For some reason my parents thought it was ok for me to read Stephen king in 4th and 5th grade. He became my favorite author and I read all of his books he had published at the time. I really enjoyed the stand but it was a tough read at that time since it was so long.
Same here. I was reading at a very young age and after I blew through the Baby-Sitters Club/Sweet Valley books, I started on Stephen King. I think Goosebumps wound up being the bridge into his books, but I was 11 and read Carrie, Firestarter, Pet Sematary, and Misery. I tried to read Gerald’s Game but it was way over my head (not the premise, that I understood, but it didn’t hold my interest).
I asked my mom recently what she was thinking letting me read these (especially that last one), and she basically said there was really no stopping me when it came to the library, and it wasn’t like I was out causing trouble.
I read it when I was 12 or 13. I sort of got it, but sort of did not. I wasn't into drugs and didn't even smoke pot until I was 15.
I thought the sex scene with Steely Dan was hilarious and read it to my friends and classmates.
I had a similar trajectory but I didn’t get into Goosebumps because by grade 4, I was already into Fear Street and Christopher Pike as my transition into horror. I still read the BSC books alongside my entry into King (and VC Andrews, lol) though!
Hi. You just mentioned *Carrie* by Stephen King.
I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here:
[YouTube | 'Carrie' by Stephen King Audiobook (Horror, Horror fiction, Epistolary novel)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-btoovk0CMc)
*I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.*
***
[^(Source Code)](https://capybasilisk.com/posts/2020/04/speculative-fiction-bot/) ^| [^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=Capybasilisk&subject=Robot) ^| [^(Programmer)](https://www.reddit.com/u/capybasilisk) ^| ^(Downvote To Remove) ^| ^(Version 1.4.0) ^| ^(Support Robot Rights!)
I read it in fifth grade. My mom forgot about that one scene at the end and when she re read it years later she put the book down with a funny look on her face and asked “HOW old were you when I let you read that!?!?”
Funny, my mom was also a King fan, so she had alot of his books. The TV Movie *It* was coming out in the 90s with my crush Jonathan Brandis - so I begged her to watch it.
I was almost 9 and she wasn't sure if I could handle a scary movie. She said if I could handle reading the book, then I'd be ok with the movie. She also forget about *that part* until I asked her to clarify 😅
Yeah I was around the same age when I started reading them. I took them from my mom. Which is also why I read quite a lot of softcore porn romance novels.
Same! I think I was like 11 or 12 when I found him! I graduated from R.L stein and Christopher Pike ight o Stephen King. I have about 60+ of his books..haven't gotten any of his new ones though, unfortunately. IT is my fav book, read that about 4x
We have a warped sense of what’s ok maybe? 🤷♂️ I’m reading goosebumps and watching all the Resident Evil movies with my kindergartener and he’s fine so far.
To this day I think Storm of the Century is one of the most underrated horror movies of the last 30 years. I watched it as a kid and the guy who played Andre Linoge was so incredibly good in the role that I had nightmares for months after I watched it.
I’m in Florida and every time we have a hurricane knock out power for a day or two, i watch the entire six hour movie on an old laptop connected to a power bank during the storm in the dark. There are so many lines in that movie that still chill me to the core the way he delivers them.
https://preview.redd.it/s9getwi05w2d1.jpeg?width=550&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad0d57df31e9c0bfcdb6bee9d0e347844f98a274
Read a shit ton of Stephen King... Way too young... I had an interview for a gifted high school when I was in 7th grade. They asked me what I was reading and to tell them about it....
Gerald's game.... I was reading Gerald's Game.... why couldn't it have been any other book???
I proceeded to tell them about a woman getting handcuffed to a bed for sexy time and then her husband dropping dead... At 12 yrs old...
I was born in 80, and remember watching The Running Man, Carrie, The Shining, Maximum Overdrive, Cujo, Children of the Corn, and Firestarter all before I was 10. I've always loved movies, and watched R rated films pretty much right out of the womb.
1980 baby here too (Feb), and I was also watching those movies from a young age. My kids, not so much, although my daughter (9) loves Stranger Things and Wednesday and my 8 year old son watched the Shining with me recently. There's hope yet! Lol
I loved the detailed explanation of the dollhouse + napkin rope, it felt just like little house on the prairie & island of the blue dolphins - vague potential skills I might use to survive lol
I started with Dean Koontz and John Saul in middle school and quickly moved onto Stephen King and Anne Rice in Junior High and Highschool. And found A N Roquelaire way sooner than I ever should have.
Unpopular opinion: Kids can handle horror movies and it actually prepares them to handle reality better.
That said, the movies I watched WAY TOO YOUNG were: Virgin Suicides, Full Metal Jacket and Flesh + Blood.
None of those are scary Steven King style horror, though I guess Green Mile is equivalent in the horrors of the adult world.
I think people go too far in trying to protect kids from everything. Kids need adverse experiences to develop. What's important is that they have parents to contextualize and comfort afterward.
Helicopter parenting is how you end up with adults that can't make a phone call without someone holding their hand.
We watch unrealistic horror with our older daughter - resident evil etx. It's a fantastic opportunity to talk about real versus fake and establish that conversation. We have had multiple conversations on YouTube videos etc too. How to identify a scam etc. I don't like her watching realistic horror (like full metal jacket) but I think she would like the Stand. She is 10, which is when I saw and read it.
