Stephen King best books, Pet Semetary Discussion

ReallyMe

Okay out of all the Stephen King books, which one do you consider his best (Including Bachman, Green Mile and Dark Tower)?

Stephen King states that his personal favourites are Lisey's Story and Misery,

And he dislikes Insomnia and Rose Madder (the latter of which I thought was excellent)

I haven't read Pet Sematary, but I've seen the film and was wondering why the book is so disturbing (I understand that the scene where the little boy dies must be heart wrenching) but other than that how is it so disturbing (King himself stated that Pet Sem. actually scared him while he was writing it to the point that he left it for three years on the grounds of it being to scary until his wife, Tabitha, god bless her, convinced him to publish it), so what do y'all think?

Zackdickensdog

I thought Salems Lot was by far his best it also made an equally scary tv series

Nody

Read it in my teens but I can't recall being overly scared about it; the husband obviously acts as he does for an emotional and (relatively) rational reason. This leads to consequences which he don't want to deal with (who wants to kill their own child?) and ultimatly going insane.

So I guess on a psychological level it's scary in the degeneration over time but it's not scary in a "what behind the door" kind of scary

--Kaiser--

Probably The Gunslinger

Sconsey

My favourite has always been 'It', read it a few times many years ago, not sure if it stands the test of time. Pet Semetary was a good read if I recall, scary and sad!

I also really liked a story called 'The Long Walk' that he wrote as Bachman, must go back and read that one again.

Damien360

I read a lot of stephen king books in my youth.

IT and The Stand are classics but of the more recent books, I really liked Under The Dome. Very fast paced with very well crafted people. The ending is a let down and is unbelievable even for stephen king but still worth a read.

The Cell is another decent one that I read during flights to and from San Francisco .

Pet cemetary is very good but let down by the film adaption.

Dolores Claireborn is a good novel with no horror whatsoever but it tells a great story. Gave that to my mother and she lived it.

The pace at which he develops a character complete with accent and clothes is what draws me to him all the time .

Pang

My personal favourite has always been The Dark Half.

It's quite a bleak and violent story but I found myself quite absorbed with it. I really enjoyed reading it.

I was slightly frightened of sparrows for quite a while after reading it.

emeraldstar

Damien360 wrote: »

Pet cemetary is very good but let down by the film adaption.

Do you let a bad film adaptation negatively influence your opinion of a previously enjoyed book?

Damien360

emeraldstar wrote: »

Do you let a bad film adaptation negatively influence your opinion of a previously enjoyed book?

If you saw the film before reading the book it would ruin some good characters. The only one the film got right was the old man. They were spot on with him.

MGMTea

I absolutely love 11/22/63. Perfect mix of sci-fi and history

Thargor

The Stand was a life changing book for me, turned me from a little sh1t who thought books were "gay" into a lifelong heavy reader, I dont think theres been any point in the last 15 years since I read it where I havent had one or two books on the go, I only picked it up to look at how freakishly big it was and immediately read everything by King afterwards, loved the Dark Tower most of all but some of the ones you rarely hear about are also my favorites, I always think of the Tommyknockers when Im rebuilding a pc or Christine when Im doing something with an engine for example, Desperation/Regulators, Misery, Needful things all marked me a lot more than any other author and I often think of them when daydreaming on a bus or the DART even though its been 10 years or more since I last read them, not to mention IT whenever Im in a creepy place on my own, really looking forward to his next one next month:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Sleep_%28novel%29

A sequel to the Shining! Only found out about it a couple of weeks ago

salacious crumb

Hmm, read a lot of King when I was younger, Gerald's Game was a particular favourite, as well as Needful Things and Salem's Lot.

Actually only started the Dark Tower series about two years ago though, think I'm up to the fifth one now, they're pretty entertaining, and a long way away from his other horror type stuff I'd read.

vitani

I'm not really a fan of horror novels but I do like him as a writer in other genres. I loved 11/22/63 and some of his short fiction collections, but my favourite book of his is The Eyes of the Dragon.

salacious crumb

Damien360 wrote: »

Gave that to my mother and she lived it.

I hope that was a typo :pac:

Galaxie

Liseys Story? Thought it was complete and utter muck myself.

IT and the Shining are classics of course, but I'm just starting in on the Dark Tower, really enjoying it so far. Salems Lot was excellent as well.

