Secret Windows

[Mr. Palmer]

This is an absolutely fantastic book. A total treat to read. I love Stephen King's non-fiction outings. And this book is a tour de force.

It might offer material that you've previously read, but I'd still recommend it. The book looks perfectly fine on a bookcase already stuffed with other Stephen King outings.

Read it!

[michal]

I loved the book, and I found the stories in it... well, your word "treat" is an accurate one. It was like eating out without over stuffing yourself. I came back from this book both satisfied, and yet still ready for more.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Yes, I completely agree, and I know that many Sai King fans aren't aware of its existence, I know I wasn't until I joined the MB (thankee Amanda and Kim!).

Intended as a companion volume to On writing it's only available in a book club edition on the secondary market, and unlikely ever to be reprinted, Amazon usually have copies, search it out!

Long days and pleasant nights

[jchanic]

For those members of the Book of the Month Club, it's still available at $9.99.

John

[wally wonder]

i read from this book in the morning. real regular. one thing sk said to a question in the 'evening at the billerica library' piece struck me funny. was asked if he'd ever written anything really scary that kept him up all night. said, yeah, not very often though (he does give an example later). but after the 'not very often though' he says it's because a lot of the time you feel like you've got it in the palm of your hand. he mentions ben mears and his globe. sk says 'a lot of times the really scary stuff feels like that, to me. it feels like you're got it finally, what scared you really bad, you've got it in this thing and it's yours and it can't get out.'

then he goes on to talk about things that get out and gives an example. but that image of the globe struck me, all things considered.

and now, there's this big thick book calling me and by golly, it's worked before, time and again, and if those aren't bugles calling retire, i dunno what is. it's been fun.

[teejay17]

Yeah, I bought it from the Book-of-the-Month Club but I still haven't read it yet. I've been waiting for a rainy day, I guess.
Perhaps I will bump it up to the top of my "To Read" pile.

[latecomerNJM]

Secret Windows ... Craft of Writing; I liked much of the book, but was taken aback by some of the fault-finding SK launched at other writers. It seems out of character for an author with humble beginnings and occasional self-deprecating commentary regarding his own abilities. That said, I have to take issue with his analysis of Shirley Jackson's “The Haunting of Hill House” opening paragraph. He started by saying he had neither the skill nor the intent to “kill it or mount it” like a butterfly; the skill part I won't argue, but regardless of intent, murder it he did. His analysis seems backwards! Since Miss Jackson is not around to comment, I can only give my interpretation and let others decide. The opening paragraph in question (on page 90 of the hardcover edition of Secret Windows... Horror Fiction chapter) follows.

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.
Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more.
Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House,
and whatever walked there, walked alone.

I count three sentences, not the two SK found. Also, the paragraph seems to say Hill House IS alive, and it is insane because it
DOES live under protracted conditions of absolute reality, and cannot dream... SK says Hill House does NOT live under conditions
of absolute reality, and therefore it does not dream, and therefore is insane. Where does that come from in the above text?
Absolute reality for a house is its foundation, its walls, its surroundings, the incessant weather... absolute reality for a lark
is finding food, obtaining a mate, building a nest, not getting eaten by a fox... absolute reality for a katydid is food, mating,
not getting eaten by a lark... the lark and the katydid can dream of better circumstances, perhaps, but the house? Not so much.
Then again, his original Danse Macabre was published in 1981; maybe SK was still under the influence in one way or another... OR, my under-educated self may have missed something entirely. Despite my apparent fault-finding, I generally love SK's works.

[JustMeandMyCats04]

I love this book. . . . I finally found a copy I could afford.

[tomovjunior]

I love this book but I think that there is little fantasy. I mean that is not fully non-fiction, such as Misery.

[danielluiz]

my dream is to have a copy of this book.