Meanwhile our younger daughter declares it boring and goes to draw.....
Perhaps. I had lots of nightmares as a kid, though. The only time I can remember my son having a nightmare is when I showed him Jurassic Park at what was in retrospect too young of an age.
The only movie that made my child cry so far was Edward Scissorhands. She did not understand the dismal pointlessness of that ending, all she understood was someone was shunned for being different and that did not sit right with her.
I felt like a jerk because when I watched that movie as a kid, that hadn’t occurred to me as strongly 😢
I wrote to Stephen King when I was in 6th grade and had just finished pet semetary. He wrote me back and sent an autographed headshot.
It was a huge deal to a kid like me. That was when I became obsessed with the dark tower series.
I was almost kicked out of 3rd grade for reading King. My teacher didn't like me and I found her boring so I did a lot of reading. Once she found out what books they were she had me sent to the office, parents called and demanded I stop bringing them or be suspended. Long story short, it lead to me being tested for gifted classes and subsequently getting out of her class three days a week to travel to the magnate school, where they encouraged reading and doing work above my grade level. Lol
Given my experience, this is why I have now chosen to stand up at school board meetings in my neighborhood against these school book bans that are being pushed currently.
I think I was 11 or 12 when I read that.
Can't remember much about it, but The Jaunt has stayed with me to this day. The idea of being trapped in there for an eternity...
I remember binge reading his books while at 6th or 7th grade summer camp.
Also, does anyone else remember the Stephen King episode of Quantum Leap? That episode is always a favorite on rewatch.
First Stephen King read was Drawing on the Three when I was 11. Read The Stand at 17 after I purchased the unabridged version from Waldenbooks with my employee discount.
I started reading King in sixth grade. My mom described The Drawing of the Three to me as she read it, and I was fascinated by the bizarre story. Magic doors on the beach? Monsters in the oceans? A gunfighter hero? Incredible. So I started reading his books. His early stuff is really easy to read, and he had editors to keep him from meandering. He also had a lot of great ideas, and his characters were so believable. Ace Merril is a perfect example.
He’s fallen off a bit for me now. His books wander a bit, and his characters seem much less fleshed out. His older stuff is still gold to me, though.
Yup, started reading his books in sixth grade. My parents just wanted to encourage reading, regardless of the content. Our rule was also that I could only watch an R rated movie if I had read the book first.
I looked at my copy of The Stand on the bookshelf earlier today and thought I'm overdue a read. And now this post....it's a sign!
When I was a kid (born '80) we had a lot of horror on TV in New Zealand. I recall "Friday night frights" and the "Sunday Night Horrors". If you stayed up till the end on Sunday you could see Goodnight Kiwi which was always a bonus.
This article covers them:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/98255843/school-night-of-the-living-dead-remembering-tv2s-sunday-night-horrors
My parents rented lots of horrors on VHS too. Those were the days!
I think a lot of us at that age who saw the mini-series on TV when it came out probably became fans after that.
I love the mini series and I own the same Blu-ray.
I agree, I had originally taped each episode on VHS and that's how I watched it for many years on a tiny 13" TV, and I think I even missed a good chunk of episode 3 lol.
I've come a long way now watching it on blu-ray on my 120" screen, so much detail.
For some reason my mom thought it was a good idea to let a 9 year old read The Mist.
A nine year old that lived in Biloxi Mississippi where every morning in some seasons there's a fog so thick you can't see your feet.
Guess who got to stand her ass out at that foggy fucking bus stop with me every day for a few weeks.
Me! Was reading Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Michael Crichton books in elementary. At the same time I was also into the Baby Sitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and Judy Blume. Think my parents were just happy I was reading so much to pay much attention to what
I'm so happy to see this thread! I remember reading Tommyknockers in 5th grade, and recently brought this up to my parents and brother, who didn't believe me. So I started to second guess myself and think that surely I was misremembering. Now that I see all these comments, I know I'm remembering correctly!
I was really into Fantasy novels throughout grade 5-6 (Dragonlance, The Hobbit, LOTR) and Goosebumps before my mom introduced me to The Talisman. It was my gateway drug to King. By grade 7 I was reading Through The Eyes of the Dragon and The Tommyknockers but also John Saul and Dean Koontz books. I dove into The Shining, The Regulators/Desperation, and The Stand in grade 9.
I've read up to Wizard & Glass after it released when I was in grade 10 or so. The first book blew my adolescent mind. I still haven't read books 5-7 though! I really should finish them off one day.
I read Black House when it came out and really enjoyed it though too.
My mom bought every book the day it came out. So therefore I read them all too at probably too young of an age (8-9 years old). Back then I loved the short story collections because well, they were shorter. Getting 12 year old me to commit to The Stand or Tommy Knockers was a big ask.
I read The Gunslinger in 1989 at age 10 (followed immediately by Drawing of the Three, Eyes of the Dragon, and some others) because my mom had them and I was a precocious reader. I had been terrified of scary stuff before then, but quickly became a Constant Reader for life and an avid horror fan. I think reading King that early made me not just a serious reader (ended up getting an English lit PhD, lol), but also a writer.
On a side note, what did you think of how the Dark Tower ended? I read The Wastelands first and came to love the Dark Tower books, but still disappointed with the ending.
