stephenkingtournament

[stephenkingtournament]

Uh so I have the next few ready to post in a few days... life happened for a sec lol

[stephenkingtournament]

I swear I will eventually get to the second half of round 1 but I have so much going on rn so be patient

[stephenkingtournament]

Salem’s Lot is the winner of round 1!

'Salem's Lot (1975) vs The Regulators (1996)

"I think it's relatively easy for people to accept something like telepathy or precognition or teleplasm because their willingness to believe doesn't cost them anything. It doesn't keep them awake nights. But the idea that the evil that men do lives after them is unsettling."

“When there’s no more room in hell, this artifact said, the dead will walk the earth.”

[stephenkingtournament]

Somehow, after 42 votes… there is a tie. Fascinating

Carrie (1974) vs. Wizard and Glass (1997)

“Jesus watches from the wall, But his face is cold as stone, And if he loves me As she tells me Why do I feel so all alone?”

“And now, all these years later, it seemed to him that the most horrible fact of human existence was that broken hearts mended.”

[stephenkingtournament]

Uggghhh making polls is hard.

[stephenkingtournament]

One more thing

In case you're wondering (you probably aren't), these are the books that I (the operator of this tournament have read). You may notice a huge skew towards early king, so I acknowledge that bias.

I have read 41 King books in total

[stephenkingtournament]

Ok, that's all for the night because I have work tomorrow and it's weirdly time consuming to post all of this. Have fun with the first eight polls!

[stephenkingtournament]

Firestarter (1980) vs. Gerald's Game (1992)

“Life is short and pain is long and we were all put on this earth to help each other.”

“If anyone ever asks you what panic is, now you can tell them: an emotional blank spot that leaves you feeling as if you've been sucking on a mouthful of pennies.”

[stephenkingtournament]

The Dead Zone (1979) vs. Dolores Claiborne (1992)

“Ninety-five percent of people who walk the earth are simply inert. One percent are saints, and one percent are assholes. The other three percent are people who do what they say they can do.”

“When it's all doom and dark outside and only you inside to first make a light then tend it, you have to be a bitch.”

[stephenkingtournament]

The Stand (1978) vs. Insomnia (1994)

“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.

“Perhaps real beauty was something unrecognized by the conscious self, a work that was always in progress, a thing of being rather than seeing.”

[stephenkingtournament]

The Running Man (1982) vs. Rose Madder (1995)

“He understood well enough how a man with a choice between pride and responsibility will almost always choose pride--if responsibility robs him of his manhood.”

“The concept of dreaming is known to the waking mind but to the dreamer there is no waking, no real world, no sanity; there is only the screaming bedlam of sleep.”

[stephenkingtournament]

The Long Walk (1979) vs. The Green Mile (1996)

“They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?”

“We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”

[stephenkingtournament]

The Shining (1977) vs. Desperation (1996)

“Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.”

“In these silences something may rise”

[stephenkingtournament]

'Salem's Lot (1975) vs The Regulators (1996)

"I think it's relatively easy for people to accept something like telepathy or precognition or teleplasm because their willingness to believe doesn't cost them anything. It doesn't keep them awake nights. But the idea that the evil that men do lives after them is unsettling."

“When there’s no more room in hell, this artifact said, the dead will walk the earth.”

[stephenkingtournament]

Carrie (1974) vs. Wizard and Glass (1997)

“Jesus watches from the wall, But his face is cold as stone, And if he loves me As she tells me Why do I feel so all alone?”

“And now, all these years later, it seemed to him that the most horrible fact of human existence was that broken hearts mended.”

[stephenkingtournament]

Time to go!

I'm going to start posting the first part of the bracket, on the "Early King" side. These will last a week. May the best book win!

[stephenkingtournament]

This first poll was a bit weird because it didn’t include a “didn’t read” option and I set it for a week instead of a day. However, I think we can call it for The Long Walk given that it is absolutely sweeping. The actual bracket polls will run for a week, but I didn’t want to take to much time for the preliminary round

Preliminary Round

The Long Walk (1979) vs Rage (1977)

"Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.”

"The morning I got it on was nice; a nice May morning."