In Which We Discuss Thinner

Firstly, because there's been a bit of a gap, here's an update.

Carrie - 1974 -  June 15th 2013
'Salem's Lot - 1975 - June 30th 2013
The Shining - 1977 - July 28th 2013
Rage - 1977 - July 31st 2013
Night Shift - 1978 - August 28th 2013
The Stand - 1978 - March 20th 2014
The Long Walk - 1979 - March 23rd 2014
The Dead Zone - 1979 - June 2014
Firestarter - 1980 - August 16th 2014


- 06/13 to 17/8/14 - 9

Roadwork - 1981 - 23rd August 2014
Danse Macabre - 1981 - 7th September 2014
- BONUS: Small World (Tabitha King) - 10th September 2014
Cujo - 1981 - 20th September 2014
The Running Man - 1982- 22nd September 2014
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - 1982 - 30th September 2014
Creepshow - 1982 - 1st October 2014
Different Seasons - 1982  - 24th October 2014

- 17/8/14 to 25/10/14 - 7 (16)
 
Christine - 1983
Pet Sematary - 1983
Cycle of the Werewolf - 1983
The Talisman - 1984
Thinner - 1984 

- 25/10/14/14 to 14/07/2015 - 7 (21)

Skeleton Crew - 1985
It - 1986
The Eyes of the Dragon - 1987

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three - 1987
Misery - 1987

The Tommyknockers - 1987
Nightmares in the Sky  - 1988
The Dark Half - 1989

Four Past Midnight - 1990
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands - 1991 

Needful Things - 1991
Gerald's Game - 1992
Dolores Claiborne - 1992

Nightmares & Dreamscapes - 1993
Insomnia - 1994

Rose Madder - 1995
The Green Mile - 1996
Desperation - 1996

The Regulators - 1996
Six Stories - 1997

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass - 1997
Bag of Bones - 1998
Storm of the Century - 1999 

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - 1999
The New Lieutenant's Rap - 1999  

Hearts in Atlantis - 1999
Blood and Smoke - 1999
"Riding the Bullet" - 2000  

On Writing - 2000
Secret Windows - 2000 

The Plant - 2000      
Dreamcatcher - 2001
Black House (with Peter Straub) -2001

Everything's Eventual - 2002
From a Buick 8 - 2002

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla - 2003  
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah - 2004
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower - 2004

Faithful - 2004
- BONUS: 20th Century Ghosts (Joe Hill) - Jan 2005
- BONUS: Josie & Jack (Kelly Braffet)  - Feb 2005
- BONUS: We're All in This Together (Owen King) - 2005
The Colorado Kid - 2005

Cell - 2006
Lisey's Story - 2006
Blaze - 2007

Duma Key - 2008  
Just After Sunset - 2008 

Stephen King Goes to the Movies - 2009
Ur - 2009     
Under the Dome - 2009

Blockade Billy - 2010
Full Dark, No Stars - 2010

Mile 81 - 2011    
11/22/63 - 2011
American Vampire (with Scott Snyder) - 2011

"Throttle" (with Joe Hill) - 2012
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole - 2012 

A Face in the Crowd (with Stewart O'Nan) - 2012
"In the Tall Grass"  (with Joe Hill) - 2012
"GUNS" - 2013

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County - 2013
Joyland - 2013

The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem - 2013
Doctor Sleep - 2013
Mr. Mercedes - 2014      

Revival - November 2014
Finders Keepers - 2015

 As before, bolded/red books are those I've read before while unbolded/blue books are those I haven't.  I'm quite pleased to see that the next one is Skeleton Crew.  I quite enjoy Stephen King's short stories.

At some point in the last few months I read N0S4R2, by Stephen King's eldest son, Joe Hill.  You can definitely tell it's related to King's work.

However, this post is focused on Thinner.  Thinner is a Bachman Book, the first one I ever read.

It's surprising how much of my life I've forgotten.  I remember Stephen King being the kind of author my mother liked, who seemed a bit mysterious to me.  I remember being confused by Dreamweaver when it was new and my mom had a copy and I attempted to read it.  I remember reading Carrie for the first time when I was sixteen, and getting along with it much better than my earlier attempts.  I feel like I must have gone through a bit of a Stephen King stage at some point, though that's the bit I really don't remember.

I wouldn't necessarily peg Stephen King as one of my favourite authors, which may seem a bit surprising considering how much time and effort I'm putting into reading his entire bibliography.  I have read a lot of his books, much more than I've read of other authors.  But then, as a percentage of his total novels it's not really a lot, is it?

Anyway, Thinner is about a man who is cursed by a gypsey after he accidentally kills the man's daughter.  It reminded me a lot of Drag Me to Hell which I watched at some point between reading the book the first time and the present.  While I do have an eating disorder, I didn't find Thinner particularly triggering.

Thinner was written - or at least published - in 1984, four years before I was born.  At this point, Stephen King and his family were living in Maine, and I think King was teaching English.  His daughter would have been fourteen, and whenever he writes a character with a daughter I wonder if he had her in mind.  I wonder the same thing when he writes characters with sons.  Firestarter and Thinner are the ones where I recall the main character was a man with one daughter.

James Smythe's excellent post on the novel points out that this is King's 19th novel over a ten year career.  One of King's stated reasons for using a pseudonym was because he wrote faster than publishers published (the other reason being that he wanted to find out if his success was a fluke or repeatable).  I count it as my 21st entry because I included King's first book of short stories, Night Shift and his first screenplay, Creepshow.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 39/52

So, I moved house.  And EE repeatedly screwed up setting up internet.  But now I have internet.  And here is week 39, the 5th to the 12th of May.

I borrowed NOS4R2 from a coworker and tried very hard to finish it before we moved so I wouldn't risk damaging it or losing it, as well as having one less damn thing to carry.  It took me a while to get started but I quite enjoyed it once I did.

The Reboot with Joe Juice Diet is another book recommended by a coworker.  My manager swears by juicing.

Finally, The Help is a book I've read before.  I've listened to it before too.  It's a nice performance.