Stephen King books you recommend reading.

If you're getting in into King's stuff, I'd go with The Dark Tower. It's an epic story, but it's also at the center of his shared universe. So many of his books directly reference ties to The Dark Tower.

IT had huge ties to The Dark Tower, and if you plan on reading The Stand soon you get some major insight into the villan.
Yes, I do plan on reading The Dark Tower and The Stand at some point. From what I understand the SK Universe is very intricate and complex, like the DC or Marvel Universes respectively. And all of his books are connected in some way or another. Very interesting stuff.
 
I mean, stand and it from the old books. Then the dome and 11/22/63.

but the best is the black house with peter straub. You would have to read talisman first, but that book is great.
 
I'll tell you what I think you can avoid completely:

Tommyknockers
Rose Madder
Dreamcatcher
Insomnia
Liseys Story

Everyone has opinions obviously but those are, to me, some of the bottom of his barrell. Like other have said King shines when he's working in short form. Short stories, novellas, etc. Pick up any collection and you'll find gems. Some of his best short work is The Jaunt, Graveyard Shift, In the Death Room, 1408 and many others. His novellas often receive some of his highest praise. The Mist is is arguably his most popular short story/novella. 1922 is one of the bleakest, darkest things you'll ever read. Four Past Midnight has 4 good to great novellas, The Langoliers and The Sun Dog being the best ones, imo. Langoliers is basically one of the best episodes of Twilight Zone never made. Night Shift was his first collection of short stories and has some great nightmare fuel. He was shooting out almost constantly great horror back then.

One of the cool things about getting into King is that his reputation is a horror writer, but you start reading his work and you see that he's far more than that and has a great range of genres. The Stand is, imo, a modern classic. Misery, The Dead Zone, Salems Lot, The Shining and Carrie are all some of his early works that are still held in high regard. Now, in his old age, I think he's actually hit a nice stride in his storytelling and has even managed to not fumble the ball towards the end. 11/2/63, Revival and The Outsider are all good reads where the ending doesnt seem like it fell off the rails.
I'll tell you what I think you can avoid completely:

Of course, someone who goes by the same name as Pennywise The Dancing Clown would have the most in-depth post yet regarding King's work. ;)

And, as a fan of King's novels since I was a young lad & read my sister's copy of 'SALEM's LOT in 1977, I agree with the vast majority of what you said. With the exception of your total dismissal of THE TOMMYKNOCKERS. That's one book that I tend to disagree with everyone about. I really enjoyed it. It's my guilty pleasure when it comes to his work along with DUMA KEY
 
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Listen to me very closely.

Read the first four books of The Dark Tower.

Then stop.

Stop and pretend the story ends right then and there. Don't get curious, don't read spoilers. Just read the first four books and enjoy them and walk away happy.
 
Of course, someone who goes by the same name as Pennywise The Dancing Clown would have the most in-depth post yet regarding King's work. ;)

And, as a fan of King's novels since I was a young lad & read my sister's copy of 'SALEM's LOT in 1977, I agree with the vast majority of what you said. With the exception of your total dismissal of THE TOMMYKNOCKERS. That's one book that I tend to disagree with everyone about. I really enjoyed it. It's my guilty pleasure when it comes to his work along with DUMA KEY

Oh, yeah, I liked Duma Key too, Muchacho.

I know Tommyknockers has its fans. Im just not one of them.
 
Oh, yeah, I liked Duma Key too, Muchacho.

I know Tommyknockers has its fans. Im just not one of them.

Yeah, I'm very much in the minority with that one. LOL.

If I'm not mistaken he began writing THE TOMMYKNOCKERS while still heavily using alcohol & cocaine. Then, at one point swore to his wife, Tabitha that he wouldn't drink or do coke anymore but wound up abusing copious amounts of Nyquil while finishing it.
 
Pet Semetary is my favourite book by him. I've read most of his most popular books of the 80s, and I don't think I want to go back and check them out again after rereading IT a few years ago. It was great overall but that gangbang scene was just so disturbing. I mean it could only be the product of an extremely sick, twisted individual. I don't really wanna go back and reread some of his other books because maybe the also have perverted :eek::eek::eek::eek: crap that I don't remember.
 
Yeah, I'm very much in the minority with that one. LOL.

If I'm not mistaken he began writing THE TOMMYKNOCKERS while still heavily using alcohol & cocaine. Then, at one point swore to his wife, Tabitha that he wouldn't drink or do coke anymore but wound up abusing copious amounts of Nyquil while finishing it.

Yeah, that was when he was hardcore coke binging. I seem to remember him saying large chunks of It were written with kleenex shoved up his nostrils because of all the cocaine he was snorting. Which somewhat explains the ending.
 
Yeah, that was when he was hardcore coke binging. I seem to remember him saying large chunks of It were written with kleenex shoved up his nostrils because of all the cocaine he was snorting. Which somewhat explains the ending.

Yeah, it sure does. LOL.

But, I'm not among those who adhere to the cliche notion ( IMO anyhow ) that the vast majority of his endings are shit. I'm not going to say that they're his strong suit but I feel that far too many of them have been denigrated.

How about you?
 
Bachman books, misery, stand.


Really enjoyed The Long Walk (1979)
realeased under is pseudo Richard Bachman.

New Line cinema announced they would make the movie version in 2019.

Same Bachman was awesome.
I think of the long walk fairly often despite reading it decades ago.
 
Yeah, it sure does. LOL.

But, I'm not among those who adhere to the cliche notion ( IMO anyhow ) that the vast majority of his endings are shit. I'm not going to say that they're his strong suit but I feel that far too many of them have been denigrated.

How about you?

