I got quite the male-dominated list: John Updike, Arthur Hailey, Gore Vidal, Leon Uris, William Styron, JK Galbraith, Durrell, Michener and Desmond Morris (ah, The Naked Ape, how horrified will I be if I ever re-read you again? Not that I'm likely to.).

And Julia Child's The French Chef Cookbook.

Mary Stewart and Jacqueline Susann (Basically every writer in a used-books store ever.)

I haven't read King in a long, long time, but his books have stayed with me more than a lot of the stuff I read in junior high. My dad had a whole shelf of King, and my parents didn't monitor my reading, so I burned through them the same way I did every other book in the house. I was probably too young for them-- I think I was 11 when I read Firestarter-- but I don't know what I'd think of the books now.

Yeah, I was 11 when it came out and read it right away. I think most of us who love King devoured him at pretty young ages. He writes in a very accessible way, so it's not really a surprise.

I hate Dark Tower with a fiery, fiery passion. I loved the first four books so much, but then the hatred started building until my head exploded at the end.

My birthday week was The Thorn Birds.

I've always been too scared to read King before, but I decided to give it a chance anyway. Salem's Lot did freak me out more than once. I thought Carrie was excellent, but it didn't really scare me for some reason.

And speaking of scary novels. I am currently reading What the Night Knows. Which is very scary, but the family is so Mary Sue that it is kind of sickening at times. The only other Koontz I have read is the novella Darkness Under the Sun which is sort of a prequel to the novel so I don't know if the Mary Sue heroes are typical for him or not.

Does anyone else have the thing where they're not scared of supernatural stuff at all, but serial killers or "normal" human stories where BAD things happen are actually way scarier?

Does anyone else have the thing where they're not scared of supernatural stuff at all, but serial killers or "normal" human stories where BAD things happen are actually way scarier?

I'm the opposite, but the way you are makes more sense to me.

Does anyone else have the thing where they're not scared of supernatural stuff at all, but serial killers or "normal" human stories where BAD things happen are actually way scarier?

Oh, hell yes. In fact, I find novels about mundane tragedies to be very hard going for emotional reasons, and not in a cathartic way either.

The only other Koontz I have read is the novella Darkness Under the Sun which is sort of a prequel to the novel so I don't know if the Mary Sue heroes are typical for him or not.

I read a lot of Koontz back in the day, and if I recall, that's pretty typical. I don't really remember much about the characters in his books, but I did really like them. Dragon Tears is my favorite, I think, and Strangers is really good. Also The Bad Place. The first Koontz I read was Darkfall. It was on the shelf in one of my teacher's rooms when I was in elementary or junior high, and I asked if I could borrow it, and thus my Koontz phase began. And I just looked at the plot summary and wow, I don't remember any of that. Oh! Oh! I loved the crap out of Cold Fire. That was one of those books where I got to a certain point and had to stay up for hours reading.

There were two Koontz books I adored. Lightning, which had the awesomest twist ever, and Watchers, which I adored because of the Golden Retriever with the human intelligence.

spoilery note to javachik, should you decide read the book: the dog in Watchers does NOT die, although there are some close calls.