(And Still Another) Ten Good Stephen King Books (#41-50)

It is mid-July as I write this, and summer is in full swing. What better author for summertime beach reading than Stephen King? The prolific Maine writer of more than 70 novels, hundreds of short stories, several screenplays, and even a few non-fiction pieces has no shortage of material from which to choose.

There are several different types of King books – genres within genres. Take his short stories. These range anywhere from 5 pages to 50, let’s say. Most are all-out horror, but not all have “horrifying” endings. Or novels. Some, like “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,” are just over 200 pages, while others – “The Stand: For the First Time Complete & Uncut” comes to mind – exceed the 1,000 page mark. Some, like “Pet Sematary,” are quick-turning and gory. Others, such as the terrific “11/22/63,” are dense and thought-provoking.

The list you are about to read includes a good variety of King works. His first published novel, “Carrie,” makes the cut, as does his most recent collection of short stories, “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.” The first volume of his massive “Dark Tower” mega-novel, “The Gunslinger,” is on here, as is his personal favorite piece of his own writing, “Lisey’s Story.” Of these, my favorites are listed in rank order, as decided by my admittedly-amateur entertainment critic-self.

So with that, here are (still) another ten good Stephen King books:

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Top Ten Horror Movies

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Halloween is just around the corner and cinemas are filled with scary movies of varying degrees of quality. (My local cineplex is showing the “Conjuring” sequel “Annabelle.”) I started thinking about some of my favorite scary movies. Of course, there are sub-genres within the greater “horror” category. The last 15 years have been especially kind in this regard, with new categories emerging such as “found footage” (“The Blair Witch Project,” “Paranormal Activity”), “torture porn” (“Hostel,” “Saw”), even “horror comedy” (“Zombieland,” “This is the End”).

I tried to come up with a list that encompasses several sub-genres. Slasher, zombie, vampire, haunted house, serial killer…I covered most of the bases. You will see that after each film on my list, I’ve also recommended similar movies that you might want to check out – they could be by the same director, of the same genre, or with a similar narrative/visual style.

Enough babbling. Here are my top ten favorite horror movies:

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