With volume, and extreme volume...,I wouldn't say the vast majority, but a large chunk. At one point I'd read everything, but it's not a sustainable pace, and often with diminishing returns. The Strand was the book that broke my heart, a lot of good shit there, but it's like unwrapping a present from your favorite eccentric relative, and then you're just covered in packaging as a joke. Most of the early stuff was consistently good, and some genuinely great, classic shit. I don't think Salem's Lot get's enough, it's respected, I just think it's a good go point and when I'm teaching in the Canada of my mind, I push Salem's Lot. And a lot of the short stories and Bachman writings. Actually reread Carrie and Cujo recently and it's just good scary narrative-driven writing with the dark element. Pet Cemetery was a creepy read. Obviously The Shining is the book you read and cram down everybody immediately. Misery is way up there, just under the Shining for the one that bothers me the most. The smaller stuff I really like, Roadwork, Apt Pupil. My mom was the biggest fan and voracious first level pioneer wing. We were book for book for a lot of years, and one day I sat on a hillside and looked at the clouds, and I soaked in the beauty of life and took a deep breath, and I was 27 books behind.

The Shining is the masterpiece, not the Stand. Of everything, to me, it's just right there with under Frankenstein and Dracula, and the Phantom and the Creature, it's the Haunted House on literal par. It's the scariest book I've ever read. To my hypocrisy ?, I've never read past the first book of the Dark Tower, I've heard great shit, and I will at some point, but I don't wanna skate, I'd rather leave it out there until someone I respect says read it.
 
Awesome thread, a million stories, look forward to reading more.

It's either the fucking ghosts in my head or I have another window open. And stopping to take assessment, well, nevermind.

And also, maybe just a side thought, but personally, I've wondered and I think there's a rich stretch of land to work and factor in, not in content too much, but in structure and playing with time frames, that he was a teacher while he's writing. I know it contributes to his hand-in-hand almost unique erudition on his subjects and genres and his dancing in the form. Tarantino is one of the few guys who lines up as a true master of subject and form and the history. ...and, well this can go on.

Just a quick personal contribution to a good thread, i was trying to grab some pictures and screenshot, but my shit is archaic and too many wrestling matches. The essence, I really wanted to back a Signet classic I have of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll, in one book specifically because it has the intro by Stephen KIng of about eight pages. I won't post my notes, but it's a great introduction to what came before by our living equivalent. The only other nuts on the scale since the death of Kubrick still out there, my eyes. Still King, still Tarantino. The introduction he provides to the Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, is obviously why you get the book. ....It's about 10 pages, but I wrote about 20 pages of shit in his marginalia. It's a great introduction, a lot of good stuff. Considering nobody called me up for my triple assessment, it was pretty goddamn good. And to teach and write at the same time, that's why people become Matchbox 20.
 
Thinner, Pet Semetary, Salem's Lot, Carrie, The Stand, Christine, Cujo and Firestarter. Tried many of his later novels but never really liked them. I think he got to a point where he started self-plagiarising. Never liked fantasy books so can't comment on them.
 
What can you really fucking say, it's a free country, but Robert Hughes is dead, Roger Ebert ain't with us, just seems the rest of us are personal-self-aggrandizing bloviates to a degree. But if you put in a lifetime playing on the same tracks with the same toys. ...ya know, a bent slinky don't hop the stairs like one out of the box. It's why generations of aunts and grandmas tell you not to touch that perfect little egg, the one's who brought it to bear are gonna smell your stink and then, it just fans out and it's all shit.
 
I
Thinner, Pet Semetary, Salem's Lot, Carrie, The Stand, Christine, Cujo and Firestarter. Tried many of his later novels but never really liked them. I think he got to a point where he started self-plagiarising. Never liked fantasy books so can't comment on them.

It's true. There's a couple others shortly after that are decent, but the tight dynamic from a writing perspective. And you can't get out of bounds and expect shit or dictate what should follow, but...you feel loss when you're invested.

As a writer, though, fans should be cool, and if you miss or disappoint, sit back for a minute on a rocky river watching the tide, and the trees and the breeze and the play of time on the water, and eat a little dick, and maybe make a sand sculpture pointing to where you can tether yer camel.
 
I like a lit of his stuff but the ones I always go back to -

Christine

Needful Things

Thinner

The Running Man

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption ( although the film is better imo)

Rose Madder.
 
Seeing the current state of the world, The Stand would be the obvious choice. Wonderful book.

The Dark Tower series is amazing, the best of his work without a doubt. And when you get deeper into his work, you'll find all the little links in his other work, to The Dark Tower.

Salem's Lot has long been my favourite, but The Dark Tower surpassed it.

The Mist is great, though the movie had a better ending IMHO.

The Long Walk is bone chilling, at least I thought so. Must have read that book at least half a dozen times, and every single time, I finish it in one session, can not put it down.

Never made it through IT, mostly because I ff-ing HATE clowns.
 
It, for me, was too damn long. Am I the only here that prefers The Shining movie to the book? Never understood King's hatred for it.
 
Pet Semetary is my favourite book by him. I've read most of his most popular books of the 80s, and I don't think I want to go back and check them out again after rereading IT a few years ago. It was great overall but that gangbang scene was just so disturbing. I mean it could only be the product of an extremely sick, twisted individual. I don't really wanna go back and reread some of his other books because maybe the also have perverted :eek::eek::eek::eek: crap that I don't remember.
I'm currently reading Pet Semetary, it's great. The gangbang scene is not as bad as people make it out to be. There are way more disturbing scenes in IT than that IMO. For me, Eddie Corcoran's death was the most disturbing part of the book. Now that was all kinds of fucked up. King is a sick, twisted individual. But that's what makes his stories great. :)
 
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