Stephen King and Warm Weather

I don't know what it is about warm weather that makes me want to read scary books. I don't know if I'm braver when the days are longer, or if it's because of the summer after my senior year when I read The Stand, Cujo, and Misery. I didn't read them one right after the other, but I still think of that summer as the Stephen King summer.

Because the weather is warming up now, I'm craving those thrillers again. I even thought about rereading Cujo, for some deranged reason. That was my least favorite Stephen King book, and I won't watch the movie. Maybe I will someday, but I doubt it. The trailer was enough to remind me why I didn't like the book. I remember when I was reading it, I lay in my bed that night staring at the ceiling, regretting my decision to pick it up. And then I woke up the next morning and practically tore through the house looking for it so I could find out what happened. I loved it as I was reading it, but the ending left a bad taste in my mouth.

The Stand was probably my favorite Stephen King book. I loved the battle between good and evil, and the Biblical parallels. I think it's interesting that it starts as an apocalyptic pandemic, but before too long it has shifted to a classic story of how no matter what happens, there will always be good left to fight the deep evil in the world. The miniseries is well done, even if some of the acting is bad.

As a writer, Misery is probably my worst nightmare. For a long time I swore I would never read it. But somehow, it was still the first King book I read. I borrowed the ebook from my library, and I can still remember sitting curled up in the corner of my couch, clutching my iPod and reading certain scenes in horror. Even though it completely terrified me, I thought it was a great read, and I've watched the movie twice. I have yet to reread it, though.

I just finished reading The Running Man, which was a really interesting story. It wasn't as scary as some of King's other books in that it's not horror, but it was scary because I can see some of the things described happening in our own society. The dystopic world Richards lived in, in which the air is polluted and millions of people are trapped in crippling poverty rings very true to our own society. I enjoyed the book, but I didn't like the main character very much. It's hard for me to enjoy a book if I don't like the main character.

Right now I'm reading 'Salem's Lot, but it's going slowly because I don't read it at night. I'm not quite 100 pages in, but I'm definitely hooked. I can't wait to find out exactly what goes down in the little town.

I'm a fan of Stephen King, but every time I look at his shelves at the library, I lose count of how many of his books I don't want to read. The number of books I do want to read is far outnumbered by the ones I don't. He's an interesting man, that Stephen King. I wonder what it's like to live inside his head.