> I am by no means a literary critic, but I thought
> he wrote well. The stories I read were gripping
> enough that at times I couldn't put them down.
> I enjoyed each of the books I read.

I dunno -- saying he writes "well" depends on what you mean by the term. In my experience, many of his stories start off great, and you are constantly wondering what happens next.

Unfortunately, King's weak spot in my not-so-humble opinion is he is a terrible author when it comes to writing story climaxes. Over and over again, I read a King novel or see a King movie and am glued to the page or screen up until the moment of greatest tension -- at which time King inevitably screws the entire thing up by turning the main baddie into a giant crab with a glandular problem (or something like that).

The two stories that do not follow this formula are the ones that I like -- The Body (also known in movie circles as Stand by Me) and The Green Mile (never read the book, but the movie actually is good. Perhaps it's a Tom Hanks thing).

The Green Mile itself is sorta borderline though, as I think the movie would have been just as gripping and enthralling without the whole "coughing up the horde of gnats" thing. Just show John Koffee as a supernatural healer, not some freak that eats bugs for a living.

The_Scots"The worst ending of them all was IT, frankly"man