srnity:

I have read everything Stephen King has ever written
Not that I can quote from them or remember every single story
But I love his writings
First time I read The Stand I had just moved to NYC and the scene in the tunnel under the river was frightfully real to me.
I could really visualize it having been in those places. 
Every book he writes is special to me...He is one person I would love to sit down and have a talk with
Are you telling me that the first edition of  The Stand was edited and I did not read the real thing?

ajtgirl: Yes, yes, yes...blew me away...I've always told my elder son he should read "The Stand" someday when he found the time (he doesn't have much) & when he bought it home from the library last month, to my surprize it was different! The first edition published in 1978 was edited by Stephen King due to the publishers insistence that it was too long, so it was cut some 500 pages (he had the choice to do it himself or let the publisher do it, so he did, thank goodness)...The "complete and uncut edition" was done in 1991 & even tho I'm only a quarter of the way into it, it's different, really different, much more indepth, the way King intended it to be from the get-go, I guess.....I'm in my glory right now, if I could not go to work I'd read it from start to finish.....I also LOVE Stephen King, a very, very talented writer

Also, just so you know, Stephen King and comedic author Dave Barry are very good friends, Dave talks about King all throughout his non-fiction books and they are in a band together (I'm racking my brain trying to remember the name of the group, it'll come to me and I'll get back)