Stephen King is my guilty pleasure read; he's the only author of the horror/science fiction genre that I enjoy and I read everything he publishes. I liked Peter Straub and Dean Kootz in my younger days, but otherwise this type of writing doesn't attract me. I tend to read classic literature and books that educate about topics that interest me. Anyway... I read the Dark Tower Series, which spans a couple decades, and I was LIVID at the ending. Anyone else?

I read "It" while supervising a study class (Junior High) and had to stop because it was so engrossing that I couldn't pay attention to the students. It was the scariest!

I like King for his ideas, but find his style of writing a little too boilerplate Runyanesque wannabe tough guy. The ideas he explores in 'The Shining' (the most telling metaphor yet for a severely dysfunctional family, seen through the eyes of a child caught in the middle, alone and vulnerable) and 'Pet Sematary' (the simplest of ideas - what if someone could be brought back from the finality of death?) are noteworthy, but even these he fails to do justice, opting instead for a happy ending (the evil of the Outlook Hotel is destroyed, rather than continuing its dark hold as in the movie) or an implausible plot device (reburying what must be the mangled corpse of a child hit by a speeding truck, to have it rise again whole and inexplicably vengeful).

I had dinner with Alice Walker of The Color Purple. I was taking an evening class in women's lit. It cost about $125.00. I met Alive Walker, Ntozake Shange, Ruth Clifton, Rita Mae Brown, Joy Harjo. I could not believe my good fortune!

I never did read that one.... But I enjoyed the movies.