Bruce Springsteen or Stephen King?

Great adaptation of a great book. I haven't read it for years, but I think Ramrod and Cadillac Ranch are quoted in the chapter headings, along with a bunch of 50s and 60s car songs.

Nice! I think I've read before that the songs played on the radio are (maybe obviously) used to indicate how Christine is feeling at that particular moment. I like the idea of "Ramrod" and "Caddy" telling us something about 'her'.

The Long Walk is one of his very best.

@Jerseyfornia God DAMN it surely is.

@Scott Peterson All those books he wrote as Richard Bachman are excellent. I remember he did a cameo on Sons of Anarchy as a character named Bachman.

If you're not already a horror fan, I cannot recommend highly enough that you start with one of his short story collections—Night Shift and Skeleton Crew are his first—or one of his collections of novellas: as mentioned, Different Seasons is the first and three of its four stories have been turned into films, with the only one that did, "The Breathing Method," actually being my favorite.

The story "The Last Rung on the Ladder" is one of the most haunting I've ever read. (And it's not even remotely horror in any way.)

As with Kurt Vonnegut Jr, I find Stephen King is actually at best when writing short stories and novellas; I love The Stand and much of The Dark Tower, but it's quite clear when he became Stephen King and no longer had to listen to an editor, and the shorter forms force him to reign in some of his worst tendencies and make it all about the story, the story, the story.

Thanks.

@Kay Some great adapations of his books as already mentioned here (The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me) but also some terrible ones. Awful. Even he admits to not liking many of them, including the famous version of The Shining with Jack Nicholson. He has been very vocal on his dislike for that adaptation.

@SteveInJoburg And The Outsider on HBO with the terrific Jason Bateman, how did he sign off on that travesty? What a snoozefest.

@Kay I actually read that book after seeing the TV series. I really liked the characters and the one character, Holly Gibney, appears in a few of his books. I think he likes her too. I didn't mind the TV series but I know it wasn't universally liked.

In my opinion King's strenght is that he can come up with really good stories. Stories that make good movies in the hands of someone else. I don't like the way he writes his books. He describes things with to much detail and leaves very little to the reader to imagine. If someone is fat and in a bad physical shape, Kings writes "He's fat and in a bad physical shape" instead of writing about "creaking floorboards" and the man "panting from getting up from his chair and walking across the room".

@Jerseyfornia I was...fortunate? I guess? that one of my good friends is an even more devout King fan than I, and he was extremely let down by the final three books, and absolutely hated the last volume.

I had put off reading them for quite some time after the series had ended, but finally started all the way back at the beginning, reading the first for probably the fifth or sixth time, but first time in 20 or so years, and with the knowledge that I was going to hate the final volume, just enjoyed the ride until it spun off the track...and therefore, because I expected it to be nigh upon unreadable, I didn't hate it all that much.

I still hold out hope that he'll redo the last few books at some point and fix the obvious problems, but in the meantime, having such incredibly low expectations was a definite boon.

@Scott Peterson The device he employed regarding himself to justify the existence of Mid-World was lazy and vain.

Best book in the series is the almost standalone Wizard & Glass.

While King made his name writing horror, and has certainly returned to that genre again and again throughout his career, he's far from exclusively and maybe even primarily a horror writer. But either way, of course, his stuff isn't for everyone, and that's obviously fine.

And, yes, he's a massive music fan, including specifically Springsteen. I believe for a while he owned the rock and roll radio station in Bangor.

@Scott Peterson And was in the Rock Bottom Remainders.