An old e-mail I got some time ago:

7th August 2000
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Hi there!

My name is [This part has been removed to protect the sender's privacy]. I saw your review on a Stephen King book review web page and thought i would just give you a buzz!

I saw you had made some comments of your own of one of Stephen King's books, and i was hoping would you be able to give me some suggestions or recommendations on which of Stephen King's books to go for and not to go for?

I would really appreciate this as i think having somebody elses opinion helps a lot. Could you please give me your top 3 Stephen King books that you have enjoyed the most, in order.

I really apprecite this very much if you could just spare me a few minutes of your time, and if you find you are unable to reply to me then i fully understand.

Thankyou very much for you time, and have a great day !!!

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P.S. If you do find that you will be able to e-mail me, can you please reply with the subject "Stephen King". Thanx a lot!!

Being a good citizen, I replied the following:

Hi, [This part has been removed to protect the sender's privacy]!

It's nice to hear from someone who found my comments interesting. Very few people do that, so sometimes I feel like my 2 cents worth aren't noticed by anyone.

Okay, 3 King books I really liked and would recommend... I guess these would be my top choices:

1. "Different Seasons". This is the one I would suggest anyone to read if they want to pick up a Stephen King book for the first time. You get 4 different stories in one single package (almost like 4 novels for the price of one), and they show that Mr. King is a terrific storyteller in any genre, not just "America's bogeyman", since they are not horror stories.
2. "The Green Mile". The movie didn't capture all the humanity present in this book's pages. Even if you saw the film, you've got to read this one.
3. "Desperation". This is the only straight horror novel in this list. To me, this one shows that besides making great entertainment when they are well written, horror novels can also be great literature if they talk about the human condition. Basically, this one deals with faith in a very shrewd manner. I think it deals with the theme of God sending man to fight evil even better than "The Stand", which is the favorite of many a Stephen King fan.

So there you have it. I hope this helps. Drop a line if you ever wish to discuss any more Stephen King books, or any favorite books from other writers.

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