Shouldn't have reread The Stand

I read The Stand (a couple times) in the late 80s and since then it's been on my all-time favorite book list.

Recently I started to reread it and... I don't know that I can get through it! It's long winded, moralistic, stereotyped, and, well, just plain way too long.

I can't believe I spent 20+ years thinking this was among the best books ever.

I know what you mean. I read most of King's work back in the 80's when I was a teen and loved it. Today as I look back at his writing, I am more critical.

I had thought Cujo was a very scary book. Now I just see a rabid violent dog story with a weak supernatural element that went nowhere, and a barely related subplot about children's cereal.

A "subplot about children's cereal"?? Was there a haunted box of corn flakes running amok, or something? (I've only read a few King works, in my college days, and Cujo was not among them.)

And yes, I think it's normal for our reading tastes (as well as tastes in music, fashion, etc.), to expand, or even change entirely, over time.

Was there a haunted box of corn flakes running amok, or something?

That would have improved the story. What happened to the kids who ate the cereal was harmless, just visually upsetting to the parents when the kids had to 'poop'. The red food dye was very potent.

To be fair, the main story line about two people being stuck in a broken down car while a two-hundred pound rabid dog is trying to kill them was very well done. It was the extra elements that failed the story.

I too loved The Stand and read it at least three, possibly four, times between 1981 and 1990. Thanks for warning me--I'll hold on to the memory of thinking that it's a great book.

LOL. I read The Stand on the recommendation of a new friend. Because of something about the conversation, I somehow had gained the impression that there was something about the book that they thought would give me insight into the nature of people, or life, or something. I worked my way through the whole thing, in a genre I hate (I would never choose to pick up a horror story: I don't watch movies to be scared, and I don't read books to be scared. I also don't like roller coasters.) desperately trying to figure out what they wanted me to get out of this book. It turned out they just thought the book was fun, and that I would like it because I liked to read.

6: Ooh, I really hate the misguided friendly gesture of recommending any book to you just because you like to read. It's not like any words will do.

I remember someone telling me they didn't like reading but thought the Da Vinci Code was great, so I should definitely read it because I love to read.

So what, people who don't like reading will only make the effort for the very best of books but bookworms will go for anything?

RRHowell: I do believe we are sisters separated at birth. I too hate to be scared and HATE rollercoasters.

My students used to try to get me to read Stephen King by saying, "It's so real, it's like you're really there." To which I would answer, "I know. I don't want to go there."

6> Been there. The three Stephen King books that I have read are Carrie (which was good for the somewhat original layout), The Shining and The Stand when I was 13/14. My mother said that The Stand was one of her favourite books that she read in college. I remember going to her in confusion and asking why. She said that I was missing something. Good to know I really wasn't.
I even liked horror at the time (I loved the genre up until I saw A Clockwork Orange and was desensitized to violence) and I still though it was boring.

#4 - I liked the subplot about the guy's advertising job, the public relations nightmare with the cereal, and how he fights for one last commercial so the professor-type character they had created could apologize properly for scaring all those kids and their parents.

Actually, after 20 years I remember that subplot better than all the stuff with the dog.

Seriously, I believe King has since confessed that he had a terrible drug problem during those years. Cujo was either right before or right after Christine, and, iirc, King has said he doesn't really remember writing Christine. Talk about scary...