So for me the final “battle” isn’t the most fitting confrontation—like a lot of the last book, it does feel like something King came up with while in a bit of a hurry. As for the VERY END, I actually liked it a lot when I first read it and still upon rereads. It feels like a surprise that’s been foreshadowed enough that it works, and there’s a sense of hope amidst all the wtf. I really adore the series but admit that there’s plenty of stuff that’s a little…creaky. I’m amazed he was able to pull it all off, though, especially after the accident in ‘99.
My grandmother of all people got me Four Before Midnight when I was in 6th grade. I loved it, although I did almost get in major trouble when I asked my mum what a dildo was because of the Langoliers story...
But my next books was IT, so...yeah. Still love his books. Still a bit nervous of drains.
Me. It started with Fear Streets in 3rd grade. Then Stephen King and Koontz by 5th
Now I’m lucky if I finish reading an all staff email all the way through
Reading The Stand as I'm typing this, I had never had the guts to undertake a 1152 pages book.
I'm at page \~700 and a bit lost to be honest, feels like it could never end technically
PS: I re-read the Shining in january this year and I was glued from beginning to end.
I wore out the VHS of Christine when I was a kid, don’t remember exactly how old but definitely younger than 10. I loved that movie (still do honestly).
Yep! I was a Christopher Pike fan in 4th grade and looking for something new. I read Different Seasons because my parents had it just lying around. Boy, I wasn’t ready for the Apt Pupil story but loved Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption and The Body. I moved on to the Stand and The Shining immediately after and was a huge King reader for years after that. The books scared me (especially the Shining) but I couldn’t put them down!
I started taking Stephen King books off my mom's shelf at around 8. I was tired of the little chapter books I was reading. My first King book was IT. I can remember sitting in my room, scared as hell that something was going to come in from the darkness of the hall. I would sit with my book light reading because I needed to know they beat the creature.
King's books are probably 40% of the reason I'm a night owl. I regularly fell asleep with one of his books in my hand during childhood. My mom was a huge fan, and I am a voracious reader. I was also sneaky enough that she didn't know until years later. "That makes a lot of sense" was her thought when I told her in my teens I'd been reading Stephen King for years.
Absolutely! My mom and her theater friends were big readers and one of her teen friends went on a road trip with our family. He read the entirety of Pet Cemetery out loud (I guess before audiobooks you wrangled a random teen 😂)
I was maybe 5, could have been 4.
I also got in trouble because I did a 3rd grade book report on The Tale tale heart and my teacher said that my mom had to have written it because a little kid could not have grasped such dark subject matter.
I’m a little split on how I feel about it, I see parents bend over backwards to hide darkness from their kids and it just leads to the kids hiding the dark stuff from their parents. Life is dark man. Might as well be able to get in touch with it early, maybe, I think.
The 80s were wild man.
Edited a typo
IT, Stand by Me and Pet Semetary were incredible watches as a young kid. I think I saw all of them around the age of 8.
I currently have about 20 of his novels. Stephen King is probably one of the more influential people in pop culture and especially for us Xennials as we would have not known a world before Stephen King.
In 5th grade I started reading the uncut version of the Stand. Because I had fallen in love with the miniseries.
It wasn't in the computer system for AR "book points" where you were quizzed on books you read. This was typically stuff like Hank the Cowdog or Babysitter's Club, which you would earn like "2 points" from.
I told my teacher I wasn't reading shit except The Stand. Murder, rape, sodomy, gore, plague. When I was like 11 lol. I loved it and the teacher let my mom write a test for it to add it into the system so I could get credit for it.
My older brother started reading him in 7th grade, starting with IT, because of the miniseries airing. So I picked the book up and was thus reading IT in 4th grade. My parents definitely didn’t realize how much more intense the book was over the miniseries because I’m sure I would not have been allowed to read it then.
My mother encouraged me to watch Firestarter with her when I was really young since I was a fan of Drew Barrymore in ET. After that, I devoured SK films. My mother loved SK books and didn't care what I watched, so she had no problem renting the movies for me. And we'd watch the TV movies together when they came out.
When I was 11 I read Cujo(middle school library had it), after that I checked out IT. About 50 pages in my parents found it and read some and that was that for a few years
My mom was kind of obsessed with him so I was exposed verrrrry early. She had a lot of his books locked up in a curio cabinet and I would sneak the key to read them. Cycle of the Werewolf was fascinating to me and I remember reading IT in third grade (along with Helter Skelter and the Amityville Horror). No wonder I don’t like scary movies anymore😳
I read pet semetary when I was 10 or 11 and had nightmares about waking up with dirt in the bed.
The bathtub scene messed me up a little in different ways lol
I was a voracious reader and read way above my grade. As a result I had read all of his books that had been released by the end of third grade.
As s parent with a young kid they reads so far above his reading level I see how hard it is to balance challenge level with content appropriateness for his age.
I was 12 when my mother bought me a Stephen King book of the month club. They saw me reading needful things and thought "let's get her a membership!" I still have several copies from that club.
And they wonder why I turned out this way. 😆
Long days and pleasant nights to you all!
Meeee! I was probably 5-6th grade and my mom had written a permission note for me to walk to the high school library (small school—buildings were attached by a long corridor) to check out Stephen King books.
