[The Loft] Stephen King today at the Fitzgerald

A few of you might have heard of this fellow by the name of Stephen King.

Tonight, he's appearing with Audrey Niffenegger, who wrote The Time Traveler's Wife, which became a runaway bestseller (and is now a movie). Niffenegger's second novel is Her Fearful Symmetry, a contemporary ghost story about 20-year-old American twin sisters who inherit their aunt's flat in London.

Thanks to the Loft and the Talking Volumes Regional Book club program, they're reading and discussing their work on Wednesday, November 18, 7 pm, at the Fitzgerald Theater, in Saint Paul.

Unfortunately, for some reason, tickets are sold out already, alas. I'm going to be up in Saint Cloud around then, so I don't think I'll make it back in time to catch them. (Plus, I forgot to pick up tickets. Nuts. Buy them early, is my advice.)

In May, Monica Ali, the British-Bangladeshi author of Brick Lane, is coming to the Talking Volumes series. She was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. She was also voted Granta's Best of Young British Novelists on the basis of the unpublished manuscript. There IS a movie based on it, but try and read the book first. ;)

But back to my Stephen King musings.

I was introduced to most of his work by his films first and find that I enjoy more of his short stories than his novels. I rank his Cat's Eye as one of my top guilty pleasures as far as films go. Well, that, along with Hudson Hawk and Big Trouble in Little China, but let's not go there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBdshG0lWac

IT, Christine, Silver Bullet and Salem's Lot remain the films that have lingered with me the most. Needful Things and Apt Pupil remain the biggest disappointments to me- I admit, I expected more. Ok, I also expected way more from Maximum Overdrive, too.

Stephen King's audiobook version of Nightmares and Dreamscapes remains my all-time favorite audiobook. Well, next to John 'Mighty Mouth' Moschita's Ten Classics in Ten Minutes, but that's a different story. Tim Curry, Yeardly Smith and even Whoopi Goldberg all put in great readings on this audiobook, and to me it's a classic example of how it should be done.

Anyway, for those of you who got tickets for Talking Volumes tonight, lucky you! :) Enjoy and bring back notes!