Stephen King, you’d be surprised
As authors go Stephen King is well known among readers, and due to the many cinematic adaptations of his books movie goers and the general public as well. Unfortunately he is often mislabelled as a horror writer, and while it is certainly true that a large part of his output over the years relates to this genre, it is also fair to say that his work is far more varied, and covers a wider variety of themes than often thought. With books ranging from fantasy (The Eyes of the Dragon, and the entire Dark Tower series), through psychological thrillers (Misery and Gerald’s Game), Sci-fi (11/22/63, and Under The Dome), coming-of-age stories (The Body, famously turned into the film Stand By Me), life in prison (Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption), and the actual practice of writing (On Writing), alongside his more well know horror stories (such as Carrie, Salem’s Lot, or The Shining). While it is fair to say that elements of horror tinge all his writing, it is also fair to say that even if you are not a fan of horror there are plenty of Stephen King books which are well worth reading anyway.
As part of the drive to highlight the extent of his writing abilities The Reading Agency has partnered with a selection of libraries up and down the country to offer additional books to promote King’s work. Starting in Richmond Lending Library for two months, before moving onto Twickenham and Teddington, we now have a display devoted to King and his books, stocked with extra copies of six of his books available for borrowers to read. Alongside this we now have six book sets which are available for any of the reading groups in the borough to borrow and discuss. The six titles which make up this promotion are: Carrie, The Shining, Misery, The Wind Through the Keyhole (a Dark Tower novel), Under the Dome, and Different Seasons.
We also invite reading groups to write reviews of the books they read and hand them into us, these will then be uploaded onto The Reading Agency website. The most innovative and interesting review will win copies of his new book Revival for the group and a case of wine for the library staff (no pressure but we would like that wine…). We would heartily recommend that if you’re a current reader of his books, haven’t read anything by him for a while, or have never read anything by him at all, you head along to the library, pick up one of his books, and give him a go.
[ by Jonas Herriot, Customer Service Manager ]
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