He's written some of my favourite books. I'm a big fan of the Dark Tower Books, a brilliant book series and complete which is a big plus. Under the dome is also a great read, shame about the TV series. Haven't read any of his most well known works though!
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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I feel people either love or hate Stephen King. I was the same as you, absolutely loved his work from the get go and devoured everything I could.
Personal favorites: IT 11-22-63 - not horror based mostly but cool concept. Dark tower books - these are his holy grail, everything connects to them. The stand - I just love the feel of this book, it just feels right.
Seriously try the dark tower books. I've reread them multiple times and it's such a great experience.
I've heard a lot of good things about 11-22-63 and The Stand. I've got 11-22-63 already so I think I'll start that one after Pet Semetary.
11-22-63 I found enthralling, but it is about American history in the 60s so if that's not your jam then be forewarned. It does a good job of showing the good and bad parts of the time though, so even as a non-American I found it very interesting.
Also, for more recent King books I quite enjoyed The Outsider and The Institute as well. The Outsider is more classic horror, and the Institute deals more with supernatural powers in regular people. Just to add more to your list.
Happy reading!
Love seeing all of the recommendations in this thread! My husband has read almost all of them, he's got about 20 books left (most of which are the Dark Tower books) and his top 5 favorites are 11/22/63, Needful Things, Duma Key, Gerald's Game, and Joyland. His 5 least favorites so far are Dreamcatcher, The Eyes of the Dragon, Hearts in Atlantis, Sleeping Beauties, and Insomnia.
I myself have read The Outsider and and The Institute and immensely enjoyed both. I just finished Song of Susannah, book #6 of the Dark Tower series today, and I can't wait to finish it. It really is an incredible story/saga/epic. I plan on reading much more King but I plan on staying away from the darker stuff, as I'm a lot softer/sensitive since I've had a child lol.
I have been through just about everything I could find before around 2010 and a few of his newer ones and in my opinion I would just read everything.
Of course his supposed Opus are the dark tower books (which is what originally drew me in) and there are a fair few other books based around that world and gives nods to each other, some bigger than others.
Ones that I enjoyed a lot personally though (dark tower aside) are Talisman, Black House, Desperation, Needful Things, Cell, Under the Dome and definitely 11/22/63.
My least favourites were probably Cujo and Misery but people seem to rate them so that is more personal I think.
Dark Tower series is actually what put me off him. Individually as separate books? Fantastic reads.
Together as a single universe? Messy, egotistic, and derivative.
I wish he stopped the gunslinger series past the first book. Just my opinion, though
I had the same reaction. I read most of his books, loved the first gunslinger book. Didn't mind the second one. When I reached the end of the third, I realized I was done and haven't read anything by him since. He's actually put out a couple since then that I'll probably read one of these days, but it's hard to go back.
Thanks! I definitely will check out the Dark Tower series eventually. I'm quite curious about 11/22/63 too so I might do that one next.
I went into every book blind, if I had read about 11/22 prior I probably wouldn't have ever bothered giving it a go but as it is it is one that I have enjoyed a lot and come back to a few times. I hope you enjoy your journey, I'm jealous I can't go back through King again with no knowledge :D
He's fantastic at keeping readers' attention with his books. I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but when I do I don't mind picking up one of his books to read.
I started a publication-order read through (skipping any Dark Tower entries and saving them for the end) a while ago, and i have made it half-way through Four Past Midnight (1990), so I will limit my recommendations to his earlier works.
I love all his short story/novella collections, but if i had to pick one to recommend it would probably be Different Seasons, though Skeleton Crew is up there as well.
For the novels, a few of my less well-known or less commonly recommended favorites (in publication order, since i'm looking at my e-reader history) are The Dead Zone (especially poignant in the current state of politics), Roadwork (very compelling story of a guy's refusal to come to terms with a changing world), Christine (the premis sounds dumb, but he really pulled it off), The Eyes of the Dragon (his foray into fantasy), and The Tommyknockers (this along with Cujo were written deep in his cocaine days and it shows, but i couldn't put it down and some of my favorite King moments are in this book).
Any of his well-known ones are fantastic too (a general rule to follow is: if they've made a movie, especially if it was a bad movie, it's gonna be a good read), but I'm gonna shout out The Shinning in particular. The book is very different than the movie; not plot-wise per se, but the character development is so much deeper and more multi-dimensional. If you've seen the movie but haven't read the book, you don't really know The Shinning. No shade against the movie being thrown here, I love them both but for very different reasons.
In the interest of stopping before I list his whole bibliography, I'll end by saying you can safely add any of the Bachmann books to your list, especially since you liked Thinner.
I saw a summary of Christine and thought "there is no way in hell that's going to be one I read" but now.... maybe...
It really is a quintessential example of "you can't judge a book by it's cover"
I much prefer his shorter works to the big bloated novels he wrote mid-career which have a tendency to waffle on.
Personal highlights for me: Carrie, The Shining, Night Shift, Different Seasons, Revival, the Hodges trilogy,
The man sure can spin a good yarn. I always think of him like the person you know who is absolute best at telling a tall tale around the camp fire, riveting everyone's attention. Is it technically perfect writing all the time? Nope. Is it trying to be fancy literature? Nope. Is it telling a story that holds onto your attention, leaving you sitting in a car listening to an audiobook for half an hour after you arrive home? Yep! He's a storyteller supreme. Some criticize him for weak endings, but he will sure drag you all the way to that ending.
I enjoy a variety of his writing. Growing up, I only thought of him as a "horror writer", because that's what made it to film. Then I found The Eyes of the Dragon in the library (which is a fantasy novel), and discovered that Mr. King can write more than horror. I truly enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Tower, and his "Hard Case Crime" books The Colorado Kid, Joyland, and Later. Joyland really is a great little gem of a book.
Then, his writing drew me into some of his horror works after all. Things like Firestarter (loved), Carrie (didn't love), The Shining (loved), and Salem's Lot (solid and interesting for it's place in vampire fiction). I also enjoyed his more recent book The Institute as well.
I'm not his biggest fan, and I see issues in the details of his writing from time to time (far too many hours spent in Literature classes), but I have tremendous respect for him as a storyteller, and as a writer who can capture the effect of a good storyteller so well so much of the time. To me this overcomes the criticisms some make of his work.
He's written some of my favourite books. I'm a big fan of the Dark Tower Books, a brilliant book series and complete which is a big plus. Under the dome is also a great read, shame about the TV series. Haven't read any of his most well known works though!
Thinner is one of my favourites by him!
The normal favourites are IT, The Stand, The Shining etc. But my absolute favourite of the ones I have read is Salem's Lot.
I tried, but was unable, to find a video clip of Jon Lovitz portraying Stephen King on SNL. Good stuff.