Read Salems Lot in 1977 at the age of ten. Promptly shit my pants, scared myself to death and was hooked!! Later that year I read The Exorcist and then read Carrie, and then the Shining in 1978. I was an apartment kid in Brooklyn and my Mom signed the waiver allowing me access to everything. Brooklyn Public Library was my sanctuary. 46 years have gone by and it’s been a fun ride so far.
I loved horror since I was a kid, I always had a bit of a morbid frame of mind. I gravitated to anything creepy. I think I started reading Stephen King around grade 7 because I had already exhausted all the YA Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine at that point. I'm in my 40s now, still love horror. It's literally been my one life-long interest.
My mom is a huge Stephen King fan and read so many of his books when I was a kid and, in turn, showed me all the movie and TV adaptations of his works.
I've seen Carrie, Pet Sematary, the Stand, Christine, IT, Cujo, Sleepwalkers, Children of the Corn, Creepshow (just to name a few) all before I technically should have.
While watching Carrie for the first time, my mom grabbed my leg right at the moment her hand comes out of the ground and grabs the girls arm. So there's that.
I was a fan of his works during my single-digit years. I haven't read anything very recent of his, but noticed after the 2000's his work kinda changed and wasn't as scary. Not saying it got worse, just that it became different over time. Maybe that's just King progressing as an author but I prefer the older stuff.
I was obsessed with reading Stephen King when I was in late elementary school. Of all his books I started with "It" after watching the miniseries with my cousins, and read it during the summer between 5th and 6th grade. I do have to say that it was an interesting experience reading it when I was almost the same age as the kids in the book. My 6th grade teacher eventually called my mom and told her I needed to read at least ONE book for my book reports that wasn't Stephen King.
I was 12 when I read IT and became a life long King fan. Prior to that I had read everything VC Andrew’s had written and I think those were much worse.
Present! Lol. I don't think it harmed me, to be honest. I was already a kid who was afraid of (figurative) monsters in the closet. The catharsis of horror helped me process it in a lot of ways.
I'm still scared of the monsters in the closet, but now I can hide it better!
Read the Talisman in 6th grade. All of em he had by 8th grade at the time.
Instant lifelong passion.
Now all but 2. :)
Great escapes and wonderful journeys.
Edit. In the 80s. :)
For some reason my parents thought it was ok for me to read Stephen king in 4th and 5th grade. He became my favorite author and I read all of his books he had published at the time. I really enjoyed the stand but it was a tough read at that time since it was so long.
Same here. I was reading at a very young age and after I blew through the Baby-Sitters Club/Sweet Valley books, I started on Stephen King. I think Goosebumps wound up being the bridge into his books, but I was 11 and read Carrie, Firestarter, Pet Sematary, and Misery. I tried to read Gerald’s Game but it was way over my head (not the premise, that I understood, but it didn’t hold my interest). I asked my mom recently what she was thinking letting me read these (especially that last one), and she basically said there was really no stopping me when it came to the library, and it wasn’t like I was out causing trouble.
It was the fantastic comedian Mitch Hedberg who said, “every book is a children’s book if the kid can read.”
Kind of reminds me of something John Waters said, it went like "if a seven year old knows about Naked Lunch, let him read it."
I read it when I was 12 or 13. I sort of got it, but sort of did not. I wasn't into drugs and didn't even smoke pot until I was 15. I thought the sex scene with Steely Dan was hilarious and read it to my friends and classmates.
I had a similar trajectory but I didn’t get into Goosebumps because by grade 4, I was already into Fear Street and Christopher Pike as my transition into horror. I still read the BSC books alongside my entry into King (and VC Andrews, lol) though!
Hi. You just mentioned *Carrie* by Stephen King. I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here: [YouTube | 'Carrie' by Stephen King Audiobook (Horror, Horror fiction, Epistolary novel)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-btoovk0CMc) *I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.* *** [^(Source Code)](https://capybasilisk.com/posts/2020/04/speculative-fiction-bot/) ^| [^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=Capybasilisk&subject=Robot) ^| [^(Programmer)](https://www.reddit.com/u/capybasilisk) ^| ^(Downvote To Remove) ^| ^(Version 1.4.0) ^| ^(Support Robot Rights!)
Cool!! Thanks SFF\_Robot!
Good bot!
Same story. Loved reading his books when I was in elementary school.
I read IT in second grade and had so many questions. But that started a love of horror and King for me my entire life.
I read it in fifth grade. My mom forgot about that one scene at the end and when she re read it years later she put the book down with a funny look on her face and asked “HOW old were you when I let you read that!?!?”
Funny, my mom was also a King fan, so she had alot of his books. The TV Movie *It* was coming out in the 90s with my crush Jonathan Brandis - so I begged her to watch it. I was almost 9 and she wasn't sure if I could handle a scary movie. She said if I could handle reading the book, then I'd be ok with the movie. She also forget about *that part* until I asked her to clarify 😅
Yeah I was around the same age when I started reading them. I took them from my mom. Which is also why I read quite a lot of softcore porn romance novels.
Same! I think I was like 11 or 12 when I found him! I graduated from R.L stein and Christopher Pike ight o Stephen King. I have about 60+ of his books..haven't gotten any of his new ones though, unfortunately. IT is my fav book, read that about 4x
I read the Tommy Knockers in 4th grade.
Same. Pet Semetary and The Dark Tower in 4th/5th. We used to go to the library and I could pick whatever I wanted.
I don’t think Stephen King is too inappropriate, but it’s been a long time and the details of the books are fuzzy.
