Well, I picked up the original, shorter version of The Stand about a week ago. I am entirely captivated with the story. I realize the perhaps the "ending" I thought I knew is not the entire ending. Basically, I knew that (cover your ears and close your eyes) that Randall Flagg gets killed in a nuclear explosion, which told me that the good guys win. Then again, don't they always. Stu, Larry, Ralph and Glen just headed west. I can't wait to see the outcome. I was quite angry that Nick got killed off, but these things happen. I agree the best part of the story was the flu and this is when I really couldn't put it down. I will definitely be reading some more by Stephen King. Anyone have any ideas about what Stephen King book I set my sights on next?

Cheers,
mackmania

If you jump ahead and read the ending of King's Dark Tower series in book 7, you will throw it away in disgust and save yourself from having to read SEVEN books full of meandering self-indulgence that ultimately leads you absolutely nowhere. While there are some fairly interesting ideas spread throughout, the whole thing could have made one fairly decent novella.

I reread a lot of books,
books can be read for pleasure whether you know the outcome or plot,
sometimes rereading brings out aspects I missed the first time through and I can read slower without the plot-rush.

Whether this applies to "The Stand" is another thing, although wasn't this the one that came out first as a cut-down version ?

Does the question even need to be asked? If you're reading it and enjoying it, despite knowing the outcome, then yes, it's worth reading it. If you're reading it and can't enjoy it because you know how it ends, it's not worth reading. It seems to me that the question is easily answered by simply reading. If you find it's not worth reading ... you can stop.

But as suggested by others -- any book worth it's salt is worth reading even if you know how it ends.

Well, I finished The Stand. I then read The Gunslinger. Walter o'Dim (Man in Black) is definitely Randall Flagg. I'm currently reading The Running Man and, the classic, Fahrenheit 451.

Cheers,
mackmania

Mack:

You just missed Ray Bradbury, who lectured a couple of weeks back at the West Covina Public Library. I was doing a lecture in the community room and noticed lots of posters with familiar-looking phrases on them ("I Sing The Body Electric," "Something Wicked This Way Comes," "The October Country" &c); it dawned on me that Bradbury had been scheduled there just a week earlier. Yes, I just missed him, too!

Leland

It's not the end that counts, it's the story.