Popverse's top stories

• Why don't superheroes stop wars, instead of fighting supervillains? Marvel offers an answer, via The Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards
• MEMBERS ONLY: Lord of the Rings' John Rhys-Davies hijacks our interview to talk Shakespeare, James Bond, and LotR (of course!) [Popversations]
• Why we can't have a great Superman video game (and it isn't because he's too strong) [Gamify My Life]

Stephen King was only 26 years old when he wrote Carrie, a novel about a teenage girl with telekinetic powers that would go on to become a classic horror film directed by Brian De Palma. When Stanley Kubrick adapted his novel, The Shining, only a few years later in 1980, Stephen King was cemented as one of the most popular American novelists of the 20th century. But for King, his popularity came at the price of any serious "literary" recognition from critics at the time. As any Stephen King reader can tell you, his popularity doesn't cancel out the fact that the dude can write. Read 'Salem's Lot and The Stand before you try to argue with me on this. 

Nowadays, Stephen King says he feels settled with both his popularity and his craft as a writer, thanks to the forward march of time. Speaking to PBS, King had this to say: There was a time when I felt like nobody will ever take me seriously as a writer's writer, just as somebody who makes money. And it did make me angry, because it seemed to me that there was an underlying assumption about popular fiction, that if everybody reads it, it can't be very good. I have never felt that way. I have felt that people can read and enjoy on many different levels."

When his interviewer, Jeffrey Brown, prompted him to explain how he got over this "worrying," King explained, "I got old. And I think that probably a lot of the critics who didn't like my stuff are now dead, so fuck them." That last bit, to clarify, was delivered with a laugh. 

King has written about 65 novels and novellas, not including a multitude of short stories, across his career. In total, it's estimated that 400 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. At 77 years old, King has outlived perhaps all of his early critics, horrific van accident be damned. He has a new book out now called Never Flinch, starring his beloved character, Holly Gibney, as she takes on a job as a bodyguard. 

Long live Stephen King, and rest in peace all of the Stephen King haters. 

Just like yourself, the Popverse staff spends a whole lot of time with our respective noses in respective books. It's why we've come up with stuff like:

• The hottest upcoming fiction
• Queer romance to add to your reading list
• A reading guide to Cassandar Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles

...and a whole lot more. Join our metaphorical library, won't you? There are no late fees and you can be as loud as you want, so long as the people you live with are OK with it.