I've had an idea...

Starting in the new year, I'm going to start a Stephen King ultra-marathon reading project.
I've read quite a few of his books, but not enough. After a quick look, it would seem I've read eleven, the latest being 'Gerald's Game', published in 1992. Jesus, that's 17 years ago.

So for the sake of righting that wrong and (for something to do) I'm going to read him from beginning to end.
I intend this blog to bear witness to the gradual and inevitable destruction and blackening of my psyche. I can't promise reviews of each book as I'm shit at writing them. I'm sure I'll have something to say about each book, though.

I'm also appealing for the donation/extended loan of any King books you've got gathering dust. I've already started what will no doubt be a mammoth trawl of charity shops in the hope of building the library for the absolute minimum expense. I am tight and also buying seventy-plus books, when I need to keep my kids in shoes and pencils, is a bit reckless.

The blog isn't intended to be particularly interesting or world changing, and I certainly don't envisage it to be all that worth reading. I imagine it will be more of a mission status updater and a way to keep up the momentum and avoid abandoning it after the first three books. It will also be a way for anyone with a passing interest to keep updated on my mental decline and laugh.

I had the fleeting idea of doing it in a year. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
I've got two kids and a needy wife. That shit's not happening. So, instead, I'll just be hammering them out as and when i can.

Building the Library

There's probably an easier way to do this, but here's the list of Stephen King books I'm going to be working from.
If they're bold, it means some kind soul has lent me it or I found it in Help the Aged. For trivia's sake I'm going to put where I got the book next to the title.



Bollocks, I've just seen that the emboldening tactic does shit all when the fonts that tiny. We'll have to see how underlining works out...

1974 Carrie (Barnsley Hospice Shop - Mum)

1975 Salem's Lot (Lisa - US)

1977 Rage - Bachman (Amazon - The Bachman Books)

1977 The Shining (Lisa - US)

1978 Night Shift - Short Stories - (Amazon)
"Jerusalem's Lot", "Graveyard Shift", "Night Surf", "I Am the Doorway", "The Mangler", "The Boogeyman", "Gray Matter", "Battleground", "Trucks", "Sometimes They Come Back", "Strawberry Spring", "The Ledge", "The Lawnmower Man", "Quitters, Inc.", "I Know What You Need", "Children of the Corn", "The Last Rung on the Ladder", "The Man Who Loved Flowers", "One for the Road", "The Woman in the Room"

1978 The Stand or 1990 (Uncut version) (British Heart Foundation - Rotherham)

 1979 The Long Walk - Bachman (Amazon - The Bachman Books)

1979 The Dead Zone (Oxfam Bookshop - Sheffield)


1980 Firestarter - (Mexborough Market) 

1981 Roadwork - Bachman (Amazon - The Bachman Books)


1981 Cujo (Birthday present from my sister)


1982 The Running Man - Bachman (Birthday present from my sister)

1981 Danse Macabre

1982 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger or 2003 (Revised edition ) (Oxfam Bookshop - Sheffield)

1982 Different Seasons - Short stories (Barnsley Hospice Shop - Mum)
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal, Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption, The Body: Fall From Innocence, The Breathing Method: A Winter's Tale

1983 Christine (Mum - Barnsley Charity shop, not sure which)

1983 Pet Sematary

1983 Cycle of the Werewolf

1984 The Talisman - co-author Peter Straub (Mum - Oxfam Bookshop - York)
1984 - Thinner - Bachman (Birthday present from my sister)

1985 - Skeleton Crew - Short stories
The Mist, "Here There Be Tygers", "The Monkey", "Cain Rose Up", "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut", "The Jaunt", "The Wedding Gig", "Paranoid: A Chant", "The Raft", "Word Processor of the Gods", "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands", "Beachworld", "Nona", "For Owen", "Survivor Type", "Uncle Otto's Truck", "Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)", "Big Wheels: A Tale of The Laundry Game (Milkman #2)", "Gramma", The Ballad of The Flexible Bullet, "The Reach"

