Lilja's Library

by Hans-Ake Lilja

  As it is now, the plot description of each book and the character description isn’t that interesting since I already know what the book is about and who’s in it (I have read them all at least one time). The analysis of the plot is a bit more interesting though. Here you can compare her description with your own interpretation of the books.

  At the back of the book there is an index. Most of it’s good, but some of the sections are extremely incomplete, if you ask me. In the section with nonfiction, Sharon mentions the three nonfiction books King has done (Danse Macabre, On Writing and Secret Window) and then she starts to list articles by King. Here is where she is making her mistake. She isn’t close to listing all of King’s nonfiction articles and by including this section she is just giving us an incomplete list, which is confusing. It would have been better if she would have just listed the three books and then ended the list or listed all of the nonfiction articles by King, which would have required quite a bit of work on her part.

  A similar problem appears when she lists the sites about King that are available on the web. Here I realize that she can’t possibly list all of the sites, but the ones she lists are far from the best ones out there. I’m not saying they aren’t good sites, but there are more sites out there that are a must if you are doing a list of sites about King. To give you some examples, she left out sites like Charnel House and Needful Things, and instead she has sites that haven’t been updated in a couple of years or that aren’t even online anymore (not all of them though). That’s not what I call good research. It feels more like she has just done a search on King and then taken the first hits she got.

  Lilja’s final words about Revisiting Stephen King

  If you use this book to write a paper you might get more out of it than I did. It’s as much the purpose of this book to be a source for papers as it is a paper itself (just bound a little better). As a relaxing read on a cold winter evening in front of the fireplace, you can do much better with a book by King…any one of them, in fact.

  ****

  Horror Plum’d

  Posted: December 11, 2002

  So, Michael Collings’s new book about King’s work is finally here. The book is called Horror Plum’d and, as usual with Collings’s books, it’s filled with information about King’s work.

  First of all, I want to say that this isn’t the kind of book you read from cover to cover in one sitting. This is more of a reference book. You can use it to find out info about the things King has done. In Horror Plum’d, Collings lists all of King’s work, divided into sections that make it easy to find.

  In the chapter where Collings lists all of the books King has written, you find the usual books but also novels, short-fiction collections, nonfiction, reprints and multimedia adaptations of book titles. And, if that isn’t enough for you, you also get a lot of information about foreign publications of the titles. Here Collings lists the foreign title, English translation of the title, translator, publisher and more. There’s a bit more info about some of the titles and less about others depending on what Collings has been able to find. This is really interesting reading! In addition to all this info, there is also cover art for almost every U.S. edition of the books.

  There is also a chapter that deals with shorter fiction. Here we get info about the excerpts that have been released from King’s books, screenplays, short stories, short non-fiction, poetry and more. It’s rather interesting to see how much poetry King has written. Not much of it has been published though. Maybe King will release a poetry book sometime in the future?

  There are also sections about audio and video adaptations of original King materials. This is not a complete listing of movies based on King’s books or the audio editions of his books though. Here there are only the ones that King is directly involved in.

  After reading Horror Plum’d, I got curious as to where the title came from, so I asked Collings. It turns out that it is a phrase from John Milton’s seventeenth century epic, Paradise Lost. Milton used the phrase to describe Satan, dressed in armor and with “horror plumed.” Collings used it as a compliment to King’s storytelling power as well as to the epic scope of his vision.

  You can find the exact passage from Paradise Lost opposite the title page. Here you can read it in its context. Don’t miss that.

  Lilja’s final words about Horror Plum’d

  So, is this a book you should get? Well, if you ask me, I say definitely! Get a copy the same day it’s released! But, be prepared in that this is a reference guide, not a biographical book about King’s life. If that is what you’re looking for there are other books better suited to that purpose. But, if you want an excellent guide to King’s work, this is the book! Horror Plum’d really made me happy!

  Horror Plum’d is released from Overlook Connection Bookstore on January 6, 2003.

  ****

  The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King

  Posted: June 5, 2003

  The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King is the most detailed and complete guide to King’s work that I have seen. It covers everything. All the work, all the characters, all the places, all the businesses—it covers everything that you can imagine. It even has all of the connections between the different stories King has written.

  The book (or CD-ROM) is divided into three parts (books). The first one deals with how the book was done and how it should be used. It’s wise to read this one before you dive into books two and three…

  Book two is the core of the CD-ROM and contains information about 270 separate works by King. It covers everything he has done (that is known). Here, you can find all of the info about each story. You’ll find stuff like where you can find the story (if you can find it), a summary of the story (this one is very interesting when it comes to the unpublished stories), main characters, links to other stories, errors, adaptations, places, things and much, much more.

