#Horror Reading - King's Bazaar of Bad Dreams

As you can tell if you've been by this blog before, I love to read, but I also skip around a lot. I start reading a book and then start reading another one.  I have several I've started already.

Only a handful of books, it seems, catch my attention enough that I keep reading straight through. That usually happens when the book is different than what I've read before, is something historical as they usually are more complex, or the writer really grabs me. 

I've been a longtime Stephen King fan, so I've been looking forward to reading his latest collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories.  As he says in the introduction and he's right, short stories do take a different skill set from longer stories. You have less time to set things up, to get the point, and it comes with a bigger glare if the story misses. 

I've only begun reading the first story, Mile 81, which King claims is one of his favorites. I had to laugh as the main horror focus, so far, is kind of cliched but also a kind of typical King device, as well. I'll say that I'm intrigued enough that I want to find out what is going on fully before I make a decision on whether I like this one or not.  No matter what, he is  a master at describing the scene and making you really see the characters--and keeping you reading even if you're not quite sure how you feel about the story or not. 

I'll try to give a little synopsis on the stories as I read them.

** Your Turn: Got a favorite King book or story? Why? Or have you read this collection yet? What'd you think?