You cannot be serious.
We have a warped sense of what’s ok maybe? 🤷♂️ I’m reading goosebumps and watching all the Resident Evil movies with my kindergartener and he’s fine so far.
I read the stand in one day at 9 / 4th grade.Also read everything else published at the time,and my favorite author,except for Isaac Asimov.
The stand is over 1000 pages. Even speed reading that is a stretch for one day.
It was the original version that was about 900 pages,and it did take all day.
To this day I think Storm of the Century is one of the most underrated horror movies of the last 30 years. I watched it as a kid and the guy who played Andre Linoge was so incredibly good in the role that I had nightmares for months after I watched it. I’m in Florida and every time we have a hurricane knock out power for a day or two, i watch the entire six hour movie on an old laptop connected to a power bank during the storm in the dark. There are so many lines in that movie that still chill me to the core the way he delivers them. https://preview.redd.it/s9getwi05w2d1.jpeg?width=550&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad0d57df31e9c0bfcdb6bee9d0e347844f98a274
Holy shit, someone else does this?!
It’s definitely a top 5 King adaptation for sure. Punches way above its weight and does it really well.
I was a little obsessed with that cane for a while.
Read a shit ton of Stephen King... Way too young... I had an interview for a gifted high school when I was in 7th grade. They asked me what I was reading and to tell them about it.... Gerald's game.... I was reading Gerald's Game.... why couldn't it have been any other book??? I proceeded to tell them about a woman getting handcuffed to a bed for sexy time and then her husband dropping dead... At 12 yrs old...
Did you get into the school at least?
I did not... I will always blame Stephen King for that one lol....
You must have scared them lmao
Lmao.... Well, gifted alright
I read it around 12 as well. Now me looks back and wonders how my super strict parents let me read THAT book!!!
Parents didn't know. They were happy we were just reading at all.
One year I asked for Stephen King books for Christmas and my Dad gets me Gerald’s Game. He clearly didn’t read the book jacket, lol.
I was born in 80, and remember watching The Running Man, Carrie, The Shining, Maximum Overdrive, Cujo, Children of the Corn, and Firestarter all before I was 10. I've always loved movies, and watched R rated films pretty much right out of the womb.
1980 baby here too (Feb), and I was also watching those movies from a young age. My kids, not so much, although my daughter (9) loves Stranger Things and Wednesday and my 8 year old son watched the Shining with me recently. There's hope yet! Lol
Eyes Of the Dragon was my first "chapter book". I was 8. I can't say I understood it all, but I did complete it.
I loved the detailed explanation of the dollhouse + napkin rope, it felt just like little house on the prairie & island of the blue dolphins - vague potential skills I might use to survive lol
I started with Dean Koontz and John Saul in middle school and quickly moved onto Stephen King and Anne Rice in Junior High and Highschool. And found A N Roquelaire way sooner than I ever should have.
This miniseries is what got me into Stephen King!
Unpopular opinion: Kids can handle horror movies and it actually prepares them to handle reality better. That said, the movies I watched WAY TOO YOUNG were: Virgin Suicides, Full Metal Jacket and Flesh + Blood. None of those are scary Steven King style horror, though I guess Green Mile is equivalent in the horrors of the adult world.
I think people go too far in trying to protect kids from everything. Kids need adverse experiences to develop. What's important is that they have parents to contextualize and comfort afterward. Helicopter parenting is how you end up with adults that can't make a phone call without someone holding their hand.
Yes! 💯 I could not have said it better myself
We watch unrealistic horror with our older daughter - resident evil etx. It's a fantastic opportunity to talk about real versus fake and establish that conversation. We have had multiple conversations on YouTube videos etc too. How to identify a scam etc. I don't like her watching realistic horror (like full metal jacket) but I think she would like the Stand. She is 10, which is when I saw and read it. Meanwhile our younger daughter declares it boring and goes to draw.....
Perhaps. I had lots of nightmares as a kid, though. The only time I can remember my son having a nightmare is when I showed him Jurassic Park at what was in retrospect too young of an age.
The only movie that made my child cry so far was Edward Scissorhands. She did not understand the dismal pointlessness of that ending, all she understood was someone was shunned for being different and that did not sit right with her. I felt like a jerk because when I watched that movie as a kid, that hadn’t occurred to me as strongly 😢
First King book was Dragon Eyes.. I was probably in 4th grade. Stand, Needful things, Cujo, IT…before I was 13-14. Edit-the eyes of the dragon.
https://preview.redd.it/886p7raw8z2d1.jpeg?width=185&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17334835bb165521af348d96994db474179ffdf9 My first as well
My first SK was Dolores Claiborne. I was mesmerized by the hardcover display at the mall.
this was a doozy of a book. the two eclipses in the past year made me wonder if anyone was getting murdered in Maine
I was very young and haven’t read it since. Still think about the dust bunnies. Pet Sematary was a more laidback read directly after.
m o o n that spells moon
I wrote to Stephen King when I was in 6th grade and had just finished pet semetary. He wrote me back and sent an autographed headshot. It was a huge deal to a kid like me. That was when I became obsessed with the dark tower series.
