Best Stephen King books...

greenapplesea

For me it's toss-up between Misery, Carrie and The Shining- all very good.

What do you guys think?? :rolleyes:

Kess73

Skeleton Crew is my fave.

greenapplesea

Kess73 wrote: »

Skeleton Crew is my fave.

I haven't actually read that one but might give it a try. Thanks!

BurnsCarpenter

I'd go for The Stand or Salem's Lot.

:mad: (in keeping with the inappropriate smilies)

greenapplesea

BurnsCarpenter wrote: »

I'd go for The Stand or Salem's Lot.

:mad: (in keeping with the inappropriate smilies)

I actually though they were quite fitting! Cranky? :mad:

ncmc

I'd have to second The Stand and also say Needful Things and The Green Mile.

LoLth

Cujo! the bestest imho , followed by the green mile and the dark half.

anything before his car accident is good. it all went downhill from there (from a buick 8 anyone? the Stand rewritten... I mean Cell ?).

Raytown Rocks

Needful things
The running Man ( Richard Bchman psuedonym)

astrofool

I always like The Long Walk (also under Bachman).

Raytown Rocks

astrofool wrote: »

I always like The Long Walk (also under Bachman).

Got to admit I liked that too, now that you remind me of it.

BurnsCarpenter

greenapplesea wrote: »

I actually though they were quite fitting! Cranky? :mad:

Sorry.

Really like the Dark Half as well.
Made a stab at the Dark Tower series but wasn't overly impressed.

greenapplesea

BurnsCarpenter wrote: »

Sorry.

Really like the Dark Half as well.
Made a stab at the Dark Tower series but wasn't overly impressed.

Aw thanks!

Yeah my friend also recommended this (Dark Half). Next purchase I think!

Ho-Hum

Salem's Lot - Fantasticly told vampire story, I really couldn't put this down once I started
The Stand - Epic
IT - Some of the most realistic characters I've ever read in a book, briiliant story from start to well ..... almost the finish.

Sad Professor

The Shining and The Stand (the original version). There's a lot of his books I haven't read though.

BroomBurner

Needful Things, The Green Mile and Salems Lot.

Anyone see ads for The Mist? Has anyone read it? It looks a little like a rip off of The Fog by James Herbert.

LoLth

there were two stories out around same time : the fog by herbert and The Mist by King and then there was the film , The Fog (and its remake) , and now, the mist....

The Mist 1980: Novella 155 pages: King : About a group of people caught in an unnatural mist
the mist : film : King : almost an exact filming of the book. very faithful and quite well done. Some of the acting is a bit on the iffy side (mild understatement there) but very enjoyable.

The Fog 1975: James Herbert : a fog that seeps up from the ground drives people and animals insane (that cows in the field scene really got to me ).

The Fog: film: 1980 : John Carpenter . nothing to do with Herbert's or King's books. about a haunted coastal town

The Fog: film 2005: less said the better. avoid like the plague ridden trollop of doom that it is.....

Eoin

greenapplesea wrote: »

I actually though they were quite fitting! Cranky?

What is the rolleyes icon supposed to denote? I think it's supposed to be sarcastic, but I just ad-block it altogether as it rarely makes sense with the post.

Anyhow, my favourite has already been mentioned - The Stand; "Epic" is right.

I really like Pet Cemetary, Misery and The Dead Zone as well. I liked the Tommyknockers, but a lot of people didn't. I liked most of the short story / compilations as well.

I re-read Salems Lot recently, and I really didn't think it was that good.

greenapplesea

Pet Semetry was brilliant Eoin, really chilling though. Stephen King actually siad in an interview that he thought this was the book he'd gone too far with, as if he'd disturbed people by breaching the boundaries of the living and the dead.

I still can't watch the movie- have you seen it?? It really freaks me out!

Eoin

greenapplesea wrote: »

Pet Semetry was brilliant Eoin, really chilling though. Stephen King actually siad in an interview that he thought this was the book he'd gone too far with, as if he'd disturbed people by breaching the boundaries of the living and the dead.

I still can't watch the movie- have you seen it?? It really freaks me out!

