Yes, but that was a younger me (by what? A few months?), and in the last three months my expectations of quality have soared to a high point, which is sad, because I can no longer simply enjoy anything; I start analyzing and thinking "What would I do here?"
For Christ's Sake during the action sequence in Transformers I kept thinking how I would have directed the scene, and I don't even have any ambitions of being a director.
So, back when I read the two mentioned, I had yet to read things such as The Stand, Misery, Cujo, Bag of Bones (I know you hate this one but I thought it was great), Green Mile, etc.
I wasn't exposed to the vintage King, so I had found them to be good. I'm sure if I read them now, going in for the first time and not knowing of the plot/characters/etc. my reaction to the books would have been something more like yours or Stewarts.