Tag / 11/22/63

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Prolific Authors – 21 Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 1xx books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with our penultimate entry and the lone author I’ve read 21 times, starting in my freshman year of high school.

Stephen King

I remember my first introduction to Stephen King, reading Pet Sematary after finishing my Biology final at the end of freshman year, waiting for the class to be dismissed.  My total reached nine novels by 1993, but then college and other pursuits got in the way and King fell out of my favor.

That changed in 2012, when the release of 11/22/63 brought me back into the King fold.  There was another brief lull from between Joyland in 2015 and The Colorado Kid in 2019, but he’s been a consistent read since, especially with the introduction of the Holly Gibney character and limiting, if not outright removing, the supernatural elements in his work.  This year alone has given King a big push, as I’ve completed three books so far with nearly half the year to go.

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Prolific Authors – 15 Books

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  Today, we continue with the two authors I’ve read fifteen times, up one from 2021.

Richard Castle

Debuting in 2009, the television series Castle follows the lives of Richard Castle, a best-selling novelist, and Kate Beckett, a New York homicide detective, as they solve various unusual murders.  As Castle, portrayed by Nathan Fillion, wrote and released Nikki Heat novels on the show, those novels were released in the real world as well, the first of which, Heat Wave, was released in 2009.  The two most recent efforts, Heat Storm and Crashing Heat, were released after the cancellation of the show, though it appears unlikely that there will be any future installments.

Frozen Heat – Richard Castle

The first seven books in the series were eventually revealed to have been ghost-written by Tom Straw.  It is unknown if Straw wrote the final entries, though I highly doubt he was responsible for the last one, which had a much different feel to it.

Stephen King

I first read King’s work during my freshman year of high school.  In fact, I remember reading Pet Sematary after finishing my Biology final at the end of freshman year, waiting for the class to be dismissed.  My total reached nine novels by 1993, but then college and other pursuits got in the way and King fell out of my favor.

Joyland – Stephen King

That changed in 2012, when the release of 11/22/63 brought me back in to the King fold.  I’ve added six of his more current work, half of which has been through the Hard Case Crime imprint, which limited, but did not completely remove, the horror elements.

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Prolific Authors – 14 Books

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 60 books from 54 different authors. There shouldn’t be much movement over the past 2 years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  We continue today with the two authors I’ve read 14 times.

Jeffery Deaver

In 1999, the first entry of Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series, The Bone Collector, was adapted into a film starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.  Around that time, I picked up a paperback copy, which I read in 2000.  I slowly added additional titles as I would find them as remainders, picking up new hard covers for $3 or $4.

The Vanished Man – Jeffery Deaver

Things increased in 2015, when I started picking up titles on deals through the Amazon Kindle store, leading to 10 additional books added to my read bookshelf, with The Cold Moon being the most recent prior to the start of this countdown.

Stephen King

I first read King’s work during my freshman year of high school.  In fact, I remember reading Pet Sematary after finishing my Biology final at the end of freshman year, waiting for the class to be dismissed.  My total reached 9 novels by 1993, but then college and other pursuits got in the way and King fell out of my favor.

Stephen King – 11/22/63

That changed in 2012, when the release of 11/22/63 brought me back in to the King fold.  I’ve added 5 of his more current work, most of which has been through the Hard Case Crime imprint, which limited, but did not completely remove, the horror elements.

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Book 19 (of 52) – Under The Dome

Under The Dome - Stephen King

Under The Dome – Stephen King

When a mysterious dome cuts a small town off from the rest of the world, its residents must find a way to survive while a power hungry local politician sees this as his opportunity to become the ultimate authority.  Such is the plot of this tome from Stephen King, the third longest book I’ve ever read and the longest since I tackled The Stand back in 1992.

Prior to reading 11/22/63 2 years ago, I had stayed away from King’s work since finishing Dolores Claiborne back in 1993.  But based on my enjoyment of that book, and a sale at the Kindle store, I picked up this one on the cheap.  After watching the first two seasons of the television adaptation, which CBS has aired over the past 2 summers, I finally found myself in the mood for this thousand page monster.

The show deviates pretty quickly from the book, sharing little more than character names and a dome at this point, so reading the book was an entirely new experience, although I did picture the show’s actors as the characters in my mind.  Overall, I enjoyed the book, though the ending, and the force behind the dome, left a little to be desired.  I do have a couple more King works waiting to be read, though none of this magnitude.

by jim

30 Day Picture Challenge Day 23 – A Picture Of Your Favorite Book

A picture of my favorite book?  That means I would have to decide on what my favorite book was.  For a while, it was The Stand, by Stephen King.  Then, it might have been The Black Dahlia, by James Ellroy.  More recent favorites have included Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, 11/22/63 by Stephen King, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  At the end of the day, I guess it doesn’t matter which is my favorite, since they are all represented in the photo.  Oh, and in case you couldn’t tell, I am in desperate need of a new bookshelf.  If only I had room for one.

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Book 5 (of 52) – 11/22/63

Stephen King - 11/22/63

Imagine stumbling across a wormhole which allowed you to travel back in time, to September 1958.  Anything you did in the past affected the future, until you traveled back in time again and reset everything.  Could you invest the five years necessary to save President Kennedy from an assassin’s bullet?  Even if it meant giving up everything, and everyone, you’ve ever loved?  School teacher Jake Epping finds out in Stephen King’s gripping tale of time travel, patriotism, and the unintended effects of mucking with the past.

I first read King’s work during my freshman year of high school.  In fact, I remember reading Pet Sematary after finishing my Biology final, waiting for the class to be dismissed.  11/22/63 marks my 10th King work, but the first since 1993.  It is a great story about two men on a mission, one a man out of time, the other a man out of place.  Their lives will intersect on the fateful November morning, unless the past is able to defend itself against an interloper and the interloper doesn’t become too complacent in the new life he has made for himself in 1960s small-town Texas.  The only reason it took me so long to get through it is the 842 page count.  If this is indicative of King’s more recent output, then perhaps I won’t wait another 19 years before reading him again.