Damn You Stephen King

So I know it's not considered at all hip to like Stephen King, but I'll fess up and admit I'm a fan. I've long argued that he's a sort of modern day Charles Dickens, prolific and wildly popular in his time, but dismissed by his critical peers as second-rate. At times he may suffer from the Ryan Adams' School of Self-Editing, but over the years he's managed to produce a number of top-notch works, especially in his short story collections such as Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew, and Night Shift. My favorite King work by far though is The Stand which to this day remains one of my absolute favoritist novels of all-time. It's yet to be seen if history will be as kind to King as it was to Dickens, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if his books continue to be widely read for years to come.

It would be one thing if all King did was write a few good books, but no, it turns out he has to be a cool guy too. For one he's a huge baseball fan, who regularly attended Red Sox games with the late Stephen Jay Gould. Then in this week's Entertainment Weekly, I find an article in which King reveals himself as an alt-country/rock-abilly fan detailing the sad demise of a unrecognized band called Diesel Doug and the Long Haul Truckers. In the article, King name checks Steve Earle, Whiskeytown, Robbie Fulks, and Uncle Tupelo and even manages to work in a nice U2 diss. And to top it off, he's extremely charitible. Damn you Steven King, why must you be so cool?