What Did Stephen King Read as a Child?

"I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk." ~Stephen King

Stephen King - he's smart, he's successful and he says exactly what he thinks. He also grew up without a TV. That explains a lot.

In this interview, King shares the horror classic his mom read to him as a child and his views on gun control, a subject he also addresses in the Kindle Single essay Guns. Check out PARADE for the full story.

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Stephen King on What He Read as a Kid
By Ken Tucker

Sunday’s PARADE features a rare interview with master storyteller Stephen King. His new novel, Joyland (a paperback original due June 4), follows lovelorn college student Devin Jones, who, while working at a small-time amusement park, learns the secret history behind a shocking murder.

“I’ve been typed as a horror writer, but I never saw myself that way,” King tells PARADE’s Ken Tucker. “I’ve reached a point in my life where I can write pretty much what comes into my mind and not worry about grocery day at Publix.”

“I grew up in a house where we didn’t have a TV until I was 10. We couldn’t afford one. We used to go down the street and peek in the neighbors’ window to watch Your Hit Parade. Books were what we had—and the radio. My mother was a reader, and she read to us. She read us Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when I was six and my brother was eight; I never forgot it."

“And we used to get Classics Illustrated comic books, which were also fairly bloody. I still remember the Oliver Twist one—there was blood all over that thing. Comic books were the closest we had to a visual medium.”