  In book three you will find a set of indices. This is the one you should use when you want to find a special character or a special place or anything else in any of the stories, or if you want to know if he/she appears in several stories.

  The total number of pages ends up at the respected amount of 5,100! My guess is that’s the reason this book is released as a CD-ROM and not as a hardback. If it ever were to be released as a hardback, it would have to be divided into three different volumes (at least) and it would still be too big and (probably) too expensive.

  So, is this something that you need to have? Well, if you ask me, I would definitely say yes! Or, let me put it like this: how often have you read a story by King and wondered where that special thing has appeared before, or where you have read about that character earlier? Now you don’t have to wonder (or look through all of your books to find out) anymore. As a reference work, The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King is perfect. It’s not something that you read from cover to cover though. It’s more of a dictionary of King’s work.

  Isn’t there anything wrong with The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King, then? Well, yes, there is. First, it can be a bit time consuming and complicated to have to turn on your computer to look up a character, especially if you are in bed reading. But, then again, this is probably the only way you can publish a book like this, so I can live with it.

  Another thing that maybe should have been done differently is the layout of book two. Here, all of the stories are divided into three different columns and into alphabetical order. This sounds like a good idea, but it’s a bit messy and it gets a bit hard to get a good overview of everything. But then, this isn’t all that important. It does what it’s supposed to, and that is good enough for me.

  So, you see, not even the bad things are really that bad…

  Another thing is that I can’t help getting jealous of the authors of The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King. I want to read all the stories as well!

  Lilja’s final words about The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King

  So, if
you ask me, I think you should go out and get this as soon as you can. It’s a bit sad that it’s limited to five hundred copies and I really, really hope that it will be released in a “trade” edition (if you can talk about that when it comes to CD-ROM’s). This is a book that every King fan should own!

  ****

  The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (2nd Edition)

  Posted: December 10, 2003

  Just six months after its original release, it’s time for the second edition of The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King to be released. My guess is that the first edition sold better than anyone had expected.

  What has changed with this edition, then? Well, actually, it’s not that much. The look and feel of the CD-ROM is still the same. The only new thing (but then, this is what really matters) is the new material the authors have gone through and put in for us to read.

  They have revised ninety-four of the 288 chapters from the first edition of the CD-ROM to make sure they are as up-to-date as possible. They have also listed new titles such as the revised Gunslinger, Wolves of the Calla and the short story “Harvey’s Dream.” In addition to this, all indexes and reference chapters have been updated as of October 2003. Not bad when you consider that it was released November 10, 2003.

  One thing that hasn’t changed, but maybe ought to, is the layout of book two. I complained a little about that in my review of the first edition as well. All of the stories are divided into three different columns and then placed in alphabetical order from left to right. This makes it somewhat hard to follow. It’s not a big problem, but if there is a third edition, which I’m guessing there will be, my suggestion is that it’s done in another way. I’m not sure exactly how it should be done, but there must be a better way. But, as I said in the review of the first edition, it does what it’s supposed to and that’s the main thing.

  Another thing that would be nice (if possible) is if there could be some kind of search function. Now, I use the one that’s in Adobe Acrobat reader, but that isn’t the best one, so, if it were possible it would be nice to have a built-in one.

  Lilja’s final words about The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (2nd Edition)

  So, should you get this CD-ROM? Well, if you don’t have the first edition, there is no question about it. You should definitely get this one. If you already have the first edition you might want to consider waiting for the third or fourth edition. Why? Well, there aren’t that many new titles in this one compared to the first one, and with both parts six and seven of The Dark Tower on the way as well as “Stationary Bike” and “Rest Stop,” there is bound to be at least one or two more editions and it would be rather costly to get them all. However, this is one item that should be in every King fan’s possession.

  ****

  The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (3rd Edition)

  Posted: January 26, 2005

  OK, it’s time for the third edition of The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King by Rocky Wood, David Rawsthorne and Norma Blackburn. Since I have already reviewed both the first and second edition, I plan to do this one a bit different. If you have read the two first reviews you already know what I think about this CD-ROM, and if you haven’t read those reviews, please do that now, I’ll wait…

  OK, you’re back? Good.

  This time I would like to give some suggestions for additions that I would like to see in the fourth edition:

  1) I would like to see the original cover art for all of the books listed on the CD-ROM. I’m not sure if this would be a very complicated thing to do. I mean, you have, on one hand, the legal aspect. I’m not sure you can just publish a cover without permission. On the other hand, you have the technical aspect, which I think could be overcome though. Anyhow, it would be cool to see all of the original covers. And, who knows, King might be willing to add some rejected ones as well?

