The Stephen King Library Desk Calendar 2013
This stylish, hard-cover, 8 ½ x 11 – inch spiral bound desk calendar/planner is a great gift idea for the holidays if you have a Stephen King fan in your life. Since King is the world's best selling author, I assume that everyone knows a fan. The cover art on this is a very cool collage, and – it's a hologram!
I love King as an ambassador of the horror genre. I mean that he is the archetypal horror writer, and people think of King when the horror genre is discussed. His early novels still present some of the best material that the genre has seen. While the more recent novels have been hit or miss with me, I remain a huge fan of the author who has produced some of the greatest works of horror fiction, and has balanced fame with remaining a good person.
This calendar celebrates Stephen King's career. While functional, it provides fun moments throughout the year for fans. Each two-page spread contains around five or seven calendared memorable events, with plenty of room for writing down important dates, appointments or birthdays. This calendar includes well-known genre authors' birthdays - Harlan Ellison and HP Lovecraft, for example. Probably more interesting for serious Stephen King nerds, also listed are the birthdays of SK characters and events from his classic novels. Imagine your opening to Monday, May 27th, and noting that it is not only Memorial Day, but also Harlan Ellison's birthday, AND the anniversary of prom night in Chamberlain, Maine, from the pages of Carrie. Might want to pencil in a screening of Carrie that night with friends. As you work through the calendar over the year you'll find out the date that It ended, when Captain Trips was released, and the day that The Mist was released over Maine.
Along the bottom of the pages are excerpts from King books, articles about books, and pages of trivia devoted to a few different titles. The trivia is fun, and I liked the articles; however, most were by Jay Franco. I don't know who he is. Not that that matters; he knows his King, but it seems that including more voices from the King community like Bev Vincent, Robin Firth, or similar authors would improve the value of these. It would also be nice to have author bios, which are unfortunately not included. This would allow the readers to know what expertise on or relationship to King's work each has.
Overall I think that this is a cool, unique product. Maybe I'll provide an update in 2014, after having used it for a year, but so far I think it is a great gift idea. Pick it up.
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