Stephen King

[Percy Filth]

Pet Semetary

The Dead Zone

Christine

(dis-remember the films before you read them though)

Also Geralds Game, Carrie, The Stand, IT.

[villenium]

I only read Stephen King books when I was a teenager.

To be honest I found him to be a good storyteller but a poor writer. An ideas man, if you like.

My favourite (that I can remember) was a collection of stories called Skeleton Crew. It contained quite a long story called 'The Mist' which, as I recall, was aces.

[Percy Filth]

Yeah, his short stories are usually good. Skeleton Crew and Everythings Eventual are great.

[Metallichick]

The Stand (extended version) is my favourite Stephen King book. Rose Madder is good too.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

'Misery' is his only really well-written book. But like somebody said above, that's not you should go in expecting with King.

I'd say go with:

Misery

IT

The Tommyknockers

'Salems Lot

[Wickedkitten]

I could read The Talisman over and over and over and not get tired with it. Also It, The Stand, Insomnia, The eyes of the dragon, and The Tommyknockers.

[Lorfarius]

My favourites of all his books were IT and Christine. Give those 2 a whirl if nothing else takes your fancy, great books, pretty scary too.

[Wickedkitten]

My favourites of all his books were IT and Christine. Give those 2 a whirl if nothing else takes your fancy, great books, pretty scary too.

Oh aye, I forgot all about Christine.

[Percy Filth]

I cant believe you're reccomending The Tommyknockers. Great start, terrible ending (the ending being about 200 pages).

I forgot about Misery (the film was probably better though). The Shining maybe? its difficult to remember what the book was like after seeing the film.

[Wooldi]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions.

I haven't seen any of the films that are based on his books, partly because horror/scary movies aren't really my thing. (I know, I'm a pussy). I love scary or very tense books though.

I heard The Green Mile is very good too?

[Metallichick]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions.

I haven't seen any of the films that are based on his books, partly because horror/scary movies aren't really my thing. (I know, I'm a pussy). I love scary or very tense books though.

I heard The Green Mile is very good too?

Yes, read the book, watch the film (not horror at all). One of my favourite films of all time.

Also, Shawshank Redemption.

[boxoctosis]

Again, I read a lot as a teenager, and nothing since.

My favourites -

It

Christine

The Stand (extended)

His short stories are excellent too - generally quite mixed, but worth digging out.

[Rygal - Reader of Threads]

The Dark Tower 1-7

[Paradigm]

The Dark Tower 1-7

I was amazed it had gotten this far without it being recommended.

[Wickedkitten]

I cant believe you're reccomending The Tommyknockers. Great start, terrible ending (the ending being about 200 pages).

I forgot about Misery (the film was probably better though). The Shining maybe? its difficult to remember what the book was like after seeing the film.

I liked the book.

Actually the only Stephen King book that I wasn't too impressed with was The Girl who loved Tom Gordon but then again I've only read it the once.

[thingymajig]

I was amazed it had gotten this far without it being recommended.

He's already read it.

However, it's easily Stephen King's best work.

[Wooldi]

I was amazed it had gotten this far without it being recommended.

Probably because I mentioned in the first post that I already read them.

[Lorfarius]

I forgot about Misery (the film was probably better though). The Shining maybe? its difficult to remember what the book was like after seeing the film.

The film and book were pretty much the same, both very good. However the book was a lot more graphic (she cripples him with a sledgehammer at one point. The film uses hammer plus blocks with his feet inbetween, the book is just a huge swing and cccrraaacckkk).

[FishyFish]

'Salems Lot. It's perfect.

[Paradigm]

Probably because I mentioned in the first post that I already read them.

I know - I was commenting on the fact that it gets so much praise around these parts that I was amazed that someone hadn't bothered to not read your post previously and run straight to the add reply button.

(I've not read them. Shame on me!)

[thingymajig]

Get The Gunslinger down you then.

It may seem a bit slow, but it's establishing a story line that shall be continued over six other books.

[moosegrinder]

The Stand (extended version) is my favourite Stephen King book.

How different is it to the original version?

[Retroid]

I think Christine's pretty good, I was about 12 when I read it... I've also seen the film so I can't quite remember if I finished it or not (it was a pretty big book).

[Metallichick]

How different is it to the original version?

I've not read the original I'm afraid, but the extended edition has about 400 or so extra pages. In the preface, Stephen King says that "As I've said, you won't find old characters behaving in strange new ways, but you will discover that almost all of the characters were, in the book's original form, doing more things, and if I didn't think some of those things were interesting - perhaps even enlightening - I would never have agreed to this project."

[Couch Corpse]

I've only read Salem's Lot and Misery, both excellent. Salem is one of the few (only?) things in any medium I found scary, I had to stop reading at times and check my surroundings.

[:mediadavid:]

His short stories are best. Its strange really, his novels are so convoluted, overlong and meandering, yet his short stories are perfectly formed and punchy.

'Nightmares and dreamscapes' is a collection of loooads of stories, many of which are ace.

'everything's eventual' has rather a lot less I noticed, but it does contain 1408, which is the best short story he's ever done and the scariest piece of work in his entire collection.

[Garwoofoo]

If you liked the Dark Tower, you'll almost certainly like The Stand (as previously mentioned, go for the Complete version, it's simply better).

Also try The Talisman and its sequel, Black House. The Talisman is a little bit childlike but it's interesting seeing King writing alongside another author and in retrospect a lot of the ideas in this book seem like a dry run for the Dark Tower itself. This was made more explicit in the (much later) sequel which tied in directly to the later sections of the Dark Tower. But they're both worth reading in their own right.

For pure horror, IT has always been my favourite.

[roskelld]

The Stand is a must.

Cell is wank, don't go there.

I don't know if the rumours are true, but people are saying that King wrote Bad Twin, which is a Lost (TV show) offshoot novel, it's supposed to be a good read.

[jonny_rat]

I agree totally with what Garwoofoo said above. The Talisman and Black House are probably my favourites other than the DT.

His short story collections are mostly amazing, especially Skeleton Crew.

Some others:

I really like Desperation and The Regulators. They're oddly interconnected novels, both with lots of fun action set-pieces.

Gerald's Game is a strange one; talk about a good example of King's stretched-out prose. But did this one ever give me the creeps, aye. A really uncomfortable read.

Bag of Bones is the opposite; a good, meaty comfort novel. Light on the scares, and based in King's seemingly favourite subject: local Maine legends and history.

Oh, and the first story in Hearts In Atlantis is essential, especially with respect to the Dark Tower stuff. The rest of it's interesting too.

The Stand, of course, because it's got Flagg in it.

[JoeK]

Can I mention Delores Claiborne?

Lovely little book.

I always find the shorter King books better than his huge tomes. Dark Tower ones are obviously quite brilliant too, and I always wanted to enjoy The Stand, but just found it about 500 pages too big for my liking!