#written by STEPHEN KING

[sergle]

I like a lot of horror podcasts, but what about horror novels? does anypony have book recommendations for me that you really enjoyed / that were super scary

[caffeinewitchcraft]

treating my catastrophizing like its cannon but i've isekai'd into a gothic horror story. Yes, everyone will die...in the original timeline. That Time I Got Reincarnated into a Tragedy But My Insane Cheat Powers Won't Let Anything Go Wrong: 24 Hours Until Happiness!

[eizneckam]

scps are so funny to me. i never got into the scp wiki, for reasons that are about to become immediately apparent, and i get that anyone can add stuff to the wiki, but the experience of getting tricked into reading scp-001 when day breaks, having to put the computer away and stare at the wall for a couple minutes as i try not to think about the nightmares im going to have tonight, going back, and then reading about the scp that pretends to be a cocaine bag that makes cops kill people was. the whiplash was indescribable

[deadpanwalking]

you may have addressed this in the past, but i am pretty sure i'm too dumb to read james joyce. how do you improve your reading comprehension? i'd like to move beyond the nyt bestseller list, but going from stephen king to faulkner seems like a steep jump.

Nobody is too dumb to read a book, but plenty of people have been conditioned into perpetual incuriosity.  The only way to improve reading comprehension is by reading outside of your comfort zone, which necessarily means letting go of the notion that the relationship between an artist and their audience is adversarial, and that a challenging work of art is booby-trapped with mean tricks designed to make you feel bad.

What do you do when you run into a word or concept that you don't immediately understand in the wild? You don't (I fervently hope) drop what you're reading like a hot potato—you keep reading to see if there’s clarification, and if there's none, you find a reliable source that gives you the definition, context, and examples, then circle back. What do you do when you're watching a movie you haven't seen before and the camera lingers on a random detail, or a character makes an inexplicable choice? Unless you are my dad, you give the story a chance to play out before asking what the deuce is going on. 

Faulkner and Joyce aren't cyphers, which is why their short fiction is a standard in the public high school English curriculum, and As I Lay Dying and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are frequently assigned to juniors and seniors in AP classes—but even their denser writing is more accessible now than it's ever been. Over the past century, so many people have loved them enough to devote their lives to studying their work—and they’ve passed the savings down to you. They’ve written annotations that explain literary, historical, and biographical context and that's aligned with the pagination of the books, they’ve integrated hyperlinks into the hypertext.

There's exactly one (1) acceptable excuse not to read Faulkner or Joyce: not wanting to read Faulkner or Joyce.  You don't even need to give them a chance—millions of people (among them, many prolific and intelligent readers) have and will continue to live rich, meaningful lives after deciding that a particular book or author is simply not a priority, even if the author is famous and the book highly recommended by several friends who wear glasses.

If you can parse this passage from Pet Sematary, you can parse just about anything Joyce throws at you:

[impulsivesuperrobin]

me, gnawing at the bars of my cage: richie tozier is smart!!! he gets good grades!!! he understands bill better than anyone!!! he thinks bev is so tough!!! his impressions are fucking awful when he’s a kid!!! he hates his glasses but thinks it’s cool that buddy holly wears them!!!! his parents don’t always understand him but they love him so much!!! he’s scared of clowns and werewolves and being forgotten!!! he dances with bev in a school talent show!!! and their friendship gives a time traveler hope for derry!!!

[witchiewitchie]

wrote this poem in class yesterday < 3

[etirabys]

IT'S STEPHEN KING SHAMING HOUR

[m-o-o-n-thatspellsblog]

You're not afraid of the great world, Eddie, but of the small one inside yourself.

Stephen King, The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

[mydetheturk]

me baiting the trigun fans w/ the dark tower series like "pspspsps this is a normal scifi western it will not hurt you (it wants to hurt you. it wants to hurt you a lot actually)"

we even have COMICS and characters DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE and weird, fucked up THINGS and the main character is GOING THROUGH IT

[gingaswag]

tbh i feel like shipping is quite overrated though this may be the depressed single person in me talking lol.

