Stephen King books. What is your fav?

[Immortal Goat]

I can't really decide mine. I really like "Salem's Lot", "The Shining", "Needful Things", and "IT", to name a few, but I want to know what you think are the best so I can get new reading ideas.

[Grazzt]

The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass and The Tommyknockers.

[Cap'n Crunch]

I attemped to read IT once, but I don't usually read. I only read when I have to. I got to page 19 and I stopped. I winded up watching the movie.

[Generator86]

IT the miniseries was horrible compared to the book.

IT is probably my favourite, due to nostalgia(first book of his I ever read). Other than that, my faves are the short story collections.

Oh, and stay the fuck away from Insomnia, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and Rose Madder, unless you really, really need to get to sleep.

[kellychaos]

If you literally mean book, which includes his collections of short stories, then I would go with Different Seasons. If you meant a novel, then The Talisman (with Peter Straub).

[FS]

Bah. I liked Insomnia and Rose Madder, long-winded as they may be. My favorites are Bag of Bones, Misery and the Gunslinger, though.

[Generator86]

In terms of short stories, I'm going to have to go with "The Boogeyman". I was ten when I first read that, and Jesus fuck! It scared the living shit out of me. I'm not exactly sure why, looking back. :/

Also, are the Dark Tower books worth reading? I only got about two chapters in on the first one when it came out, and I got bored. But since a lot of people are considering them to be his greatest achievement or whatever, I'm starting to get somewhat curious.

Just looking for opinions.

[Protoclown]

The Eyes of the Dragon.


(it's the only one i've read )

[Esuohlim]

Different Seasons (more specifically, the Body).

[FS]

Originally Posted by Generator86

Also, are the Dark Tower books worth reading? I only got about two chapters in on the first one when it came out, and I got bored. But since a lot of people are considering them to be his greatest achievement or whatever, I'm starting to get somewhat curious.

Well, depends what you're into. They're completely different from his other work, in my opinion. The first one probably stands off the most, because he wrote it long before the rest of the series. To me the characters seem to behave a bit differently than later on, and King seemed to be writing more of an excerpt from a longer story than a standalone one. Anyway, there's supposed to be a revised version of the Gunslinger coming out soon, which is brought more in line with the rest of the series. You might want to try that.

[Daphne]

Different Seasons, The Stand (fucking amazing book) The Shining, Eyes of the Dragon, It.

I like Stephen King, but I keep hearing his newer books are poopy, so I'm afraid to read them.

[kellychaos]

Originally Posted by Daphne

I like Stephen King, but I keep hearing his newer books are poopy, so I'm afraid to read them.

I wish you'd quit throwin' those fancy, schmancy literary terms around.

[FS]

For a while I thought King's new work was getting worse too, but there's just a number of titles throughout his career that are crappy. Books like From A Buick 8 or the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, I just don't check out because the concept seems asinine to me. For recent titles, I thought Black House, Everything's Eventual and Hearts in Atlantis were pretty good.

[Generator86]

Everything's Eventual was great.

I'll check out the revised Gunslinger when it comes out, most likely. Thanks.

[kellychaos]

Originally Posted by Generator86

Everything's Eventual was great.

I'll check out the revised Gunslinger when it comes out, most likely. Thanks.

I was only half-listening to the "Today" show interview. So those were revisions and not additions to the series? I've been meaning to start the series as I'm a fan of most of King's work although I understand this series falls more into the fantasy genre. That's really not a concern to me as I get into just about any genre of nonfiction, most noticably excepting romance, as long as the writing is good.

[FS]

From StephenKing.com:

Stephen's Rewritten the Gunslinger
To bring the language up to date, and the style in line with the style of the other Dark Tower volumes, Stephen's rewritten The Gunslinger. The new version, available in June 2003, will also be released in audiobook format.

It's probably available already. I think I'll check it out myself, it's a pretty thin book and (in its original form) it's my favorite book of the series. Dark Tower 5 is set for November, right now, and then two more books will follow to conclude the series.

The Dark Tower series are kind of a weird mixture of fantasy, westerns, sci-fi and regular King. The main character is sort of a cowboy/knight from another world that is both post-apocalyptic and like human Middle Ages, but he later gets help from people from various time periods of "our" world.

[Husker Jew]

What about the Bachman Books?

[Spectre X]

The Stand, first book of his I've read, and the Running Man, second book I've read.

gonna try and pick up an English copy of IT somewhere.

[Protoclown]

I thought Steven King announced that he was retiring a year or so ago?

I don't understand why anyone that full of creativity would ever retire. As long as the ideas keep coming, keep on writing, I say.

[kellychaos]

Originally Posted by Protoclown

I thought Steven King announced that he was retiring a year or so ago?

I don't understand why anyone that full of creativity would ever retire. As long as the ideas keep coming, keep on writing, I say.

My facts might be a little off but during the interview, King said that his illness recently really awakened him to the realization of how fragile/short life could be and was the catalyst in his working so hard on the revision and conclusion of his "Gunslinger" series ... sort of a "car pae diem" kind of thing.

[FS]

I don't think he every literally said he'd be retiring, it's more that journalists took his words out of context. He has said though that the Dark Tower is kind of his magnum opus, and when it's done he'll probably be cutting back on his writing more... Plus he's got some illness that's deteriorating his eyesight to -I think- the point of eventual blindness. I can't imagine that'll help his writing career.

I don't really see how a writer could choose to retire, either. Maybe you run out of ideas for a while, but there's no telling what may come in the future.

[The_voice_of_reason]

My favorite King book is Firestarter but I've only read that and Hearts in Atlantis

[Immortal Goat]

Originally Posted by Husker Jew

What about the Bachman Books?

Not that great. I read only one of the stories in it, and it was about a kid that brought a gun to school, killed his teacher, and told his life's story to his classmates. Decent, but not King-worthy.

[IdiotSavant]

If you got some spare time (make that lots of spare time) I suggest the Director's Cut of The Stand. Incredibly depressing, and a bit long-winded, but one of my favorite books of anyone, let alone King.

If your not into the whole apocalypse thing, The Green Mile or any of the Gunslinger series are both good.

One quick question: didn't he once write that he planned on never finishing the Dark Tower saga? I think it's in one of the "message from the author" things in one of the books.

[Daphne]

Originally Posted by IdiotSavant

If you got some spare time (make that lots of spare time) I suggest the Director's Cut of The Stand. Incredibly depressing, and a bit long-winded, but one of my favorite books of anyone, let alone King.

Oh, so they have directors for books now? Idiot.