Under the Dome was a great book but the ending was godawful, I'm hoping the TV show will change that around a bit.

Hoofball

My favourite novels are probably The Stand and The Long Walk. A lot of people seem to hate the Long Walk but I really like it. I never got into the Dark Towers books, must give them a go at some stage.

ChrisM

I couldn't agree more Hoofball. I absolutely loved The Long Walk. The ending kept me awake for hours, I just kep re-reading it.

The Dark Tower series is the most recommended series I have come across. I am under actual presure to like, nay, love these books. I read half of The Gunslinger and just could not take any more. It is awful, plain and simple.

My other half is not impressed, and thinks much less of me for not reading them

Imo there are too many classics to be read, and reading should be fun, not work!

Under the Dome was absolutely fantastic. 11-22-63 is next on my list. I read a book a few years back called Timescape, and it seems to have a lot in common with King's book, which is unusual, and adds an extra element to reading 11-22-63.

Thargor

Well theres a decade long gap or more between the Gunslinger and the rest of the series, King himself went back and released a re-edited new edition, maybe try that? Gunslinger was just a standalone thing like any of his other novellas before the idea for the true Dark Tower plot hit him. A great pity as Ive tried and failed to get friends reading it before and they've all given up for the same reason, personally I was hooked from the first page but this was back in a time before all the distractions of the internet.

The exact same thing happens with my other favorite fantasy series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen, the first one, Gardens of the Moon, was written years earlier before the author thought of the real plot and revisited it and it turns a lot of people off having to plough through that much to get to the real reward.

Hoofball

Yeah - I think I'll give the series a go, but I've a lot of other books on my "to-read shelf" to get through first. It's nice to have 8 King books that I haven't read yet that I can pick up at any time

I thought Under the Dome was going to be a real return to form for him as I read it but I was annoyed at the ending, I thought it was a bit of a rushed cop out.

I enjoyed 11/22/63 and thought it was one of his better books in the last 10 years. Joyland is really good as well and worth a read if you haven't read it already.

salacious crumb

ChrisM wrote: »

I couldn't agree more Hoofball. I absolutely loved The Long Walk. The ending kept me awake for hours, I just kep re-reading it.

The Dark Tower series is the most recommended series I have come across. I am under actual presure to like, nay, love these books. I read half of The Gunslinger and just could not take any more. It is awful, plain and simple.

My other half is not impressed, and thinks much less of me for not reading them

Imo there are too many classics to be read, and reading should be fun, not work!

Under the Dome was absolutely fantastic. 11-22-63 is next on my list. I read a book a few years back called Timescape, and it seems to have a lot in common with King's book, which is unusual, and adds an extra element to reading 11-22-63.

Today's Metro's 60 second interview is with King, mostly about the UTD tv show, but also other stuff.

buck65

Misery and The Long Walk stand out for me. Everything's Eventual is good too. An awful lot of average stuff though in the canon.

bellinter

Happy to see all the shout outs for The Long Walk. Definitely one of the best and one of the few books I've ever read more than once. Would love a film version some day, you'd imagine it wouldnt cost a great deal.

Other than that The Stand and Salem's Lot and The second DT book, Drawing of the Three probably my favourites

Will agree with the general setiment on Under the Dome. Thought it was excellent but let down terribly by the ending. The last one I read was the Colorado Kid which I really enjoyed. A lot of people seem to dislike it (from the reviews I've read anyway) because of the lack of a resolution but I thought it worked very well.

dr gonzo

I often find this forum to be quite emphatic about Stephen King but for whatever reason he does absolutely nothing for me. Admittedly the Shining was very good but I found it very good in spite of his style of writing, which I hate. I'll also readily admit that the other works of his which Ive read are undoubtedly not him at his greatest (e.g. Pet Semetary and Cell). Based on the discussions on here Ive often given some thought to reading the ones that people call his best and then make my decision based on those instead, and to that end I have The Stand and Salem's Lot in the to-read pile. Even still though I have to wonder if hes just not for me. As I said, I really really dont like his style of writing so theres possibly a systemic issue here that reading more of him is just not going to fix.

Anyways, probably not going to be a extremely popular comment but I actually have given this a bit of thought recently.

