Some Stephen King books

I don't remember reading The Long Walk among the options. I might have read its Turkish translation ages ago. The Turkish titles were generally not "faithful" to the originals in Turkey. Especially in horror movies and books. They prefer to give "striking", "shocking", "spooky" etc. titles, I think for financial purposes. It worked for me. I was buying the books with creepy titles, hahah. 

Hard to pick... I'll go with "IT". 

Let me mention the re-translated titles of the SK books in the options here (except for 11/22/63 and The Long Walk).

From English to Turkish to English:

IT = O = IT (This remained the same, and the title is already intriguing and a little creepy per se.)

The Stand = Mahşer = Armageddon / The Judgment Day

The Green Mile = Yeşil Yol = The Green Road (This title is quite similar, but this one is not one of the earlier SK books. We used to give false titles in the past more oftenly.)

The Tommyknockers = Şeffaf = Transparent (Well, "Şeffaf" is sort of intriguing, but is also weird for a horror book.)

Needful Things = Ruhlar Dükkanı = The Shop of Souls (The Shop of Souls sounds lame in English, but Ruhlar Dükkanı sounds awesome in Turkish.)

Misery = Sadist = Sadist (Sadist is sadist in Turkish too.)




Edited by Shadowyzard - December 03 2021 at 07:53

Haven't read them all though..

^ King stated that he writes "for the audience" and not for "artistic purposes". I'll not bother to find or recall his whole explanation of that.

Even your "that's just me" is coupled with your arrogance and condescending crap.

Stephen King is a very imaginative writer. He is one of the best in taking imaginative people with him in his books. I firmly believe so.

His style is not great but very fun to read. For me, at least.

I've read loads of gothic literature too. I'm also a book translator.

Reading does not necessarily correspond to "getting". As far as I've observed (and I'm a good observer), your cognitive faculties are miserable.

But, you'll find my comment "sad", as usual.

You're either fun or annoying.

Generally both at the same time.

I take/took Harold Bloom's criticism on Stephen King's "inadequateness" seriously, but you would be the last person to be taken seriously for me, on this forum.

By the way, Stephen King is a very smart person with great ethics. Follow him on Twitter. On a second thought, don't. You're the best (!) Actually, everyone should learn everything from you (!) It is a pity that you don't rule the world (!)




Edited by Shadowyzard - December 03 2021 at 11:10

^ I liked The Tommyknockers a lot too. But I only read its Turkish translation (Şeffaf) when I was a teenager. All in all, the fact that I still remember its plot and some of its parts vividly should come to mean that I was impacted by it profoundly.

Edited by Shadowyzard - December 03 2021 at 22:41

^ IT could indeed be unpleasant or bland for a young adult or adult. One of my high-school teachers was intrigued when I told her about it, and she was frustrated and couldn't finish reading it as a King fan.

I think, Desperation is one of King's "later" books that can be amusing for adults. Actually some of his other books till the new millennium can be fun to read too. You cannot know before reading!!!

My favourite King "thing" is The Dark Tower series. Aside from that, I can count about 15-20 of his books that I enjoyed immensely. Salem's Lot was incredible!!! The first one that sprang to my mind.

Admittedly, I'm not "following" his stuff that eagerly anymore. But I may compensate for it later in my life.

Edited by Shadowyzard - December 04 2021 at 03:09

BaldJean wrote: I only read "Needful Things" so far and really liked it until the bloodbath at the end which in my opinion was totally unnecessary and ruined the book for me. this very disappointing end made me avoid him. it is not that I am generally against bloodbaths; "Die andere Seite" ("The Other Side") by Alfred Kubin has a much bigger bloodbath at the end. but with Kubin the bloodbath made sense; with King it did in my opinion not. there are so many ways these people could have made each others lives living hell that I don't see the point in all these killings

Hmm. I always find it difficult to rank things I like. I’ve read most of King’s novels. My first encounter was The Gunslinger, which ended with reading the entire series, and I fell in love with his stories and writing. I read a few more books before deciding to start from the beginning with Carrie and working my way through is catalogue chronologically. One reason being that there are recurring characters and themes, often not in a big way, but enough to make his works feel like a big picture where some stories overlap or characters moving across different stories. By my count, I’ve read more than fifty of his books. Most novels and a few others.

The poll has several great books. I’ll narrow it down to It, The Stand, 11/22/63, The Long Walk and Misery. The first two books are epics, but I think The Stand edges out It. The JFK book took me by surprise and was very enjoyable to read, as something different from his usual style. The Long Walk and Misery are books which deal with a very specific circumstance and King brilliantly delve into these. Misery is almost claustrophobic as you keep reading about events that pass mainly in that room. Riveting stuff. The Long Walk dealt with various fascinating human traits and psychological challenges in another grueling story. I remember being very taken by that book.

Out of no short-comings of the others, I have to say The Stand, which is such a monster of a book and multiple journeys beautifully intervowen. The size and overall theme of the book makes it difficult to challenge by his other works.

The nice thing about books you don’t remember is that you can read them again. It won’t be an all new experience, but with a decade or more between, a lot must have been forgotten. I just finished Bag of Bones for the second time. I had some suspicions at the start, but managed to read 1/4 of the book before realizing I’d read it before.