I can't remember! I know something from that section of the book was cut, because a friend read the edited version and S. and I kept saying "happy crappy" and he had no idea what we were talking about.

It's been a long time since I've read my uncut edition, though.

Salem's Lot made me terrified of my bedroom closet, for some reason. Possibly I was flashing on the kid waiting for dark and hearing the footsteps on the stairs.

I was reading a story about a Little League team in Maine in The New Yorker several years ago, and a couple of phrases struck me as familiar. I checked the byline and, yep, Stephen King, writing about the year his son's team made it to State. The bit about "Some obscure author from Bangor threw out the first pitch, then the game was on," was very nice.

Which was this? I read his recent baseball story, Blockade Billy , which I really loved and then downloaded Ur on my Kindle, which I also enjoyed. So, I decided to start at the beginning. I read Carrie last year and TCG gave me Salem's Lot for Christmas which I also loved.

Full Moon, No Stars

I've only read the original edit of The Stand, and IIRC, there was a Trashcan Man.

Life is too short for me to find time to read an even longer version of a novel that gave me weeks of quasi-PTSD every time I heard anyone cough...

I consider King to be valedictorian of the first graduating class of the "Too Popular to Edit" school of novelists. Other alum include Anne Rice and JK Rowling. I look with disfavor on this development: nobody is above editing.

Full Moon, No Stars

I didn't realize that that was a collection. I thought it was a novel.

Nope, it's four stories, sj.

Consuela, the editing thing is why I can't read Dave Eggars or (my boyfriend's favorite) William T Vollman. I just can't sog through pages and pages of meandering. Editors exist for a reason, dammit.

Trashcan Man was definitely in the original Stand.

It's been a long time since I read either version, but the main thing that sticks out is that Harold had a larger role in the longer version, so he comes across as more tragic than in the original.

What am I misremembering? I have no time to go read and compare both now, darn it.

java, I think it's Full Dark, No Stars.

I was ruminating on Stephen King last night and why i've loved so many of his books for so many years...and i think it's that his world building is amazing. So many books start right in our normal world, then gradually shift to an alternate reality so seamlessly that i don't notice the change until the story captivates my sleeping and waking thoughts.

Since reading Salems Lot more than 20 years ago I still am hesitant to walk down basement stairs, even with the lights on. Some things just stick with you.

Seagulls. The Talisman. Though that might have been the other guy.