What are you reading?

[Ravenshire]

I'm working my way through Stephen King's entire catalog, from "Carrie," his first published work to the not yet published but about to hit the shelves "The End of the World as we Know It," a collection of short stories based in the world of "The Stand." His earliest works still hold up well today, but there's an era that runs from roughly 1987, starting with the publication of "The Tommyknockers"ad running through 1995 and the publication of "Rose Madder" in 1995, that I refer to as his mid-career slump. Those works are very hit and miss. Mostly miss, though there are a few gems. "Rose Madder" is IMHO his worst work to date. After that, while he never regains his pre-Tommyknocker form, he evens out quite a bit, and some that I had dismissed as poor were a pleasant surprise on re-reading them. Most notably "Dreamcatcher" and "From a Buick 8." Neither are particularly good novels, but were much better than I remembered them being. I'm currently on "Sleeping Beauties" which he co-wrote with his son Owen which is new to me, and it's been creepy good so far. Next up are the last of the re-reads, the Bill Hodges trilogy and I'm looking forward to re-reading those. After that, it's all playing catch-up. Nine books either released or anbout to hit the shelves, and a tenth (a third "Talisman" book) already announced. I've got catching up to do.