there really are a lot of misconceptions about king's work. he's not all about scarey, supernatural, boogeyman under the bed writing. rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption comes to mind right now and there are tons of others, espesially his short stories. he is a master of the short story. and just a little fyi... there is a sort of pre-quel to the gunslinger series (besides the myriad books that tie into it in some way) and it's titled the eyes of the dragon, takes place a few generations "before the world moved on". not that i'm pimpin' for king, but i urge you to just give his stuff a try. scarey or not, you've got to admit the man is a first rate story-teller.