I was almost kicked out of 3rd grade for reading King. My teacher didn't like me and I found her boring so I did a lot of reading. Once she found out what books they were she had me sent to the office, parents called and demanded I stop bringing them or be suspended. Long story short, it lead to me being tested for gifted classes and subsequently getting out of her class three days a week to travel to the magnate school, where they encouraged reading and doing work above my grade level. Lol Given my experience, this is why I have now chosen to stand up at school board meetings in my neighborhood against these school book bans that are being pushed currently.
I was probably around 12 when my friend loaned me skeleton crew. Been a big fan every since.
I think I was 11 or 12 when I read that. Can't remember much about it, but The Jaunt has stayed with me to this day. The idea of being trapped in there for an eternity...
That story stays with you longer than you’d think.
I read Cujo in fifth grade. By 7th I had moved on to Clive Barker.
I remember binge reading his books while at 6th or 7th grade summer camp. Also, does anyone else remember the Stephen King episode of Quantum Leap? That episode is always a favorite on rewatch.
Remember doing a book report on Cujo for 5th grade. The teacher was not impressed.
First Stephen King read was Drawing on the Three when I was 11. Read The Stand at 17 after I purchased the unabridged version from Waldenbooks with my employee discount.
I started reading King in sixth grade. My mom described The Drawing of the Three to me as she read it, and I was fascinated by the bizarre story. Magic doors on the beach? Monsters in the oceans? A gunfighter hero? Incredible. So I started reading his books. His early stuff is really easy to read, and he had editors to keep him from meandering. He also had a lot of great ideas, and his characters were so believable. Ace Merril is a perfect example. He’s fallen off a bit for me now. His books wander a bit, and his characters seem much less fleshed out. His older stuff is still gold to me, though.
All valid points. Although, I suggest reading “The Institute” if you haven’t already. I would consider this the pinnacle of modern SK.
It's funny but I feel like his best stuff is post accident. There's less telling and more showing. Feels more like real people.
One of my favorite first editions to pull out from time to time.
I remember when this aired in ABC. It was so weird but I loved it.
Yup, started reading his books in sixth grade. My parents just wanted to encourage reading, regardless of the content. Our rule was also that I could only watch an R rated movie if I had read the book first.
I'm a grown ass man struggling to read my way through the 1200 page unabridged, unedited, uncut version of The Stand.
I looked at my copy of The Stand on the bookshelf earlier today and thought I'm overdue a read. And now this post....it's a sign! When I was a kid (born '80) we had a lot of horror on TV in New Zealand. I recall "Friday night frights" and the "Sunday Night Horrors". If you stayed up till the end on Sunday you could see Goodnight Kiwi which was always a bonus. This article covers them: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/98255843/school-night-of-the-living-dead-remembering-tv2s-sunday-night-horrors My parents rented lots of horrors on VHS too. Those were the days!
I think a lot of us at that age who saw the mini-series on TV when it came out probably became fans after that. I love the mini series and I own the same Blu-ray.
I agree, I had originally taped each episode on VHS and that's how I watched it for many years on a tiny 13" TV, and I think I even missed a good chunk of episode 3 lol. I've come a long way now watching it on blu-ray on my 120" screen, so much detail.
Love this
I had never read any King until last summer when I read The Stand (**loved it**), but I was reading Koontz at 11. 😬
For some reason my mom thought it was a good idea to let a 9 year old read The Mist. A nine year old that lived in Biloxi Mississippi where every morning in some seasons there's a fog so thick you can't see your feet. Guess who got to stand her ass out at that foggy fucking bus stop with me every day for a few weeks.
I read The Stand as a teenager and its still one of my favorite books of all time.
Me! Was reading Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Michael Crichton books in elementary. At the same time I was also into the Baby Sitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and Judy Blume. Think my parents were just happy I was reading so much to pay much attention to what
I LOVED THIS BOOK AND MINI SERIES SO MUCH
I remember reading Different Seasons at 12 because of Stand By Me— OMG the things I learned in that book😳.
I'm so happy to see this thread! I remember reading Tommyknockers in 5th grade, and recently brought this up to my parents and brother, who didn't believe me. So I started to second guess myself and think that surely I was misremembering. Now that I see all these comments, I know I'm remembering correctly!
I was really into Fantasy novels throughout grade 5-6 (Dragonlance, The Hobbit, LOTR) and Goosebumps before my mom introduced me to The Talisman. It was my gateway drug to King. By grade 7 I was reading Through The Eyes of the Dragon and The Tommyknockers but also John Saul and Dean Koontz books. I dove into The Shining, The Regulators/Desperation, and The Stand in grade 9.
have you read the Dark Tower books yet?
I've read up to Wizard & Glass after it released when I was in grade 10 or so. The first book blew my adolescent mind. I still haven't read books 5-7 though! I really should finish them off one day. I read Black House when it came out and really enjoyed it though too.
Yes, you have to finish there series!
My mom bought every book the day it came out. So therefore I read them all too at probably too young of an age (8-9 years old). Back then I loved the short story collections because well, they were shorter. Getting 12 year old me to commit to The Stand or Tommy Knockers was a big ask.
I read The Gunslinger in 1989 at age 10 (followed immediately by Drawing of the Three, Eyes of the Dragon, and some others) because my mom had them and I was a precocious reader. I had been terrified of scary stuff before then, but quickly became a Constant Reader for life and an avid horror fan. I think reading King that early made me not just a serious reader (ended up getting an English lit PhD, lol), but also a writer.
