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Rating: 
Summary: The Essential Stephen King: A Masterpiece
Review: I am proud to say, that I am a "Groupie" of Stephen King. I have read many of his books, and many books about him. This book was by far the best book that I have read about him. There is not much to say about such a wonderful book, but for anyone who has read even just one Stephen King book, or saw just one movie based on a book of his, you will love it. This book has anything you could possibly want to know abouyt King's works. If you plan on looking for a book of his to read, or if you just like to read about his books that you have read, you will thoroughly enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: 9
Review: Spignesi is a great fan(atic) of King's and his enthusiasm shows in this listing of the top 101 King writings. He includes a wide variety of King's material from across his career. Anyone who is a fan will enjoy remembering the great stories already read and will be inspired to read ones Spignesi mentions that haven't yet been read.Not all of Spignesi's opinions are correct, of course, but he is well-informed enough to make a strong case for each of his picks.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Ranking, Even Better Writing
Review: Spignesi is probably the biggest King fan out there. He knows every book, novella, short story and essay the man has written in and out. There isn't one work he isn't totally familiar with. I actually wonder if he knows more about King's writing than King does himself. In The Essential Stephen King, Spignesi tries to rank the 101 best things king has ever written. And although every major King work is featured (all of the novels are there, so are the novellas), many of King's best short stories didn't make the cut (where are The Night Flyer and Lawnmower Man?). And I was disappointed when I saw some of my favorite King novels ranked so high up the list (Dolores Claiborne, The Dark Half, Needful Things and Storm Of the Century aren't even near the top 10!). Of course, this is a fan ranking his favourite works. No two fans will think alike. The reason the book is so powerful is because of the author's writing skills. Spignesi writes with passion and dedication. Every sentence is like a love confession for the King of horror. And I also enjoyed the articles written by King fans/experts at the end of the book. This books makes you want to revisit King's best writings. It's a book every King fan will enjoy and will use time and time again as a reference manual.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful resource for all levels of King Fans
Review: Stephen J. Spignesi has been a passionate follower of Stephen King's work for a good number of years. His extraordinary (and expansive) resource - The Stephen King Encyclopedia - placed him at the forefront of King experts. With this new volume, Spignesi examines what he determines to be the prolific author's top 101 works (actually 102 including a special note for a non-fiction eulogy that King wrote following the death of John Lennon, which Spignesi places in "a class of its own"). Although the rankings are primarily Spignesi's opinions and not all of King's wide fan base will necessarily agree with the author's opinions, in the end, Spignesi makes a strong case arguing that King is an essential author of modern American literature who should not be so easily pigeonholed into the "just a horror writer" category, but whose works can (and should) be subjected to the same tedious academic scrutiny that Authors such as Steinbeck and Faulkner have undergone. Efficiently written with energetic synopses for each of the selections as well as a qualifying explanation as to why the particular work received its ranking, The Essential Stephen King is a wonderful resource for all levels of King Fans to either learn of his exceptional works, or merely revisit them along with Spignesi.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: The more I read of this book, the more it seemed like a little mind-trip of self-indulgence for the author. It's very difficult to take this book seriously when observing some of the comments the author makes. For each book he rated there was a section called "What I liked about this book," and more than once his only comment in this section was, "everything." While it's nice to see that he's truely writing about something he enjoys, maybe the author should stick to something more modest, such as a column in the local paper, rather than such an ambitious undertaking as this. While not truely awful, the ambiguous format makes it painful reading.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: The more I read of this book, the more it seemed like a little mind-trip of self-indulgence for the author. It's very difficult to take this book seriously when observing some of the comments the author makes. For each book he rated there was a section called "What I liked about this book," and more than once his only comment in this section was, "everything." While it's nice to see that he's truely writing about something he enjoys, maybe the author should stick to something more modest, such as a column in the local paper, rather than such an ambitious undertaking as this. While not truely awful, the ambiguous format makes it painful reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, entertaining, interesting
Review: This book is a great resource. It has a vast amount of information on King's books that you won't find elsewhere in one collection. I found this little gem at a bookstore and spent about a half hour reading through it. I finally broke down and bought it on Amazon and I'm really glad I did.
I'm already a Stephen King fan and have read many of his books. But it was great to read synopsis's on his other works that I havn't gotten to yet. The author made a break-down of each book, gave the character's names, and a movie adaptation of the book if applicable.
If you are already a Stephen King fan, you will no doubt enjoy this book. You can see which books made which spots on his '100 list' and perhaps argue, but I found myself agreeing with the author on most of his choices.
If you arn't a Stephen King fan yet, but are thinking about reading a book of his and are not sure which one to pick first, this is a great choice for you to read, so you get an idea of what your headed for. :)
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This book is a great resource. It has a vast amount of information on King's books that you won't find elsewhere in one collection. I found this little gem at a bookstore and spent about a half hour reading through it. I finally broke down and bought it on Amazon and I'm really glad I did.
I'm already a Stephen King fan and have read many of his books. But it was great to read synopsis's on his other works that I havn't gotten to yet. The author made a break-down of each book, gave the character's names, and a movie adaptation of the book if applicable.
If you are already a Stephen King fan, you will no doubt enjoy this book. You can see which books made which spots on his '100 list' and perhaps argue, but I found myself agreeing with the author on most of his choices.
If you arn't a Stephen King fan yet, but are thinking about reading a book of his and are not sure which one to pick first, this is a great choice for you to read, so you get an idea of what your headed for. :)
Rating:
Summary: Great book, entertaining, interesting
Review: This book is good. It has a lot of interesting facts about the worlds greatest authors books. Things you might have missed when reading. It's worth the money.
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