"Since you read Stephen King, you must be a freak because Stephen King is." NOT TRUE!

[flwrchld]

Aww shucks flwrchld; there are many ignorant people in the world, but saying you deserve to be burned at the stake for reading King is ridiculous. If these people are supposed to be your friends--which I'm assuming since they have access to your FB page--then maybe you need to find new friends. They sound not only ignorant and extreme in their beliefs, but also dangerous in their thinking. Don't surround yourself with people like that.

Always remember you can come here to discuss your interest in King and his works--leave them to the delights of Facebook where they are free to update what they ate/drank and when they go to the toilet/restroom--but don't ever be made to feel ashamed for your choice of reading material. At least you are reading, and enjoying it, don't allow others to ruin that for you.

Ally, thank you very much. I just wrote a long relpy and lost it before I posted so here goes again...

I deleted over 100 people this past fall from my FB and these were friends, people I went to school with. I'm not a "friend collector" on there so that was pretty tough cutting ties with so many people but they had just gotten on my last nerve. It's a preachy lot and they would get offended by comments such as LMBO or OMG. I'm going to be myself on my own posts and my parents are my friends, I do use the occasional REAL bad words and you know if my parents don't mind (and they are serious Christian people) then the rest of those preachy, pretentious jackals can kiss my hams.

I still have preachy people on my list, they post bible verses two and three times a day but I don't say anything to them (agree or disagree). I'm not anti anyone's belief system. If it works for you and makes you feel good then that's great. I have my beliefs and even if they are the same I don't post them. I just don't talk politics and religion.

What I am is pro-literacy. I want to spark at least one person's curiosity into picking up a book. I don't care if it's a King book or not, but it would be exciting to see someone on my friend list talk about a book they are reading instead of a game they are playing on their kid's Wii.

I'm no genius, not a great speller (I use spellcheck all the time and it lets me down), my grammar sucks, and I talk like a hick because I am one... BUT... I know the difference between: to, two and too; there and their; here and hear; you're and your.

Reading is a great thing and I wish instead of beating me up and wanting to burn me at the stake for what I'm reading that some of the morons would pick up a book and try to read. Maybe they'll read a book on how to burn a witch?

[Tinahorve]

I think that the people who say things like that are usually not readers and are judging based on the movies of Carrie or The Shining which were bloody and violent. I have often said that SK is just a great storyteller, and it honestly would not matter what he wrote; for the most part all of the stories are great in their own way.

In Secret Windows, SK talked about imaging/write/read the worst, most scary thing, you can, then the scary things in life that are real (war, divorce, etc.) are not quite so bad. Maybe those "freaks" among us are just trying to escape into a story for awhile.

Happy reading, all

[JohnDalglish]

Reading is a great thing and I wish instead of beating me up and wanting to burn me at the stake for what I'm reading that some of the morons would pick up a book and try to read. Maybe they'll read a book on how to burn a witch?

Hi,

Aye.

But I'd advise them to read the first three parts before they started Wizard and Glass, though LOL

Long days and pleasant nights

[Tinahorve]

Anne Rivers Siddons in the introduction to The Dead Zone says:

"People who don't like horror stories seems impossibly and blandly sunny, one-dimensional, lacking in the rich and complex salting of darkness that so calls to those of us who do. Can they possibly have deep interior lives, imaginations that swoop and soar? 'I don't read anything that frightens me,' one friend says, and I wonder if she ever reads a newspaper. Of course horror fiction frightens. It does not, however, frighten nearly so much as ordinary day-to-day reality can, if you are truly open to it's nuances."

[randallFlaggfan1]

I think it's funny (just a little) that a lot of non-SK fans don't seem to realize that he wrote The Shawshank Redemption.

[kodibloo]

Does anyone else find themselves trying to "like" what people write? Too much facebook!!! Ahhhhhh................

[~Ally~]

Does anyone else find themselves trying to "like" what people write? Too much facebook!!! Ahhhhhh................

Nope, I don't use Facebook much.
The "Thanks" button here is the equivalent of their "like" button so press that if you agree with something.

[kellykid]

I think it's funny (just a little) that a lot of non-SK fans don't seem to realize that he wrote The Shawshank Redemption.

I totally agree. My neighbor is a big reader and I suggested King to her, of course I got the standard "I don't like scary stuff like that" I brought up Shawshank and The Green Mile. As far as "the scary stuff" I equate it with my love of rollercoasters, it's a safe way to get that adrenaline rush.

[blunthead]

I think it's funny (just a little) that a lot of non-SK fans don't seem to realize that he wrote The Shawshank Redemption.

I think the above concept goes a long way toward summing up. Ignorance is bliss. If I can remain untouched I can remain everyone's judge. The truth be...darned. The eternal struggle between Constant Readers and people who will not trust sK is, imho, the struggle between critical thinking and non-critical thinking.

Critical thinking

Someone suggesting a person who reads sK is in line for being burned at the stake is recommending people be burned. But people who say it do not see what they are saying. If that same person claims to read The Bible, the verse "Judge not, lest ye be judged" occurs to me, and a host of others. I am sure they are also ignorant of the fact that sK himself reads The Bible.

[steelhorseclub]

The strange thing is, I don't think I have ever met anyone, personally, that has never read one of his books. Maybe he is more popular in Louisiana?