watership down and others

[mungojerrie]

what i'd like to know is how many books Stephen King has turned you onto through references in his books. watership down was my first. i had actually seen the cartoon as a child and it left a huge impression on me, but as i grew up i could find no one else who had ever heard of it. then to my delight i read the stand and he referred to it. i almost cried! i now own the book and wouldn't take 10 million dollars for it!

so, have any of you found a lost love or discovered a new one through king?

[John_and_Yoko]

Hard to say, really--most of the works he mentions I've either read already BEFORE coming to him as an author, or else they're so out of my usual realm of knowledge that I don't take an interest.

I guess, though, as far as rekindling an old love (of sorts), he's turned me on to wanting to read Dracula again (haven't done so yet, but now I plan to). That was primarily due to what he said about it in his introduction to 'Salem's Lot, though, which was that The Lord of the Rings was "a slightly sunnier version of" Dracula, and he even made comparisons between the characters (something I LOVE to do, but it hadn't occurred to me to make such comparisons between these two books in particular).

Other than that, King has kind of become the "be-all," "end-all" author for me. Okay, no, I'm exaggerating, but what I mean is that he's seeming to be the author I read AFTER the works he mentions in his own writing, not before. Also, I haven't read any author I'm so completely comfortable with--I stopped collecting a long time ago, but I might well end up with his entire collection of written works at some point, that's how much I enjoy him.

[Sam]

He turned me on to Jack Ketchum's work. Ketchum often hits harder than even I like, but his writing is very solid and stays with you long after you've put the book away.