  2) I would like to see a list of all the languages that King has been translated into. I have a list here on my site, but I still think that it would be good to have it in here as well. If not for anything else than it would be fun to see where on the planet they read King’s work.

  3) I don’t know if this is a good idea or not, but wouldn’t it be nice if The Guide was done as a software that could be updated. My guess is that those who have already bought edition one or two think it feels a bit irritating to have to get a new one every now and then. Well, since it’s the cold, hard fact that there will be new items as long as King still publishes things, there’s nothing you can do about it, but could it be done in a different way? Maybe you could get one edition and then buy updates to it? What do you think about that?

  4) Create a search function. Now we’re talking about technical solutions again. Even though I know it wouldn’t be easy to do, I would love to have the ability to search for a title and then get a listing of all the entries for that title. Possible? I don’t know.

  Well, those are my thoughts, and even though I guess they have given the authors of The Guide the big shivers, maybe they have also given them some good ideas for the next edition? I guess I’ll have to wait and see if they send me a copy of edition four as well…

  Lilja’s final words about The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (3rd Edition)

  The third edition has been updated so that it contains everything King has done up until October 2004, and the layout on book two (which I have complained about in my reviews of both the first and second editions) now looks better. And, as I have said before, this is the best reference work I have seen so far, so if you want to know all there is about King’s work you should definitely get it, even if you have an earlier copy. As I said before, as long as King is publishing, you will have to get a new edition every once in a while if you want to be one hundred percent up-to-date.

  ****

  The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book

  Posted: May 12, 2005

  Stephen King as trivia. Well, that has been done earlier in books, but not quite the same way as in The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book by Brian Freeman and Bev Vincent.

  For starters, they got the fans themselves to ask the questions, which I don’t think has been done before. They also got Glenn Chadbourne to illustrate the book with really nice black-and-white drawings. The illustrations are also used as questions. It can be a drawing of a car and then the question is something like “What is the car’s name”? A really interesting concept. It’s different from the usual way of asking questions, and the mix of these pictures and text questions is nice. Good job!

  The book contains over one thousand questions and varies between the really easy ones that everyone will probably know to the really hard ones that the authors themselves probably had problems with. And the book also contains a hints section. Here is where you go if you don’t know the answer, but still want another chance before peeking at the answer. It gives the book an extra dimension.

  Even if the prime reason to get this book is the questions, you will probably be surprised by how cool the illustrations are. They are like nothing I have ever seen, and they capture King’s feeling perfectly!

  The book also includes an introduction by Bev Vincent and an afterword by SKEMERs founder Michelle L. Revelle. Her afterword, in which she tells the history of SKEMERs, is quite interesting. Even though I’ve been a member since sometime in 1995/96 I didn’t know all of its history. The members of SKEMERs contributed most of the questions for the book.

  The book is released in trade paperback (the one with the blue cover), hardback (the one with the brown cover) and a limited edition. If you’re a collector you might want to go for the limited edition, in which you also get a piece of Glenn Chadbourne’s original artwork that was used in the book. Otherwise, one of the other editions will do you fine. The hardback will probably survive more readings, so it may be worth investing in that one…

  Lilja’s final words about The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book

  If you like
to test your knowledge of King, this is definitely the book to do it with. It covers most parts of King’s life and career, so you get a wide spectrum of questions in a wide range of difficulties. It’s the ultimate trivia book, if you ask me.

  ****

  The Stephen King Collector’s Guide

  Posted: November 23, 2007

  The Stephen King Collector’s Guide by Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks is a very special CD-ROM. If you’re a collector you’ll love it, and if you’re just a reader then you won’t. The Stephen King Collector’s Guide is, as I see it, purely for the collector who wants to keep track of his or her Stephen King items.

  And in The Stephen King Collector’s Guide you can do just that. It has lists where you can mark what you have, and you can also put down what version you have, what it’s worth and if you have any extra that you want to trade or sell to other collectors.

  What it doesn’t have is a lot of information about each item. That is not its purpose either, but if you want that kind of information, The Stephen King Collector’s Guide is connected to three other books that will have all the information you could ever want. Those books are: A Primary Bibliography of the World’s Most Popular Author, Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished and Stephen King: The Nonfiction, and in The Stephen King Collector’s Guide you can see what page in each of those books you can read more.

  So, The Stephen King Collector’s Guide is the guide to use if you have a lot of different Stephen King items that you feel you want to keep track of. There are, however, a couple things that I hope will be changed in upcoming editions of the guide:

  1) I would like a table of contents (with a link to a specific piece) on each index letter. That would give you a better overview of the index. If you know what you’re looking for it’s no problem, but if you want to browse…it’s not easy as it’s done today.