I read The Shining about 20 years ago.
I don't think Stephen King is a very good writer.

He's great at churning out penny dreadfuls though, I'll give him that.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:31, 3 replies, latest was 12 years ago)

As I said, something to read rather than think about.
Light entertainment.
( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:34, Reply)

Well yes of course.
It's what he's for.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:35, Reply)

What are you reading?

( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:36, Reply)

JG Ballard.
The Unlimited Dream Company.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:42, Reply)

some people might say that ballard is pretentious

( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:00, Reply)

People that would say that just aren't clever enough to properly understand his work.
Soz babygirl.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:02, Reply)

i haven't read any YET (it is in my amazon basket)
i may or may not find it pretentious.

but it strikes me that anything you would enjoy would be unnecessarily full of itself and, yes, pretentious.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:04, Reply)

Have you read The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis?
You'd like that one.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:05, Reply)

i've read most of his stuff, but not that one

( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:06, Reply)

It was published as a contract filler between American Psycho and Glamorama but it was written around the same time as Less Than Zero.
So it's minimalist and stark rather than an all out blur of hyperreality and transgressive fiction.

You'd like it.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:10, Reply)

i do like his stuff
ok I shall add that to the amazon basket too
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:18, Reply)

Good girl.
I prefer his minimalism to his postmodernist stuff. I really liked Imperial Bedrooms, including the whole narrative framing that it used. I thought it tied his two styles together perfectly.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:22, Reply)

He's paid by the word - that's why his stuff has so much irrelevant back story.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:43, Reply)

Actually Vag, you might know this, what's the going per word rate for freelance copywriters in London?

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:44, Reply)

i disagree with that
I think some of his stuff is dreadful, but some of it reads really well. probably depends how much coke he'd shoved up his snout at the time.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:49, Reply)

Which stuff reads well?
I didn't mind Carrie (but then again, I was 14 when I read it), but he's really hamfisted with his characters, he can't write convincing female characters and his plots are contrived.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:52, Reply)

those are YOUR opinions
just by way of one example, as a female, I don't agree that NONE of his female characters are "convincing". and I thought the bit about gage's death/funeral in "pet sematary" read very well, for another.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 13:59, Reply)

Well yes, they are my views.
But of all the novels and stories of his I've read I've never found his characters to be anything other than cardboard cutouts just there to move the flimsy plots along.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:01, Reply)

now, you see, you put it like that
and you don't come across as such a smug know-it-all turquoise cocked fool. In fact, you sound almost normal.

HTH
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:03, Reply)

I just find throwaway fiction which is written for nothing more than economic gain to be a massive waste of time.
Nothing personal, just that when I do have time to read I'd rather read something with a bit of substance to it. Hence my current queue of Ballard, Lessing and Amis.

I'm gearing up to give Gravity's Rainbow another go.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:08, Reply)

Carrie
Misery
Rose Madder
Geralds Game

are ones I enjoyed.
( GeordieJay Bummers are deaf, Fri 15 Nov 2013, 14:28, Reply)