Take a moment to stroll pass the Popular Reading Collection. As you scan the spines of the numerous books, which are currently shelved by author’s last name, you get to the “K” authors. That’s when you see it, ”King…King…King…King.” Of the over 600 titles in this collection, 27 are by Stephen King. While this is a mere 4% in the grand scheme of things, King dominates all other authors regarding number of titles available. Ever wonder why?
Gather round, it’s story time!
Officially launching in 2016, the Popular Reading Collection is only 3 years old but has been on our “hope to make happen” list for a long while. For years and years (and years) library users have inquired about and requested access to leisurely reads. In these numerous conversations with users, the author most frequently requested was none other than (you guessed it) Stephen King.
Needless to say, when this collection came to fruition, the librarian in charge of selecting titles at the time took those many years of Stephen King requests and made sure the next time we were asked if we had any Stephen King, we could proudly say, “Yes!”
THAT is why you see so many King titles.
It’s no great surprise that people request King so often. His name is ridiculously well-known, and he is often considered a master of the macabre…which is incredibly appealing to many individuals (especially when it’s effectively executed).
In 2018, director Eli Roth hosted a show on AMC titled, AMC Visionaries: Eli Roth’s History of Horror, where he and other big names and celebrity fans of horror discussed topics that ranged from zombies to ghost stories and more. In one of the episodes, Roth sat with King to discuss the appeal of being frightened. King replied as follows:
There are a number of pictures like the Friday the 13th movies, the Freddy movies, where you’re able to actually take your deepest, most anti-social impulses for a walk, and it’s safe, nobody gets hurt, and we understand on one level it’s not happening, but on another level it’s as real as any of our fantasies. So, that’s one side of it. The other side of it is…we don’t really like to be scared in real life, but in a movie we have a chance to be afraid, and kind of almost externalize the fears that we have.
Hmm…I think the “why do we like being scared” thought is worth looking more into…stay tuned for another blog post. In the meantime, start reading some King or any of the other horror themed titles in our collection. Get scared, laugh at yourself, let your mind wander, and in general enjoy!
Happy Reading!!
Trisha
Stephen King Titles
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
As Entertainment Weekly said about this collection: “Bazaar of Bad Dreams is bursting with classic King terror, but what we love most are the thoughtful introductions he gives to each tale that explain what was going on in his life as he wrote it.” There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “I made these stories especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”
The Dark Tower Series
Set in a world of ominous landscape and macabre menace, The Dark Tower series features one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations—The Gunslinger, a haunting figure who embodies the qualities of the lone hero through the ages, from ancient myth to frontier Western legend. As Roland crosses a desert of damnation in a treacherous world that is a twisted image of our own, he moves ever closer to the Dark Tower of his dreams—and nightmares.
Elevation
The latest from legendary master storyteller Stephen King, a riveting, extraordinarily eerie, and moving story about a man whose mysterious affliction brings a small town together—a timely, upbeat tale about finding common ground despite deep-rooted differences.
It
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
A wrong turn on a lonely road lands a wayward couple in Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon, where there’s no escaping the free nightly concert….A novelty toy becomes an unexpected and terrifying instrument of self-defense….An ex-con pieces together a map to unearth a stolen million dollars—but at what price?…A private investigator in Depression-era Los Angeles is finding his life unraveling as he discovers the shocking truth of who he really is….A third-grade teacher is willing to dig deep in order to exact revenge for his murdered wife…. These are just some of the haunting scenarios to be found in this classic collection—spellbinding tales from the darkest places and the unparalleled imagination of fiction’s master storyteller.
Pet Sematary
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better…
Other Horror Titles
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
Life in a small town takes a dark turn when mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut. So begins Universal Harvester, the haunting and masterfully unsettling new novel from John Darnielle, author of the New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award Nominee Wolf in White Van
In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson
Haunted by his past, Travis Stillwell spends his nights searching out women in West Texas honky-tonks. What he does with them doesn’t make him proud, just quiets the demons for a little while. But after Travis crosses paths one night with a mysterious pale-skinned girl, he wakes weak and bloodied in his cabover camper the next morning—with no sign of a girl, no memory of the night before. When his and other lives converge on a dusty autumn night, an old evil will find new life—and new blood.
A God in the Shed by J-F. Dubeau
The village of Saint-Ferdinand has all the trappings of a quiet life: farmhouses stretching from one main street, a small police precinct, a few diners and cafés, and a grocery store. Though if an out-of-towner stopped in, they would notice one unusual thing—a cemetery far too large and much too full for such a small town, lined with the victims of the Saint-Ferdinand Killer, who has eluded police for nearly two decades. It’s not until after Inspector Stephen Crowley finally catches the killer that the town discovers even darker forces are at play.
Ararat by Christopher Golden
Ararat is the heart-pounding tale of an adventure that goes wrong…on a biblical scale. When an earthquake reveals a secret cave hidden inside Mount Ararat in Turkey, a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside what they believe is Noah’s Ark. They soon discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses. Inside the coffin they find something hideous. Shock and fear turn to horror when a massive blizzard blows in, trapping them thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain. All they can do is pray for safety. But something wicked is listening to their prayers…and it wants to answer.
Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill
A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman, Joe Hill. In Strange Weather, this “compelling chronicler of human nature’s continual war between good and evil,” (Providence Journal-Bulletin) who “pushes genre conventions to new extremes” (New York Times Book Review) deftly expose the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life. Masterfully exploring classic literary themes through the prism of the supernatural, Strange Weather is a stellar collection from an artist who is “quite simply the best horror writer of our generation” (Michael Koryta).
Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat by Anne Rice
The Vampire Chronicles continue with a riveting, rich saga–part adventure, part suspense–of Prince Lestat and the story of the Blood Communion as he tells the tale of his coming to rule the vampire world and the eternal struggle to find belonging, a place in the universe for the undead, and how, against his will, he must battle the menacing, seemingly unstoppable force determined to thwart his vision and destroy the entire vampire netherworld.
Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
When best-selling horror author Sam McGarver is invited to spend Halloween night in one of the country’s most infamous haunted houses, he reluctantly agrees. At least he won’t be alone; joining him are three other masters of the macabre, writers who have helped shape modern horror. But what begins as a simple publicity stunt will become a fight for survival. The entity they have awakened will follow them, torment them, threatening to make them a part of the bloody legacy of Kill Creek.
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