Stephen King

What are your three favourite Stephen King books, and why? (You may count the Dark Tower series as one book).

The dark tower series is a definite oddesy i just wish we didn't have to wait so long between books
The stand was by far an epic that i have read many times
and one of my personal favs has always been the eyes of the dragon just a great tale
has anyone else ever noticed that almost all of his books make refrence to or involve a charector from anothe rof his books?

The Bachman Books

The Shining

Salem's Lot

i can re-read those three over and over and they never get tired. pity you can't say the same about lots of his later stuff though...

i liked carrie
and it
and different seasons

i just like them i cant explain it, but i do.

bloody hell - i'd completely forgotten about that...

I believe Eyes of the Dragon was actually meant to be a children's story.

In no particular order:

The Shining - I finished it in one sitting, and it's the only book that has ever scared the hell out of me. The Stephen-King-orchestrated mini-series back in 1996 (which I have on tape) made it even WORSE.

It - a fabulous story, and I didn't go near drains for ages. I had a fear of clowns BEFORE I read the book, so you can imagine how much fun that little trip was.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes - I like all of the compilation books and novellas, actually. It's nice to crawl into bed and read a few stories instead of staying up way past bedtime to read three additional chapters. Spinoza and I have noticed that in the books that contain four novellas, two stories are amazing, one story is okay, and one story all-out sucks.

IT, Desperation, and The Bachman Books

Also I noticed that the new Dark Tower book will be coming out in November. I hope he looks both ways crossing the street until he finishes the Dark Tower series.

The Dark Tower - it's the best western/sci-fi/horror/fantasy series I've ever read. Plus, the second book has that throwaway reference to
The Shining. Self-referentialism makes me laugh.

IT - one of the best porttrayals in pop culture of what it's like to grow up as an outsider, and how important friends are as such. I also really liked the strange-ass cosmology in there: the universe is just a gob of turtle puke. I got so unbelievably sad when the Turtle died...

The Talisman - come on; it's got an epic quest, an alternate world of magic, a crystal ball that can do literally anything, and werewolves who are all brain-damamged CCR fans. How can you go wrong?

[Edited on May 18, 2003 by ticktock]

'the stand'
'nightmares and dreamscapes'
'on writing'

The Stand
Desperation
Christine

thats crazy that people like 'desperation'. that and 'the regulators' sank like rocks when they came out

I would say "The Stand", but the ending is so lame (a textbook example of deus ex machina) that it kind of spoils it for me. It's clear, though, that up until then, King was living in that world. I think he's said that writing that book was the most immersed he's been in any of his stories. The ending almost seems to me like he knew he had to end it, but almost didn't want to.

So I will name "The Shining" the best King book, because it has all those dark undercurrents and subtexts that I don't think even King really realized were there (I think that's why he hates the Kubrick movie so much: Kubrick saw them and brought them out, and it was too much for King to bear to see.)

"On Writing" because it's the best book about being a writer that I've ever read . . . "The Stand" because it's goooood . . . "Everything's Eventual" because it's the only other King book I've read. 'Autopsy Room Four' was pretty creepy.

The Shining is my favorite SK book of all time. I can read it over and over and not tire of it.

My other favs are The Little Girl that Loved Tom Gordon, it wasn't a 'scary' book but it was so engrossing that I read it from cover to cover in a sitting.
Also, I loved Different Seasons. Thinking on that, I'll have to pick that one up again, it's been a long time.

I just received On Writing in the mail. I'm glad a few of you said that you enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to starting it.

REDRUM!

[Edited on May 18, 2003 by Praxilla]

while i liked both books i had a hard time with them as i read them back to back and couldn't grasp the fact that charectors i had already imagined one way were now almost totally different people

I didn't like the kubrick movie that much either... It seemed like he focussed on all of the superficial aspects of the story while completely ignoring the actual meat of it.

Honestly though, I don't think I could name my favorite books, I love all of his work so much.
The Dark Tower series is probably my favorite overall, but after that it's really tough to say.
Bag of Bones was great, Rose Madder was great, Different Seasons was great, The Bachman Books was great, The Talisman kept me up every night for almost a week reading (and the main character has a cameo role in The Tommyknockers) because I was to into it, Needful things rocked, Geralds Game was good... I could go on and on...

i'm currently on a quest to read all of his books, i'm about halfway done so far, i just finished "the stand" this morning. so, here we go...

desperation
four past midnight (i love his short stories/novellas)
pet semetary

too bad the movies they make of his books all suck major ass. the stories are all such quality.

-the long walk (it was one of the bachman books)
-the talisman
-the dark tower


-i can't believe how hard it was to just pick 3...i must have changed my mind 20 times in the last 10 seconds.

Different Seasons
Salems Lot
The Stand

1. the shining
2. the stand
3. either dreamcatcher or insomnia

To engage in a minor bit of threadjacking for a sec: are there any SK stories that have been more extremely "adapted" into movies than The Running Man, Trucks (aka Maximum Overdrive) and the all-time champ, the Lawnmower Man?

I can't handle Stephen King, sorry. I'm more of a James Herbert kinda guy

(1) Needful Things
(2) Insomnia
(3) Misery

Too pre-occupied to write why I like these 3 better than the other King books I've read. if you really need to know, ask me.