[social-mockingbird]

Okay you know what Mr. King sometimes adverbs are GOOD and FUN and make my writing more AWESOME

[charaznablescanontoyota]

a girl is framed in the doorway. plain clothes, acne, limp blond hair the color of dishwater. probably dennis’s age if he had to guess. she looks at them startled, like she hadn’t expected to find people inside. “well, come in,” richie says. “were you born in a barn?” “beep beep,” dennis and susan say in unison. (or: the first annual stephen king protagonist convention.)

[saints-who-never-existed]

for the sleepover weekend ✨️ any book recommendations?? Fiction, nonfiction, obscure academic articles - all suggestions welcome! 📚

Thank you so much for this - it's been a joy to think about! :)

My literary tastes are fairly eclectic so to impose some order on proceedings, I've broken things down and recommended some specific works by some of my favourite authors.

Angela Carter I enjoy the weaving of magic and myth, feminism and sexuality throughout her often surreal works. I'd recommend The Magic Toyshop, The Passions of New Eve, and The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman.

Leonora Carrington Pioneering Surrealist artist and novelist who wrote frankly about her mental health struggles, and in a strangely comedic way about many other things. The Hearing Trumpet is a personal favourite, as is The Debutante.

Nan Shepherd Shepherd captures so well both the rhapsodic beauty of the Cairngorms and the idiosyncrasies of Scottish life in general. Try The Living Mountain and The Weatherhouse.

Mikhail Bulgakov I've long been partial to the darkly comedic nature of some Russian literature and Bulgakov is one of my favourites. The Master and Margarita, The Heart of a Dog, and A Young Doctor's Notebook are all great.

Scott Lynch His Gentleman Bastard series (though sadly not yet finished with only three of a total seven books released thus far) is incredible fun and literally makes me laugh out loud. I also feel he manages to offer really solid representation and worldbuilding, and avoids many common fantasy pitfalls.

[just-a-girl-with-many-fandoms]

Just finished reading IT by Stephen King.

The book hangover is gonna be bad.

[que3rduckling]

It is February 14, 1990-something and Richie and Eddie are spending their first Valentine’s Day as an official couple together. They have spent the whole day doing little romantic couple things around the town, well as romantic as a gay couple in the 90s who live in a small town can get.

They went to the movies together, went to a cafe with each other and even surprised one another with little chocolates and sweets.

As the time started to get later they decided it was best if they started to head back home. As they were walking back Richie could tell Eddie was a bit bummed out about something, worried about his boyfriend, he decided to figure out what was the matter.

“What’s up Ed’s? You look a little bummed out there. So sad to already see me go? Or are you worried that I might sneak out to hang out with Mrs K tonight, which I can assure you won’t happen since you’re the only man for me. Even if Mrs K is good in bed” Richie said with a smug grin, rapping his arm around Eddie’s shoulders.

“First off, fuck you and secondly, Beep Beep Richie.” Eddie said with his classic annoyed face but Richie knew he secretly loved it. but as the seconds flew by his facial expression turned into a much more softer one.

“I just-… I don’t know, I just wished we could do all those romantic things every other couple gets to do or just even be able at all to act like we’re a couple.” Eddie looked down as he talked, looking more upset as he talked “like deep down I was kinda hoping that we would do something like… I don’t know … a date?”

He said the last bit much more quietly and if Richie wasn’t listening so carefully to everything that Eddie was saying, he probably wouldn’t have heard him. Richie softly smiled to himself, he had planned for this exact moment.

“Why don’t you come back to my place? Spend some special time with me, if you know what I mean” Richie said winking and nudging Eddie with his elbow.

“BEEP. FUCKING. BEEP RICHIE” Eddie yelled, halting in his tracks.

“No but seriously Eds, why don’t you come to my place? My parents are out on a date right now so why don’t you come over and we can maybe have some romantic time, just the two of us.” Richie asked. Eddie thought about the offer for a minute but then simply replied 

“Why not”

 ***

As they finally arrived at the Tozier residence, Richie suddenly stopped in the driveway. Eddie, surprised by The sudden stop, turned around to see what was the matter.

“What? Did something happen?” Eddie questioned, worried about Richie.