On a side note, what did you think of how the Dark Tower ended? I read The Wastelands first and came to love the Dark Tower books, but still disappointed with the ending.
So for me the final “battle” isn’t the most fitting confrontation—like a lot of the last book, it does feel like something King came up with while in a bit of a hurry. As for the VERY END, I actually liked it a lot when I first read it and still upon rereads. It feels like a surprise that’s been foreshadowed enough that it works, and there’s a sense of hope amidst all the wtf. I really adore the series but admit that there’s plenty of stuff that’s a little…creaky. I’m amazed he was able to pull it all off, though, especially after the accident in ‘99.
My grandmother of all people got me Four Before Midnight when I was in 6th grade. I loved it, although I did almost get in major trouble when I asked my mum what a dildo was because of the Langoliers story... But my next books was IT, so...yeah. Still love his books. Still a bit nervous of drains.
Me. It started with Fear Streets in 3rd grade. Then Stephen King and Koontz by 5th Now I’m lucky if I finish reading an all staff email all the way through
The 1994 Stand miniseries was my SK gateway. 30 years later, I'm waiting for his next book to come out.
Dont fear te reaper....i still fit chill when i listen to it
And Don't Dream it's Over by Crowded House.
Yeah I read It after the miniseries was on TV. Definitely at least one part not appropriate for that age. 😬
[удалено]
It's still way better than the remake they did a couple years back.
I got into Stephen King after I ran through all the Fear Street books my library had in 7th grade.
👋🏼
Read Misery in 6th grade
Reading The Stand as I'm typing this, I had never had the guts to undertake a 1152 pages book. I'm at page \~700 and a bit lost to be honest, feels like it could never end technically PS: I re-read the Shining in january this year and I was glued from beginning to end.
Curious, have you read the Dark Tower books? So good.
Not yet is the correct answer
Ah, it's so good. The first book is a bit of a drag but after that it's great.
Read some of his material growing up and I have the same OG mini series but on standard DVD format.
Stephen King's work has never been scary to me.The only writer to ever scare me was Clive Barker.
I saw it when it debuted. That fucking opening. I turned it off but it was too late.
I wore out the VHS of Christine when I was a kid, don’t remember exactly how old but definitely younger than 10. I loved that movie (still do honestly).
Rwsd Salem's Lot in 6th grade, have been a constant reader since.
That series was pretty bad but damn if that wasn’t the coolest opening scene of all time.
Still worlds better than the remake they did a couple years ago.
100% not sure what they were thinking. Pet Sematary and IT traumatized me 😆
Yep! I was a Christopher Pike fan in 4th grade and looking for something new. I read Different Seasons because my parents had it just lying around. Boy, I wasn’t ready for the Apt Pupil story but loved Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption and The Body. I moved on to the Stand and The Shining immediately after and was a huge King reader for years after that. The books scared me (especially the Shining) but I couldn’t put them down!
I got caught reading Cujo in the 2nd grade. Got into Christine and Carrie by 5th grade. the Stand by and IT by middle school.
i read pet semetary when i was 10. that was cool with my parents but i wasn’t allowed to watch horror films until i was 13.
I started taking Stephen King books off my mom's shelf at around 8. I was tired of the little chapter books I was reading. My first King book was IT. I can remember sitting in my room, scared as hell that something was going to come in from the darkness of the hall. I would sit with my book light reading because I needed to know they beat the creature. King's books are probably 40% of the reason I'm a night owl. I regularly fell asleep with one of his books in my hand during childhood. My mom was a huge fan, and I am a voracious reader. I was also sneaky enough that she didn't know until years later. "That makes a lot of sense" was her thought when I told her in my teens I'd been reading Stephen King for years.
That’s a heavy one too.
Absolutely! My mom and her theater friends were big readers and one of her teen friends went on a road trip with our family. He read the entirety of Pet Cemetery out loud (I guess before audiobooks you wrangled a random teen 😂) I was maybe 5, could have been 4. I also got in trouble because I did a 3rd grade book report on The Tale tale heart and my teacher said that my mom had to have written it because a little kid could not have grasped such dark subject matter. I’m a little split on how I feel about it, I see parents bend over backwards to hide darkness from their kids and it just leads to the kids hiding the dark stuff from their parents. Life is dark man. Might as well be able to get in touch with it early, maybe, I think. The 80s were wild man. Edited a typo
The awesome tv miniseries and movies all came out when we were in middle school.
I consumed way too much horror when I was a kid. 
IT, Stand by Me and Pet Semetary were incredible watches as a young kid. I think I saw all of them around the age of 8. I currently have about 20 of his novels. Stephen King is probably one of the more influential people in pop culture and especially for us Xennials as we would have not known a world before Stephen King.
In 5th grade I started reading the uncut version of the Stand. Because I had fallen in love with the miniseries. It wasn't in the computer system for AR "book points" where you were quizzed on books you read. This was typically stuff like Hank the Cowdog or Babysitter's Club, which you would earn like "2 points" from. I told my teacher I wasn't reading shit except The Stand. Murder, rape, sodomy, gore, plague. When I was like 11 lol. I loved it and the teacher let my mom write a test for it to add it into the system so I could get credit for it.
My older brother started reading him in 7th grade, starting with IT, because of the miniseries airing. So I picked the book up and was thus reading IT in 4th grade. My parents definitely didn’t realize how much more intense the book was over the miniseries because I’m sure I would not have been allowed to read it then.