I think I watched the movie years ago, but it was ages ago. I definitely think it was one of his most chilling books alright. I think

killing off a toddler added to this a lot

. I read it again recently, and I thought it was still excellent, unlike some others I found disappointing the second time around.

Beldarin

Without a shadow of doubt, my favourites are The Dark Tower series.
i know from experience, they can be hard to get into, (my first read of book one was 10 years ago, but i tried em out again last year, and was completly blown away.
Once you have read The Dark Tower, (who's main character is Roland Deschain) every single other Stephen King is thrown into a new light, as they are almost all connected to this story in some way, including books I had previously read, and just never realised the significance of..
For example, in Insomnia, the main character dreams a very significant dream of Roland, and contributes to Rolands sucess from worlds and years away
Salems Lot, and Jeusalems Lot are both critical to the story,
The Crimson King from It, well, lets just say he features rather largely
Bag of bones, The Stand, Talisman,
man, I could go on and on
In fact there are whole websites devoted to how Kings novels intersect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Dark_Tower:connections#The_Stand

Highly recommended

ncmc

The Dark Tower is definitly next on my list to read. Thinking of bringing the first one on holidays with me, are they easy to get in to?

Reading Duma Key at the moment (about 100 pages to go, no spoilers please!) and really enjoying it. So far it seems like the best of his recent stuff. Although I have to say, I quite liked Cell also, it was a great story, but the climax just happened too quickly IMO (insert joke here!)

Eoin

ncmc wrote: »

Although I have to say, I quite liked Cell also, it was a great story, but the climax just happened too quickly IMO (insert joke here!)

I thought Cell was sort of a return to his earlier stuff, which is a good thing - but it felt a little like "The Stand lite".

I think I read the first 3 books in the Dark Tower books, but didn't really like them all that much - I thought the writing itself was a bit up itself.

BroomBurner

Thanks LoLth (hope I spelled your name right!). Still way about seeing Kings books made into films, some ae absolutely brilliant (The Green Mile, It, and Firestarter to a lesser extent) while some are a little bit rubbish (The Langoliers, anyone?).

Pet Cemetry, the film, that pencil scene did it for me. Can't watch it again :eek:

Beldarin

Yeah, I know what you mean by that, but given that these were a very deliberate personal departure from his traditional style, his vision is very grand, and the lfestyle of the gunslingers is very formal, almost light athurian knights, it kinda works

Looby_Loo

I loved It and Desperation

Possum66

The Stand - the very best, so well written
Pet Cemetary - found it disturbing, not just because my cat died around the time I was reading it... urgh
IT - had to stop reading it at 4pm, so I could sleep at night. Otherwise I could get nightmares. Could not read it at the evenings. Creepy!

Haven't read any SK novel for a long time...

wandatowell

Eyes of the Dragon has a special place in my heart, there's such a fairytale like feeling to the book, loved every minute of it. Loved the dark tower books, they got me into reading. The running man was as cool as f**K

BroomBurner

wandatowell wrote: »

Eyes of the Dragon has a special place in my heart, there's such a fairytale like feeling to the book, loved every minute of it.

Fair play to ya, I felt like my eyes were gonna bleed. Had to finish it in the hope that it might get better. A little bit of me died after reading that book.

Dades

IT

As a kid it blew me away.

Tar.Aldarion

You can't make me choose!

gogo

When I was younger I was a massive sk fan, collected first editions, audio books, everything. And no matter what books I've read since, I love coming back to the Stand, I loved the whole idea of it. The Dark Tower is a must, Roland being one of my all time favourite literary characters. It brings a whole new meaning to his other books, and because i seem to fly to through books, i loved that it was, in theory, a whole summer of reading for me.

his later stuff isn't great, although I did like The Cell, i couldnt seem to get past the first chapter of Lisseys story, and I have bought Dume Key, but seem to keep putting it aside in favour of something else.

The running man, and the long walk as mentioned are also worth a read.

On a side note the film The Shining scared the bejesus outta me, still can't watch it and I'm a hugh horror fan, don't know what it is about that film, it gives me the hebbie jebbies.:o

Alcoholocaust

The Stand was brilliant, liked Misery a lot too

TerrorFirmer

Skeleton Crew was my favorite - particularly Survivor Type. Very creepy.

eamon234

Needful Things is my fave, with the Shining a close second

oxygen_old

Im not sure which short story collection its in, but his short story "The Jaunt" is brilliant. Realistic faster then light travel with horrifying consequences, dont think thats a spoiler, wouldnt be a Stephen King story with out it.

