What's Your Favorite Stephen King Novel?

    What is your favorite Stephen King story:


    • Carrie
    • 'Salem's Lot
    • The Shining
    • Rage
    • Night Shift
    • The Stand
    • The Long Walk
    • The Dead Zone
    • Firestarter
    • Roadwork
    • Cujo
    • The Running Man
    • The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger
    • Different Seasons
    • Christine
    • Pet Sematary
    • The Talisman
    • Thinner
    • Skeleton Crew
    • It
    • The Eyes of the Dragon
    • The Dark Tower 2: The Drawing of the Three
    • Misery
    • The Tommyknockers
    • The Dark Half
    • Four Past Midnight
    • The Dark Tower 3: The Waste Lands
    • Needful Things
    • Gerald's Game
    • Dolores Claiborne
    • Nightmares & Dreamscapes
    • Insomnia
    • Rose Madder
    • The Green Mile
    • Desperation
    • The Regulators
    • The Dark Tower 4: Wizard and Glass
    • Bag of Bones
    • Storm of the Century
    • The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
    • Hearts in Atlantis
    • Blood and Smoke
    • Dreamcatcher
    • The Dark Tower 5: Wolves of the Calla
    • The Dark Tower 6: Song of Susannah
    • The Dark Tower 7: The Dark Tower
    • The Colorado Kid
    • Cell
    • Lisey's Story
    • Blaze
    • Duma Key
    • Just After Sunset
    • Under the Dome
    • Bloackade Billy
    • Full Dark, No Stars
    • Mile 81
    • 11/22/63
    • The Wind Through the Keyhole


    By the way, he's got a new book coming out in 2013. Looked it up on Wikipedia. Ironically, it's called Dr. Sleep.

    He's done some excellent stuff, but he's been pretty mediocre for many years now. I've pretty much given up on reading anything new he writes, as I haven't particularly rated anything I've read of his after Dolores Claiborne (I'm not much of a Family Guy fan, but this sketch about him is bang on the money). But that said, he wrote a whole string of stone-cold classics back in the day - Misery, It, The Shining, The Stand and Carrie are all sensational novels (and they made pretty good films too, particularly The Shining). I couldn't really pick a favourite from those.


    My favourite short story of his is called The Long Walk; I think it's one of the Bachman Books. It's about an enforced competition between a whole load of teenagers who are just forced to walk without stopping, because as soon as they do they're shot dead by a military escort until only one remains. It's pretty powerful stuff.


    And the best SK film is The Shawshank Redemption. This is not up for debate. :P

    Quote from OscarGold101

    His best works are his Dark Tower novels. No doubt about it.


    Wizard & Glass is the only one of those I've read - it was alright, and I'd have probably enjoyed it more if I'd read the others first, but not even close to the same league as his early novels. If I was ever going to read more King it would definitely be that series, but I've moved on to other things now and I don't really see myself getting around to reading like a meter-thick series by someone that I used to love but have grown lukewarm to over the years.

    I have to admit I only read "Christine" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon". Unfortunately it was difficult to get it if you know nothing about Baseball.


    When it comes to movies "The Shawshank Redemption" is my favorite as well. But I also LOVE "The mist"!
    "Misery", "The green mile", "Carrie" and "The Shining" are some good movies too.

    The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is far and away the worst Stephen King book I've ever read. I think that was probably the point where I decided he'd lost it.

    Quote from OscarGold101

    Caribou


    I mean i respect your opinion. But don't hate on him. Shhesh. So he's written a couple of bad books. Don't be a Stpehn King hater


    I don't see why giving valid criticism is passed off as "hating" on someone. Caribou even said that he enjoys a couple of Stephen King books.

    Quote from OscarGold101

    Caribou


    I mean i respect your opinion. But don't hate on him. Shhesh. So he's written a couple of bad books. Don't be a Stpehn King hater.


    Dude, if you're not going to read my posts then please don't bother replying to them. It's pretty clear from what I wrote that I'm not even close to being a "hater". I have no interest whatsoever in superheroes so I don't bother posting in the superhero threads - Stephen King, however, was one of my favourite authors for a long time, and I've read at least half of the stuff on Dr Sleep's list, so it's a subject I feel I'm at least somewhat qualified to comment on.


    If your definition of "hate" includes a mild bit of criticism that at worst describes his recent output as "mediocre" (and I even mentioned I was prepared to make an exception for the Dark Tower series), yet at the same time described various works of his as "excellent", "sensational" and "powerful"... I suggest you take a deep breath before exploring too much of the world, and indeed the internet, 'cause you're not going to like what you see. ;)


    The bottom line is, Stephen King is a good author. But there are hundreds of good authors, and a lot of them are consistently better than he is. I simply don't have the time or the inclination to plough through more books that I know before I've read them aren't going to particularly excite me, and I've read enough King now to know this will usually be the case.

    Quote from Dr. Sleep

    Caribou, don't feed it. Just let it go. Don't add fuel to the fire.


    When someone addresses me directly, I answer them. And I don't see any fire here anyways. ;)