I have always felt that Stephen King is a bit of a prat. His works are way over rated, it pains me how many serious literature teachers consider this guy the next Shakespeare. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I'd hesitate to call anyones opinion stupid just because I disagreed with it. Many people feel Lord of the Rings is a masterpiece and that the Silmarillion is just a shadow of what it was meant to be, an unfinished work never finished by its creator. I believe had the Silmarillion been finished by Tolkien and published while the author still lived, it would not recieve such harsh criticism.

A little off topic, but the coolest thing about Stephen King is that fact that he writes a story where the main character gets hit by a vehicle and is killed, then a mere matter of months later gets struck by a vehicle himself and is nearly killed. After a hell of a time in recovery, King buys the van that hit him, and goes batshit on it with a baseball bat (total nutter!). Originally he planned to demolish it by hand via sledge hammer, but I guess he found out what a task that would be and had it demolished the usual way. A little over a year after the accident, on Stephen King's birthday, the man who hit King is found dead, supposedly of a painkiller overdose. Hmm, makes me wonder what wish Stephen made that year as he blew out the candles... Creepy stuff. I am not reading anything into it, it is all a matter of a series of coincidences, but it is interesting to reflect on.