Babe and I were discussing Pennywise the Clown from "It" in another thread, so I used the search feature and was surprised to find out that we've never had a thread specific to Stephen King here. Especially since so many of his works have been adapted into movies. Did you know that he is now the best selling living novelist, with over 300 million books sold?

I realize that selling books has little to do with being a great writer these days, but in my opinion King is prolific. When the literary snobs dismiss him as a "genre" writer it drives me nuts. Is he my favorite author? No, he's not, but I enjoy him immensely.

The first King book I ever read was "The Shining." I read it in hardcover in 1977 as a college freshman, and it's still my favorite. I wasn't crazy about the film because it wasn't very faithful to King's story. I did enjoy the Steven Weber mini-series, though. It was much more faithful to King's vision. My favorite film adaptations are "The Shawshank Redemption" (based on "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption"), and "Stand Ny Me" (based on "The Body").

Anyone else?