My mother encouraged me to watch Firestarter with her when I was really young since I was a fan of Drew Barrymore in ET. After that, I devoured SK films. My mother loved SK books and didn't care what I watched, so she had no problem renting the movies for me. And we'd watch the TV movies together when they came out.
When I was 11 I read Cujo(middle school library had it), after that I checked out IT. About 50 pages in my parents found it and read some and that was that for a few years
My mom was kind of obsessed with him so I was exposed verrrrry early. She had a lot of his books locked up in a curio cabinet and I would sneak the key to read them. Cycle of the Werewolf was fascinating to me and I remember reading IT in third grade (along with Helter Skelter and the Amityville Horror). No wonder I don’t like scary movies anymore😳
I read pet semetary when I was 10 or 11 and had nightmares about waking up with dirt in the bed. The bathtub scene messed me up a little in different ways lol
I didn't read them but I remember a lot of classmates reading it in 4th grade (1990).
I was a voracious reader and read way above my grade. As a result I had read all of his books that had been released by the end of third grade. As s parent with a young kid they reads so far above his reading level I see how hard it is to balance challenge level with content appropriateness for his age.
M o o n, that spells earlier than they should have been.
I was 12 when my mother bought me a Stephen King book of the month club. They saw me reading needful things and thought "let's get her a membership!" I still have several copies from that club. And they wonder why I turned out this way. 😆 Long days and pleasant nights to you all!
I started reading his books at age 10. I'm mostly ok.
Meeee! I was probably 5-6th grade and my mom had written a permission note for me to walk to the high school library (small school—buildings were attached by a long corridor) to check out Stephen King books.
Read Salems Lot in 1977 at the age of ten. Promptly shit my pants, scared myself to death and was hooked!! Later that year I read The Exorcist and then read Carrie, and then the Shining in 1978. I was an apartment kid in Brooklyn and my Mom signed the waiver allowing me access to everything. Brooklyn Public Library was my sanctuary. 46 years have gone by and it’s been a fun ride so far.
Same!!! I thought the remake was pretty good
I thought the remake a couple years ago was absolute garbage lol
To be fair I was really high. 😄
I loved horror since I was a kid, I always had a bit of a morbid frame of mind. I gravitated to anything creepy. I think I started reading Stephen King around grade 7 because I had already exhausted all the YA Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine at that point. I'm in my 40s now, still love horror. It's literally been my one life-long interest.
I remember the 2-part TV event for this version of The Stand. It was very good for the time...
The first movie I ever bought myself was Pet Sematary on VHS as a teenager but I had rented it and seen it as a 10 year old.
I remember watching the 2 VHS set and getting to the end like WTF. 4 hours for that ending lol
My mom is a huge Stephen King fan and read so many of his books when I was a kid and, in turn, showed me all the movie and TV adaptations of his works. I've seen Carrie, Pet Sematary, the Stand, Christine, IT, Cujo, Sleepwalkers, Children of the Corn, Creepshow (just to name a few) all before I technically should have. While watching Carrie for the first time, my mom grabbed my leg right at the moment her hand comes out of the ground and grabs the girls arm. So there's that.
I was a fan of his works during my single-digit years. I haven't read anything very recent of his, but noticed after the 2000's his work kinda changed and wasn't as scary. Not saying it got worse, just that it became different over time. Maybe that's just King progressing as an author but I prefer the older stuff.
I read 12 or 13 of them in a row when I was a teen. I really shouldn't have..
I read Carrie when I was 13 and was hook on Stephen King ever since. Hated the end of the gunslinger. But love most his stuff.
The earliest I can say for sure I was reading Stephen King was at age 7. I picked up my aunt’s copy of Skeleton Crew and was hooked.
When I read Carrie at age 11, I thought it was non-fiction.
I was obsessed with reading Stephen King when I was in late elementary school. Of all his books I started with "It" after watching the miniseries with my cousins, and read it during the summer between 5th and 6th grade. I do have to say that it was an interesting experience reading it when I was almost the same age as the kids in the book. My 6th grade teacher eventually called my mom and told her I needed to read at least ONE book for my book reports that wasn't Stephen King.
I was 12 when I read IT and became a life long King fan. Prior to that I had read everything VC Andrew’s had written and I think those were much worse.
Present! Lol. I don't think it harmed me, to be honest. I was already a kid who was afraid of (figurative) monsters in the closet. The catharsis of horror helped me process it in a lot of ways. I'm still scared of the monsters in the closet, but now I can hide it better!
I was in 5th class and read Christine. Have never looked back, love it all now.
Read the Talisman in 6th grade. All of em he had by 8th grade at the time. Instant lifelong passion. Now all but 2. :) Great escapes and wonderful journeys. Edit. In the 80s. :)
Totally, was reading him in elementary school definitely by 4th grade.
The Tommyknockers tv miniseries scared the absolute fuck it of my 9 year old self. I was instantly hooked. Read The Stand after that.
My first novel I ever read was ‘Graveyard Shift’. I was hooked as soon as I could read.
I started reading stephen king when i was 12 years old and my parents said that was ok for me reading the shining or pet sematary
Yes, technically, but honestly my parents didn't care what I read.
I read IT one summer when I was like 10 years old. Longest book I'd ever read other than LOTR. Definitely not old enough
same. that one scene in the book was not made for a 10 year old