Stephen King

I liked the Dark Tower Series and The Stand. I did not find them to be scary or creepy but great page turners.

OctoberRain said:

And I am a fan of Insomnia. Ralph was the coolest elderly person ever.

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Agreed. Ralph rocked. I loved the old farts being the ones to save the day. King did a similar thing in a short story called One For The Road.

seun said:

Agreed. Ralph rocked. I loved the old farts being the ones to save the day. King did a similar thing in a short story called One For The Road.

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Ooh, yeah, the vampire one. I love that story. And old farts in 'Grey Matter' saved the day, too...or maybe not.

I loved 'One for the Road' partly because I really like it when he tells us something about old characters and stories, in subsequent tales. I so want to know what happened to the little girl in 'Pet Sematary' when she grew up. I want her to go back and find that there's a town full of secret zombies or something. Or maybe she loses someone and gets tempted.

I want to know what the mother does in 'Gramma', when she comes home and finds...what?

I know I'm greedy, but I can't help it. I want more.

With One For The Road, I love the way the narrator and his friend treat the vampires a few miles away as something that just has to be accepted. It's frightening but they can't just ignore it. It's a nice, understated bravery that contrasts with how they leg it when the little girl comes for her father in the blizzard.

My favorites are Salem's Lot, The Shining, Pet Sematary and Needful Things. I like the earlier King works.

Carrie? Not a big fan of it. If that had been my first King book i doubt i would have been hooked. the first one i read was Salem's Lot.

my fav- the cell. i just finished lisey's story- it was also good. Also started the shining- that reminds me- i have to get back to that. another fav is the nightmare and dreamscapes collection.

The only King book I've ever read was On Writing. His portrayal of himself as a regular guy who likes to write has helped to change a lot of my attitudes about the Craft, as well as the people who work within it. I feel like there's hope for me now, where my writing is concerned, whereas beforehand I did not.

I've seen movies based on other books he did, but On Writing was the only book he wrote, that I've ever read.

Hey, King's fans. I just finished "The Shinning", and being the first King book I read and having seen the fantastic Kubrick movie before, I had no idea whether I would enjoy it, but I ended up loving it.

As a movie buff I understand most movies as having no value relation with the books. Great movies have come out from not-so-great books and great book have been the source of below average movies. In "The shinning", both mediums are both perfectly used for the story, but even tough it is the same story, the focus varies in the movie from the book and that makes all the difference.

I was more curious with the first half of the book where the alcoholism presents itself as the primary source of terror as this is the part missing in the movie, but I also found the second half to be great because of it's a lot scarier than the first. Absolutely amazing how King places two characters in the same situation and makes both occurrences equally terrifying(room 217).

Any recomendations on what would be is best work? I've read good things about "The Stand" and the dark tower series.

Gollum said:

Any recomendations on what would be is best work? I've read good things about "The Stand" and the dark tower series.

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The Stand and the Dark Tower series are both great although it might be worth reading other stuff before DT. In case you don't know, the DT books are linked in various ways to a lot of his other work. You may get more out of them if you've read some of his other books.

S.King Books

I've never read any of his books - I'm a big chicken and don't want to be up all night hiding under the blankets.
But, I'm curious...
Can you recommend one of his best works that is not too gross/scary. Then I can judge if I'll read more.

Thanks!

I went through my Stephen King phase in the seventh grade. I don't think they're really that scary (with the possible exception of It and Pet Semetary). My favourite was The Stand but you might want to check out The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

I've never read his scary stuff, either. Most of his stuff really isn't all that bad.

My #1 recommendation (and my absolute favorite book by King):

Hearts in Atlantis

Awesome book.

Other good stuff:

The Dark Tower Series
Shawshank Redemption (yeah it's a book)
The Running Man

Stephen King is a prolific writer and it's difficult to suggest just one book.However,I would suggest two nonfiction books,Danse Macabre and On Writing ,both are interesting to anyone who has a interest in writing and would like to know a bit more about S King and his work.As for one fiction recommendation I would chose, Misery .

The Body (the moive Stand By Me was based on it)

Shawshank Redemption

The Green Mile

Hearts in Atlantis

Or maybe his nonfiction book, On Writing.

I've only read three King books - IT - which is scary as anything, The Shining - scary but not too scary or gross. And Misery - which I didn't like.

My brother's a huge King fan and he always recommends The Stand and Needful Things, but I can't vouch for how scary or icky either book might be.

I agree with those who have said The Green Mile and Hearts in Atlantis, since those are not horror. Or if you want to try something shorter, The Body. I loved Dreamcatcher and The Long Walk... wouldn't say either of them are too scary. The latter is especially impressive to me, because imagine writing a book in which the characters are walking the entire time. You'd think the same setting and same actions would get redundant, but it doesn't. King pulls it off very well.

My suggestion? Visit a library or bookstore - read the flyleaf and a couple pages chosen at random from whatever titles grab your attention, then decide which ones you want to read.

Most of his (fiction) books have a little bit of everything in them, though by far, I found IT to be truly scary. The earilier his work, the slightly more (insert adj here - tweaked/twisted/odd/scary/bizarre/peculiar) the story to be. The longer the story, the more times I've had to read it to feel like I'm not missing anything important.

A great SK title that isn't horror or scary at all: The Long Walk.

Really, anything he wrote as Bachman fits that description.

alleycat said:

The Body (the moive Stand By Me was based on it)

Shawshank Redemption

The Green Mile

Hearts in Atlantis

Or maybe his nonfiction book, On Writing.

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What I was going to say (except for Hearts, never read it). Those are his best works, and not really scary.

Thirding (fourthing?) The Green Mile and Hearts in Atlantis.

Different Seasons - read the entire anthology in which "The Body" and "Shawshank" are included. The other two stories are very good, as well.

Also, The Eyes of the Dragon.

It is my favorite of his fiction books. And definitely read On Writing.

Fifthing? Hearts in Atlantis. Also for a later story that isn't scary but is pretty darn odd/bizarre, try From a Buick 8. Fair warning: it did get a fair bit of criticism that it was just a rehash of Christine, but I enjoyed it.

ChaosTitan said:

Thirding (fourthing?) The Green Mile and Hearts in Atlantis.

Different Seasons - read the entire anthology in which "The Body" and "Shawshank" are included. The other two stories are very good, as well.

Also, The Eyes of the Dragon.

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I forgot he wrote The Eyes of the Dragon. Very different from his usual stuff, I loved that book.

The Stand is quite good and not overly scary.