Its fairly old, but has dated excellently.

*cough*
It's available via google for download
*cough*

adox

The Stand(original version) without a doubt.

Notable mentions for IT, The Dead Zone, Different Seasons and Skeleton Crew - Survivor Type is possibly my favourite short story ever.

Nea

The Stand,Needful Things, Desperation and Regulators, Cell.

I really think things went haywire after his accident until Cell,I too cannot get past the first chapter of Liseys story.

But nothing beats The Long Walk for me, its a haunting story

Ho-Hum

Nea wrote: »

The Stand,Needful Things, Desperation and Regulators, Cell.

I really think things went haywire after his accident until Cell,I too cannot get past the first chapter of Liseys story.

But nothing beats The Long Walk for me, its a haunting story

I personally thought that Cell was a poor man's version of The Stand, the best of his newer stuff for me was Dreamcatcher. The film was awful but the book is very entertaining.

For me it would have to be The Stand, Salem's Lot, Pet Semetary and The Dark Tower series. I find myself hating Duma Key .

paddybar

deffo The Stand(ov)but what about Different Seasons with rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption, the body and apt pupil.the last one was'nt that hot though.

Sconsey

Dades wrote: »

IT

As a kid it blew me away.

Same here, I think IT is still my favourite, also remember The Long Walk (Bachman) standing out as a really well written story, I used to worry they'd ruin it by making it into some crappy made-for-TV movie.

adox

paddybar wrote: »

deffo The Stand(ov)but what about Different Seasons with rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption, the body and apt pupil.the last one was'nt that hot though.

Yeah Different Seasons is a fantastic read. Three brilliant stories and a so so one.

stannis

Still getting through his works, but overall It is my favourite so far. There's something special about it, and it's a testament to King's writing that after 1000 pages I still wanted to read more.

Christine, Misery, The Shining, Pet Sematary etc are all great too though. Pet Sematary in particular is a very dark, sad and frightening story; not something I'll forget in a hurry.

djimi

Hearts in Atlantis is probably my favorite book. Not his best, but its the one I have the fondest memories of reading for the first time. First year in college, I had just discovered Pink Floyd, and Im pretty sure the entire time I read it I was listening to Dark Side of the Moon! The Stand would be my second favorite, and that definately is his best.

Its so hard to choose between them tho; its like being asked which of your children your prefer! Salems Lot, Needful Things, Different Seasons, The Green Mile, Carrie, Misery, The Shining, Cujo, Pet Cemetary, Thinner, It, Four Past Midnight, Rose Madder, Bag of Bones, The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, Everythings Eventual; all amazing books. Definately my favorite writer.

Gillie

Where to start!

Salems Lot
Desperation
Thinner
Cujo

orchidsrpretty

Regulators and desperation are brilliant imo I use to be a huge Stephen king fan would read anything he published, but the story that stays with me the most is Needful things. I have tried to get back into reading him again cell was good to read, although he lost me with liseys story, I couldnt get into it all.

Ormus

1. The Shining - scariest book I've ever read
2. The Stand - epic
3. Different Seasons - great stories
4. Lisey's Story - gets more gripping and chilling with every page - well worth the effort of the first 200 pages.

Wise Old Elf

I know I fall in with many, but I still love the Stand and Salem's Lot.
I also always liked the long short stories like Four Past Midnight. There's one of these called "Library Policemen" that really creeped me out for some reason.
There was another more recent(!) book I read that I liked, Insomnia. (Just googled it and it was 1994 :eek:).

super_furry

The Stand by a mile, Cell is good too.

Some of the Dark Tower series is great, some is really poor.

--Kaiser--

At a push I would say The Gunslinger

stannis

Having recently read quite a few more King novels (and currently re-reading IT), I think I would have to take the predictable option and place The Stand at the top of my list. It's not perfect - it drags in the middle and the end is too rushed - but few books have pulled me in the way it did from the very start.