From The Past: February 28, 2004

In this week’s TV Guide there is an article about Stephen King’s upcoming show entitled Kingdom Hospital. There are supposed to be fourteen episodes in all which will begin airing on March 3rd and continue every Wednesday thereafter. This show sounds twisted, psychological, and creepy enough for me to get into. It should be very interesting.

TV Guide also listed what they thought were the 5 best and the five worst Stephen King films. I have to say that I disagreed with both lists. Very importantly and something that should not be forgotten or taken lightly is the fact that books are almost always 99% better than the movies they represent.

Here are TV Guide’s 5 Best Stephen King films:

1. Carrie
2. Salem’s Lot
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. The Shining (Jack Nicholson version)
5. Stand by Me

My top 5 list would go like this:

1. Rose Red
2. The Shining (Jack Nicholson version)
3. The Green Mile
4. Misery
5. The Shawshank Redemption

Here are TV Guide’s worst Stephen King films:

1. Dreamcatcher
2. Graveyard Shift
3. The Langoliers
4. The Shining (TV version)
5. Maximum Overdrive

My worst three goes like this (sorry, I haven’t seen everything, so these are the only ones that I am sure I did not enjoy):

1. Pet Sematary
2. Carrie
3. Christine

What TV Guide failed to give was a best book list.

Here are my favorite Stephen King books or short stories:

1. Apt Pupil – This short story is hands down my favorite. I think the realness of it; that things like this really do go on is what hooked me. It was enough to keep me thinking for days.
2. The Green Mile – If you’ve seen the movie, then you’ve pretty much read the book. This is one of the 1% that truly depicts what the book is really about. But, if you’re a reader like I am, you’ll want to actually read it first.
3. Pet Sematary – Okay, I know how bad this movie was, but the book is excellent. The whole time I was reading it, I was also looking over my shoulder to make sure that nothing was coming after me! It was very chilling and thought provoking.
4. The Shining – This is one of those books that play mind games with you. Did I just hear something? Did that just move? Those are some of the thoughts I had while reading this book. It was totally enthralling and exciting. I was scared to death of what I was going to read next, but I had to keep reading it anyway and in some sick way, I enjoyed being scared.
5. The Stand – This was a great story about good versus evil. What side would you have chosen? It brings up some interesting points.
6. The Mist – This was one of Stephen King’s first short stories that I ever read. I can remember at the end of the story, my mouth agape thinking, “They have to make a movie out of this one.” If they did it right and true to the story, it would be awesome!
7. The Shawshank Redemption – Yes, this was a great movie, but the book was around first. So, if you haven’t read the book, you need to. It is actually a short story in a book called Different Seasons. My #1 pick, Apt Pupil is also in this same book.
8. Desperation – This book was about a town in the Nevada desert where very bad things take place; very surprising bad things. **Side note: When I finish a book, I always write my name, the date I finished, and a one-word comment (IE: excellent, very good, etc.) inside the front cover. I finished this book on April 3, 1998. I think it may be time to pick it up again 😉
9. Misery – I loved the film with Kathy Bates, and even though I own this movie, I still think that you can picture something twice as bad in your own mind as what can be portrayed on the screen. This is one of those books where you picture something quite worse than what the movie gives.
10. I can’t stop at just ten, so I’ll name the rest of my four favorites and say that they all tied for tenth place. Here goes: Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Little Sisters of Eluria (short story), and last but certainly not least, The Long Walk (short story). All of these are too wonderful to not mention.

Believe it or not, there are many Stephen King books that I still have not read. Cujo, Firestarter, and Hearts in Atlantis are just a few. I do plan to read all of the Gunslinger books. I haven’t read any to date, but I would rather wait until they are all out so that I don’t have to wait one minute between books. I just read on the website that the last two books will have an earlier than planned release date. One will be on June 8th and the other on September 21st. Maybe around October I will begin a new journey with the Gunslinger.