I started reading King back in junior high school with "'Salem's Lot". It scared the bejeepers out of me. I then moved on to "Carrie" and just kept going. I sort of lost interest during his admittedly bad writing period, mostly written when he was so zonked out on cocaine that he barely remembered getting up to piss, much less write a coherent sentence. Then I picked up "Hearts in Atlantis" the other day, and little Bobby has me completely enthralled.

I think that Andy Dufresne is probably my favorite character of his, although now it's so intertwined with the movie after repeated viewings that it's hard to say. I really enjoyed most of that mini-series, although Molly Ringwald as Mother Earth?? Really?? Who did she screw to get that part?? However, the rest of the cast was mostly wonderful, from Bill Faggerbakke (sp?) as Tom Cullen (M-O-O-N), Gary Sinise as Stu, Rob Lowe as Nick and Miguel Ferrer as Lloyd - all terrific.

His non-fiction "On Writing" is extremely entertaining as well. He stirs in just enough autobiographical information to keep the book interesting.