“Oh no, nothings wrong! Just stay here for a second I need to check on something” Richie said quickly, running to the his house but stopping at the front door to turn around, “don’t worry, I won’t be doing anything too bad” he winked 

Eddie sighed as Richie entered his house wondering ‘what the hell was Richie doing in there?’ But not too long later Richie appears back at the door beckoning him to come in. As Eddie approached the front door he was hit with a wave of what smelt like some sort of pasta dish, he entered the house with Richie guiding him to the kitchen. When he peered into the kitchen he saw Richie’s kitchen table had two plates of spaghetti sitting on either side of the table with a vast of flowers and lighted candles set in the middle. It looked like one of those romantic dinners straight out of a movie. 

Eddie was shocked, he was amazed. When Richie invited him over he expected them to just hang out, watch a movie not have an amazing romantic dinner. Richie, obviously thinking he had done something wrong by Eddie’s reaction, started to panic.

“If you don’t like it, just say so. I mean we don’t even have to have dinner if you don’t want to. I-” before Richie could even finish, Eddie cut him off

“No, no, no Richie, This- oh my god, this is amazing! I love it” Richie smiled, looking relieved that Eddie actually did, in fact, like it.

“Well good, I worked my ass off preparing this meal and I know that you wouldn't want this ass to work so hard for nothing Eds.” Richie said, giving Eddie a smug grin “Now let’s eat, shall we? Don’t want stop you from committing cannibalism any longer, Eddie spaghetti”

“That’s not my name.” Eddie replied with a small smile as they sat down. The food was much better than what he had expected, probably since the last time Richie tried to cook anything he almost burned down the house. It felt like they were on an actual date, complete with soft romantic music playing in the background and the candles emitting some of the only light in the room. As they finished their meal Richie started to gain a small smile on his lips which was so infectious that Eddie couldn't stop himself from smiling more than he already was, which he didn’t even know was possible. 

“How do you feel about some dancing, Eds?” Richie asked as he got up and started to clear the dishes off the table “I know you can’t keep your hands off of me” 

“You wish” Eddie replied, though the idea of dancing was quite intriguing for Eddie. “Do you have a mixtape already or are we just gonna have to find some radio station for some music?” 

“I have something already don't you worry” Richie said, his smile getting bigger as he started moving around the kitchen appearing to be looking for something then all of a sudden he stopped “shit! I think I forgot it in my room. Give me a second!” then he ran up the stairs, running to his room.

Eddie let out a small sigh, not because he was upset, actually on the contrary. He was amused. Richie was always forgetting things, his homework, his key to his house, he even once forgot his glasses, which Eddie still had no clue how that could have ever happened. It could be very annoying when Richie forgot something, especially if that something was important, but Eddie always found it a tiny bit funny. 

Eddie started to wander off, but was quickly whipped out of his thoughts as he heard the loud thud of Richie jumping over the last few steps of his stairs and landing on the floor. He turned around to see Richie holding up his arm, revealing that he had, in fact, found the mixtape and was holding it. Richie moved over to where the cassette player was located on the kitchen counter and popped the mixtape in. 

“This ones for you, Eddie my love” Richie said before he hit play on the player, moving away from the counter and towards Eddie as the lyrics of the song started to drift out of the player. Soon Eddie realized the reason why Richie’s big smile was for as he heard the first lyrics of the song.

‘Eddie my love, I love you so’

Eddie softly smiled to himself. Of course Richie had chosen that song, it was such a Richie thing to do. But Eddie found it romantic nonetheless. His smile only widened more as he heard Richie singing along to all the lyrics, putting his hands around Eddie's waist and starting to slow dance. They stayed like that for hours, slow dancing to whatever music Richie decided was romantic enough to put on his mixtape and it was as they slow dancing Eddie realised that even though they aren’t at some super fancy restaurant, displaying to the whole world their love for each other. This, this was the perfect valentine's day. Just him and Rich slow dancing together and eating the meal Richie had prepared for the two of them. Just them hanging out and having fun together. This was the valentine's day Eddie had always dreamed of and he wouldn't trade it for the world.

link for the song if anyone wants to listen to it

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

The sleepover scene always breaks my heart 😭 literally me at 12