Growing up I had a few safe places. Spots around town where I could truly be relaxed and completely myself. Nearly every memory I have in these safe places are good and filled with joy. The bowling alley, any ball-field between second and third base, my backyard and the library. It’s the safe place filled with books that will act as the catalyst for this article since we are going to discuss my infatuation with one of America’s most prolific authors – Stephen King.

I couldn’t get enough of the library. It was my home-away-from-home. Matt Christopher books, Beckett card grading guides, sports almanacs and autobiographies were my main focus. Fiction literature of any sort or anything that was not centered around athletics hardly crossed my mind. Some would say it is ironic that decades later my adult reading-self would strongly prefer an author who was once described as the “King of Horror.” Others would say this was extremely predictable, especially when you consider the circumstances.

The Circumstances

My Grandma Foster babysat me and my little brother the most during the early 1990s. Occasionally we would spend the night at Grandpa and Grandma Florence, and our cousin Kylene would sporadically watch us when our parents were out. Way down in the babysitting rolodex was my Aunt JoAnn. She was my favorite babysitter choice for several reasons: she made us laugh, let us sleep in her waterbed, and talked to us like we weren’t little kids. She also had the biggest bookcase I’d ever seen in my young life.

And it was filled with Stephen King books.

It was not love at first sight because even the font on those book covers was creepy. But the name (Stephen King) stayed with me. And at home a couple of years later I stumbled upon a King book called, “The Stand.” I was intrigued and started reading the first couple of pages. I couldn’t follow what was happening and the massive size (600+ pages) was enough for me to quickly close it and move on with my life.

Life took me to high school, to college and then to Madison, Wisconsin where I discovered the dreaded 40-hour work week. After a while, life also brought me back to the library where I again, stumbled upon “The Stand.” This particular version was labeled “complete and uncut” and came in around 1,200 pages. I can’t remember exactly why I purchased this massive book in late 2009, but I know when I finished it two months later that I doubted I would read a better novel. And better yet, I knew I wanted to read every single Stephen King book.

Thirteen years, 64 novels, 10,000,000 words, 30,000 pages and 675 hours later that goal was finally realized. Mission accomplished. The next goal was fairly straight forward and hopefully would not take nearly as big of a time commitment.

Rank all 64 Stephen King novels – which is the journey we are about to go on together.

This journey will take a little more than two months as I unveil one book every day (except for the upcoming Saturday NFL pick columns). For those of you that have started other Luke Florence-journeys, allow me to alleviate some much-warranted fears. The list – and the posts – are all locked and loaded and will publish automatically at midnight each day. Meaning all you need to do is subscribe/bookmark and you’ll be able to wake up each morning with a brand-new Luke Florence blog post. What a perfect way to start your day.

I’ll keep it light on spoilers – so feel free to read without worry. As always, comments are encouraged. Maybe you read the same book but feel completely different. Let me know why as I openly welcome conversation with fellow Constant Readers.

Stephen King once said, “I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.” Get ready for a heavy dose of McDonalds.

Until next time, peace be the journey.