The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.
You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.
My favorite Stephen King book of all time is The Stand. I think his best book is 11/22/63. The Green Mile might be the closest King ever came to a perfect novel, but I still rank 11/22/63 higher in my mind. I suppose a reread will clarify my thinking on that a little.
I believe I bought 11/22/63 myself, the hardback copy I am about to reread. The copyright is 2011, but I’m pretty sure I read it in December of 2012 before Christmas break when I was still teaching.
I had taken very ill. I was already out of sick days because we had used them all up with the younger of my two sons who was having febrile seizures and catching everything from daycare. I was approaching kidney failure and would be in full failure before a transplant in 2017. Every day I missed of teaching for myself or my son cost me money. Lots of money from a paycheck that was pretty slim as it was.
Several friends, church members, and acquaintances stepped up for us before Christmas and we had the money we needed to get by. In early February of 2013, I would quit my teaching job to stay home with my son and write full-time. Money would still be tight, but eventually we would be better off than we were when I was teaching full-time.
All of this was in the future though as I lay in bed so sick that the ceiling was spinning as I read 11/22/63 page after page all day long. I read it with the future uncertain, knowing I was losing money every day I was unwell.
It may have been the flu. I found out during all my testing for kidney transplant that at some point in the past I had mono. It could have been this moment. Might have been a time I was really sick over a Christmas break in high school. Who knows?
I think my trippy mind running through the narrative of this novel helped me connect with the disjointed feelings of the protagonist displaced in time. This is a great time travel story. Maybe one of the best ever. I don’t think my illness at the time of reading clouded my judgement too much about how good the book is. I will read it while well now to let you know.
It bears mentioning that in the order of publication, this is the last book of Stephen King’s I have read as of the time I am writing this. The sixteen or so books that follow this one, taking me up to the present, are all new territory. I bought each of the new books as they came out, but was already involved in my Stephen King Revisited reading at that point, so I saved them for now. I was reading slowly at first, putting off new reads for quite a while until I started reading in earnest in 2020 to complete this journey as close to the New Year as possible. Well, that didn’t happen, but I’m on track to finish by the end of the year in which I’m publishing this post.
So, this is the last of familiar territory for me. It’s a good revisit to send me off into everything new. In reality, after retracing King’s steps this far, I’m in familiar territory. I’m allowing a trusted guide to take me into new stories full of surprises, but told by a storyteller with whom I am well acquainted.
My next post in this series will be After 11/22/63 which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.
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