Rage

I don't know whether it was a test, but when I was first talking about doing this, a friend asked me whether I would be reading King's 'Bachman' novels. I said 'of course'.

I'd read them before when I was younger and they may well have been the first things I read by him. I remember seeing 'The Bachman Books' lying around at my parents and picking it up a number of times before actually reading it. I'd already seen the Arnie film of 'The Running Man' and at a tender age, thought it was great. Being well shy of the '18' certificate probably added to my estimation of it and also made watching someone being cut in half with a chainsaw one of the best things I'd ever seen. Particularly when followed by the cutting line - "What happened to Buzzsaw?"

"He had to spleeet."

Eventually, I decided to read 'The Running Man'. That led on to the the other three. "The Long Walk" was the stand out for me and, aside from the obvious factor of the anal comprehensiveness of this reading mission and the way he has since (unlike the original four) published books as Richard Bachman despite everyone knowing it's Stephen King, it's the main reason for my including all of his Bachman novels.

So, on with Rage.