 1986 It (Lisa - US birthday present)

 1987 The Eyes of the Dragon - (Oxfam Bookshop, Whitby)

 1987 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

1987 Misery

1988 The Tommyknockers (Lisa - US)

1989 Dolan's Cadillac

1989 The Dark Half (Oxfam Bookshop - Sheffield)

1989 My Pretty Pony

1990 Four Past Midnight -Short stories
The Langoliers, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Library Policeman, The Sun Dog

1991 Needful Things (Oxfam Bookshop - Sheffield)

1991 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (Oxfam Bookshop - Sheffield)

1992 Gerald's Game (Oxfam bookshop - Sheffield)

1993 Dolores Claiborne (British Heart Foundation - Rotherham)
1993 Nightmares &Dreamscapes - Short stories
"Dolan's Cadillac", "The End of the Whole Mess", "Suffer the Little Children", "The Night Flier", "Popsy", "It Grows on You", "Chattery Teeth", "Dedication", "The Moving Finger", "Sneakers", "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", "Home Delivery", "Rainy Season", "My Pretty Pony", "Sorry, Right Number", "The Ten O'Clock People", "Crouch End", "The House on Maple Street", "The Fifth Quarter", "The Doctor's Case", "Umney's Last Case", "Head Down", "Brooklyn August", "The Beggar and the Diamond"

1994 Insomnia (Mum - Oxfam Bookshop, York)

1995 Rose Madder (Mum - Oxfam Bookshop, York)

1995 Umney's Last Case

1996 The Green Mile (British Heart Foundation - Rotherham)

1996 Desperation (British Heart Foundation - Rotherham)

1996 The Regulators - Bachman

1997 Six Stories 1997 - Short stories
Lunch at the Gotham Cafe, L. T.'s Theory of Pets, Luckey Quarter, Autopsy Room Four, Blind Willie, The Man in the Black Suit

1997 The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (Help the Aged bookshop - Sheffield)

1998 Bag of Bones (Oxfam Bookshop - Sheffield)

1999 Storm of the Century

1999 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Barnsley Hospice Shop - Mum)

1999 The New Lieutenant's Rap

1999 Hearts in Atlantis (Barnsley Hospice Shop - Mum)
"Low Men in Yellow Coats", "Hearts in Atlantis", "Blind Willie", "Why We're in Vietnam", "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling"

2001 Dreamcatcher (Oxfam Bookshop - Sheffield)

2001 Black House- Sequel to The Talisman (Barnsley Hospice Shop - Mum)
Written with Peter Straub

2002 From a Buick 8 (Mum - Oxfam Bookshop, York)

2002 Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales - Short stories (British Heart Foundation - Rotherham)
Autopsy Room Four, The Man in the Black Suit, All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, The Death of Jack Hamilton, In the Deathroom, The Little Sisters of Eluria, Everything's Eventual, L. T.'s Theory of Pets, The Road Virus Heads North, Lunch at the Gotham Café, That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French, 1408, Riding the Bullet, Luckey Quarter

2003 The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (Maz)
2004 The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

2004 The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

2005 The Colorado Kid

2006 Cell - (Barnsley Hospice Shop - Mexborough)

2006 Lisey's Story - (Mexborough Market)

2007 Blaze - Bachman

2008 Duma Key (Barnsley Hospice Shop - Mum)


2008 Just After Sunset - Short storiesWilla, The Gingerbread Girl, Harvey’s Dream, Rest Stop, Stationary Bike, The Things They Left Behind, Graduation Afternoon, N., The Cat from Hell, The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates,Mute, Ayana, A Very Tight Place - (Tesco - Wath)
2009 Ur

 2009 Under the Dome (Birthday Present - Lisa's mum)

2010 Blockade Billy

2010 Full Dark, No Stars