Ormus

dr gonzo wrote: »

I often find this forum to be quite emphatic about Stephen King but for whatever reason he does absolutely nothing for me. Admittedly the Shining was very good but I found it very good in spite of his style of writing, which I hate. I'll also readily admit that the other works of his which Ive read are undoubtedly not him at his greatest (e.g. Pet Semetary and Cell). Based on the discussions on here Ive often given some thought to reading the ones that people call his best and then make my decision based on those instead, and to that end I have The Stand and Salem's Lot in the to-read pile. Even still though I have to wonder if hes just not for me. As I said, I really really dont like his style of writing so theres possibly a systemic issue here that reading more of him is just not going to fix.

Anyways, probably not going to be a extremely popular comment but I actually have given this a bit of thought recently.

He does nothing for you but you're gonna read The Stand just in case?

Why?

Have you seen the size of it?

Why not just read an author you enjoy?

Thargor

Because its one of the best things ever written! Dont forget about IT either Dr Gonzo.

Whippersnapper

I've never read a Stephen King book. Where should I begin? People seem to rate The Stand.

bellinter

The Stand is brilliant but yes its really long.

I would start at the beginning, with Carrie, and read in chronological order from there. You'll only have a few to read then before The Stand and they are all quality (Salems Lot, The Shining, Rage)

Thargor

bellinter wrote: »

The Stand is brilliant but yes its really long.

I would start at the beginning, with Carrie, and read in chronological order from there. You'll only have a few to read then before The Stand and they are all quality (Salems Lot, The Shining, Rage)

Yes, this is the best thing to do, Christine, Tommyknockers, Salems Lot, all incredible reads in my opinion, no reason to skip any of them, dont forget The Dark Tower if you like your fantasy.

BrianJD

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Needful things! I think it's def my favorite.

Frank Black

Misery was the first of his books that I read (before the movie version came out). I found it (almost literally) unputdownable. It definitly had the most 'impact' on me of any of his books.
I also really enjoyed The Stand, The Shining, The Long Walk and IT.
Dreamcatcher was probably my least favourite.

Ormus

Thargor wrote: »

Because its one of the best things ever written! Dont forget about IT either Dr Gonzo.

Doesn't matter how good it is, if he doesn't like the author's style of writing, he isn't gonna enjoy a 1200 or whatever page book by him.

salacious crumb

BrianJD wrote: »

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Needful things! I think it's def my favorite.

I think I did, and if I didn't, I should have :pac:

--Kaiser--

Thargor wrote: »

Because its one of the best things ever written! Dont forget about IT either Dr Gonzo.

Ah here, it's not even the best book that King has written

dark crystal

ReallyMe wrote: »

Okay out of all the Stephen King books, which one do you consider his best (Including Bachman, Green Mile and Dark Tower)?

Stephen King states that his personal favourites are Lisey's Story and Misery,

And he dislikes Insomnia and Rose Madder (the latter of which I thought was excellent)

How strange, I found Lisey's Story to be one of his weakest books and Rose Madder to be one of the more enjoyable!

Just echoing other's sentiments here by saying The Long Walk is my favourite. However, I generally prefer his short story collections to his novels. His newest collection, 'Full Dark, No Stars' was very good, I thought.
Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew, Everything's Eventual and Just After Sunset are all excellent. I wasn't too far gone on Four Past Midnight, though.

Slightly OT, but I read some time ago that Frank Darabont, who directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist, had acquired the rights to The Long Walk and would 'eventually' get around to directing it. I'd love to see it on the big screen and couldn't think of a better director.

Ormus

dark crystal wrote: »

How strange, I found Lisey's Story to be one of his weakest books and Rose Madder to be one of the more enjoyable!

I thought Lisey's Story was excellent and I couldn't finish Rose Madder.

bellinter

Any shoutouts for his worst book/books

Cell and From a Buick 8 for me

BrianJD

I'm currently sitting in the hotel where Stephen King stayed, based and filmed the Shining on. It's the only place I can get Wifi as the town we are staying is flooded so ill have to change my vote from Needful things to The Shining...

ronoc 1

read quiet a few of his books,11-22-63 i thought was his best book in years,salems lot is probably my favourite but i read the stand recently and though i thought it was a fine book,just felt that it fell apart at the end,it seemed like he didnt know how to end it.

MagicMarker

Finished 11/22/63 this evening. Thought it was fantastic, with King I find a lot of his books lull at some point but this held my interest consistently throughout. One of his best IMO.