What are Stephen King's best books?

[mushishi]

A best selling cookbook for $20.50 and a novel costing $7.50. They were so good, people bought multiples!

 

[Fungoose]

The Bachuman books were great - Rage, the long walk and the running man

I read The Long Walk and Different Seasons back to back. Different Seasons was a collection of four novellas, three of which ended up being made into movies...Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and Stand by Me.

 

[drstrangelov]

11/22/63 is my favorite of his books. To me it's the best combination of his talents, great world building, character and plot, and unlike many of his other long books, it's doesn't fall apart at the end, although it comes close.

Hearts in Atlantis isn't wide loved but it's one of my favorites of his as well.

The Stand is great, it's got a clunky ending but you'll be so invested in the characters at that point that it hardly matters.

It, similarly not the cleanest ending but great characters, the children scenes could work in a non horror setting as well.

Playing off of that, Different Seasons is a set of novellas, including the inspirations for Stand by Me and Shawshank Redemption. The best parts aren't horror stories. Green Mile was solid too, if you're considering his books that were made into decent movies.

He's written a bunch of decentmidlist stuff too. Revival, the Shining, the Dead Zone, Carrie, Joyland, Finders Keepers, Duma Key, these are all short fast and very entertaining. I didn't mind Doctor Sleep or Needful Things either. I consider these airplane books, the kind of thing that can be read in 6 hours or so with no real effort.

I didn't like Mr Mercedes, End of Watch, Bag of Bones, Dreamcatcher or Insomnia. Haven't read past book two of Dark Tower, though many people love the series, he uses dramatically different style in the first two books, so it's possible you'll like them a lot more or less than his other work, depending on how you take to his writing.

 

[Guestx]

Man, it seems like no one ever remembers Firestarter. Not a single mention other than the OP.

 

[Guestx]

11/22/63 is my favorite of his books. To me it's the best combination of his talents, great world building, character and plot, and unlike many of his other long books, it's doesn't fall apart at the end, although it comes close.

Hearts in Atlantis isn't wide loved but it's one of my favorites of his as well.

The Stand is great, it's got a clunky ending but you'll be so invested in the characters at that point that it hardly matters.

It, similarly not the cleanest ending but great characters, the children scenes could work in a non horror setting as well.

Playing off of that, Different Seasons is a set of novellas, including the inspirations for Stand by Me and Shawshank Redemption. The best parts aren't horror stories. Green Mile was solid too, if you're considering his books that were made into decent movies.

He's written a bunch of decentmidlist stuff too. Revival, the Shining, the Dead Zone, Carrie, Joyland, Finders Keepers, Duma Key, these are all short fast and very entertaining. I didn't mind Doctor Sleep or Needful Things either. I consider these airplane books, the kind of thing that can be read in 6 hours or so with no real effort.

I didn't like Mr Mercedes, End of Watch, Bag of Bones, Dreamcatcher or Insomnia. Haven't read past book two of Dark Tower, though many people love the series, he uses dramatically different style in the first two books, so it's possible you'll like them a lot more or less than his other work, depending on how you take to his writing.

Good post.

But The Shining is 650 pages long. That's not a six hour read for me. Or most people I don't think.

 

[drstrangelov]

Good post.

But The Shining is 650 pages long. That's not a six hour read for me. Or most people I don't think.

For some reason I remember it being shorter, must have tackled some of it in the hotel on the trip. I mostly just remember buying it at the crappy book store at Ohare.

 

[Falconkick]

I thought Thinner was a great read

 

[Falconkick]

Also I remember King saying in an interview about his alcoholism he was so drunk he doesn't recall writing any of Cujo at all.

 

[Guestx]

Also I remember King saying in an interview about his alcoholism he was so drunk he doesn't recall writing any of Cujo at all.

That's hilarious.

I remember reading that a lot of his early books were written in a matter of days while on cocaine binges.

 

[Falconkick]

That's hilarious.

I remember reading a lot of his early books were written in a matter of days while on cocaine binges.

He really is the GOAT horror writer lol.... That said I personally dig Clive Barker I like his style and subject matter more. Where my location is on sherdog "Midian" is a reference to Barkers book Cabal ....and the movie it spawned Nightbreed. Barker has a lot of good reading for horror fans

 

[CombatCyborg]

It's been a while, but I remember liking Dreamcatcher, The Dark Half, Tommyknockers, The Talisman.

His short stories are always great. Lots of gems in there, less of a commitment. You could start with any of them, I remember Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, and Everything's Eventual off the top of my head.

 

[Drain Bamage]

The only Stephen King book I ever read was Desperation and I found it to be.... depressing.

 

[Grrrr]

1922 comes out on Netflix this month. I haven't read the book but the movie looks promising.

 

[Guestx]

1922 comes out on Netflix this month. I haven't read the book but the movie looks promising.

Yeah, I saw the trailer for that the other day. Looks like it could be good.

 

[MacGregor]

Read a few, The Dark Half and It had the strongest effect probably.

 

[Satur9]

It's been a while, but I remember liking Dreamcatcher, The Dark Half, Tommyknockers, The Talisman.

His short stories are always great. Lots of gems in there, less of a commitment. You could start with any of them, I remember Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, and Everything's Eventual off the top of my head.

Night shift is fantastic, if you like short stories. Gray Matter and the last rung were excellent.

His sons’s Collection, “Best New Horror” is one of my favorite collections in quite awhile. The title story has a wonderfully ambiguous ending that I still feel to this day.

 

[bowened]

Also I remember King saying in an interview about his alcoholism he was so drunk he doesn't recall writing any of Cujo at all.

He talked about that in On Writing, right? I remember thinking a couple of the signature Stephen King tangents in Cujo were unusually lengthy--like he picked a random topic and wrote until his fingers gave out. I particularly remember his description of the main guy's job just kinda going on and on and on. Makes a little more sense if King was drunk.

 

[Bob Weeks]

Personally, I read Carrie and Firestarter and enjoyed both immensely. I found both to be quick and easy reads.

I'm currently in the middle of The Shining and I'm finding it a bit harder to get through. I'm trudging forward but it's just not going down quite as smoothly.

What are your favorite Stephen King books?

And for those who are current with his work, what are the better RECENT Stephen King books? And by recent I mean, eh, last 15 years or so. It seems that all of his books you hear about are the books he wrote in the 70s, 80s and 90s. You don't hear much about the books he's done more recently.

King is a weirdo. If you know the story about IT and how he had originally written it, the under age fucked up shit he has in there should be enough to out this piece of shit. To answer your question, the JFK book was good on time travel.

 

[Falconkick]

He talked about that in On Writing, right? I remember thinking a couple of the signature Stephen King tangents in Cujo were unusually lengthy--like he picked a random topic and wrote until his fingers gave out. I particularly remember his description of the main guy's job just kinda going on and on and on. Makes a little more sense if King was drunk.

I forget where I read that. Was a few years back. But yea man that is no doubt why you felt that way about the book...King was black out fucking wasted lol

 

[Adamant]

I've only ever read The Running Man, The Shining, and Misery. Misery was my favorite by far. It's the only one of his I've read multiple times. I love it (and the movie too) and love it every time. In fact, now that I think about it, it's probably about time I read it again.

Kubrick's Shining > King's book (though the book is ok)

Arnold's Running Man > King's book (though I don't remember the book that clearly. I just remember thinking that I liked the movie better)