with Dragons before starting Carrie b/c I hate reading more than 1 book at a time. I should be finished in a couple days.

I like the idea of a 2+2 book club a lot. I have been reading a lot more fiction lately for some reason. I generally like reading WWI, II, and civil war non fiction but the last year or so I have been reading pretty much exclusively fiction.

The horror genre doesn't really interest me much and I don't want to hijack this thread so if anyone would be interested in starting a different book club PM me.

Well, I'm fine with slowing down. I'll take a week off and read something else. Carrie is a relatively slender book, taking a week off is not a problem, and we'll still get it read well before the end of the month.

How the hell else could UTD end when you have a giant, invisible done covering a town?

Pretty decent list of all Stephen King's books (I disagree with many of the rankings, but still enjoyed scrolling through the summaries)

Pet Sematary and The Stand are my favorite King books. I read every single King book up through Insomnia religiously and a few after. King4Lyfe

Oh, not the Dark Tower books. I wasn't feeling that, not even close.

Yep, I totally agree. The ending is not "supernatural" by any means. More within the realm of sci fi. And also yeah, the invisible dome that is there throughout the whole book is sci fi enough, so it's not like the ending is a derail or anything.

Eventually it all depends what the reader makes of it so like anything else, the quality is in the eye of the beholder.

I liked the stand, but the copy I have is the undedited one and it definitely drags. I'd like to read the original, shorter version.

Lots of crazy good short stories that can be finished in one sitting. Skeleton Crew, Just After Sunset have some real goodies goin' on. Also his novellas are real solid, The Mist for example.

Lol same reaction I had. They might be fine, but one of those "life is too short" things for me to get into. He's probably literally writing them faster than I could read them.

I'll be starting Carrie tonight. I just realized it's been +20yrs since I've read it.

How does one go about extending the normally accepted limitations of 24 hours in a day, so as to be able read/watch/type/w*** to a DB level?

I've only ever read 3 SK books, The Shining, Misery and Carrie, The Shining my fave of the 3, if for nothing else than the mental multi faced monster twist, thats not in the film; a film which of course is a probable masterpiece, as per nearly all SK. (Most of the rest being indisputable masterpieces)
IT I saw when I was 13/14, and it ****ed me up. From comments here I should read it? (IT?)

French and Saunders made me read Misery. I watched a spoof they did in - complete guess 94??! -, didn't understand wtf was going on so had to read it. I don't like watching before reading. So I read it, then I watched it, months have gone by by now.. Finely I could understand what the spoof was about.. It wasn't remotely funny, as per every previous or subsequent F&S. I don't know WTF I was thinking. - I was force fed this **** by my parents. - TBF to them, we had 4 channels at the time, so I guess it was preferable to One Man and his Dog or w/e. The book was average at best as well, looking back I can see how I really have wasted this life.
Luckily I have an indefinite amount of these ****ers to waste ey.