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Stephen King, where to start?
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I only read the Dark Tower series and it was great...well, mostly great.
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The Talisman is another good one, but he wrote it with Peter Straub, so probably not the most representative.
Personally I love the Dark Tower, and think everyone should read them, but I'd say they are unlike most of his others.
I started with Carrie, because that type of story is right up ally. It's also his first published book IIRC.
His short story collections. Skeleton Crew, Night Shift, are both good places to start for classic King.His novella collections Different Seasons, Full Dark, No Stars are also great. If 1000 pages are daunting, I think those are the best options.
I've heard a lot of good things about The Green Mille. Does it make a good starter book?
I started with "Eyes of the Dragon", moved on to "On Writing" (which I've read seven times) before tackling "The Stand" and "It"...the overwhelming majority will tell you "The Stand" and "It" are his two best works (everyone has an opinion...I'm just passing on the majority opinion (that I agree with)).If I had to pick just one Stephen King book to recommend it would have to be "The Stand". It's a commitment and very long but so very worth it. I put it on the same shelf as "Lonesome Dove" and "American Gods" - both epic long books that take some dedication but will change your life forever.
My first SK book was Christine and that was a nice introduction. Carrie has to be his breakout novel, though, and I'm of the opinion that anybody who wants to know from Stephen King should have read that book at least once. I really enjoyed Salem's Lot but there are so many vampire novels out there.... It isn't pivotal King. Misery is probably one of the best examples of "classic" King. It's King doing what he does best. Can't go wrong with that one.Of his books that contain shorter works, I think Different Seasons is the best, but nowadays those seem to be sold in big anthologies, so just look for one that has "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" and you'll be good to go.
Jake wrote: "Was green mile a full book or in short stories"King originally wrote it as an experiment in serialized fiction, publishing one volume of about 100 pages per month until the story finished, at which point it was compiled into a single book.
King is my favorite author. I love the Dark Tower series, but those are more fantasy than horror. He also ties in a lot of his stand alone books to the Tower. He also likes to tie his stories in Castle Rock.So, you can't go wrong with his short story collections. He's a very, very good short story writer. I liked Skeleton Crew a whole lot, but Night Shift has some classics. Good scary short stories or just stories that make you think.
It (scary) was my favorite book until The Talisman (more fantasy, than scary).
Then there's his psychological thrillers, Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne. As well as Rose Madder. Three different women, three different hells, three different resolutions. Good stuff.
Of his short stories, my favorites are The Ledge, Quitters Inc, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, and The Jaunt.
I have not actually read his earlier books that were made into movies (Carrie, Firestarter, Cujo), but I plan to remedy this.
I tend to absorb a lot of his big works in audiobook. It can be daunting to read some of those huge stories, and I say this about my favorite author so I can see how it might be intimidating to anyone new to his work!
However, I find King a very easy to read author. His characters have great voices, he's good with description and scene setting without losing any momentum. I find myself instantly pulled into his world and find it hard to come out sometimes!
Jake wrote: "Oh yeah Misery is a good book as well. Plus most if not all of these are good movies as well."Good point. In fact, one might want to put together a list of films based on King's work that are close to the original in theme and flavor, and use that as a guide for what books to read.... If so, I'd suggest:
Carrie (there's a couple versions... I'll leave that alone, though.)
Christine
Stand by Me
The Shawshank Redemption
Many of the rest fall off in quality from there, but I'm sure many folks would and could argue the point. To me, though, there's a second tier, then a third tier, and then just tears....
I have been reading his books in order, and am up to TommyKnockers. I would Recommend Salems Lot as a starter book to him. It shows his amazing world building and is quite scary at times. One of my favorite King books.
Andrew wrote: "I have been reading his books in order, and am up to TommyKnockers. I would Recommend Salems Lot as a starter book to him. It shows his amazing world building and is quite scary at times. One of my..."Ditto. Start with Salems Lot. Its a standalone tale that isn't immense. Its one of his early works, so certain things will feel dated, but its also one of his better ones. If you don't like it then you likely won't like much of anything of his stuff.
It also benefits to a noob King reader by being an early work in that there aren't all kinds of references to other books. King will later draw upon things that happened in Salem's Lot for his Dark Tower series but you can read SL without confusion.
To this day, I have yet to finish a Stephen King novel, but I greatly enjoyed his shorter works (I'd even say he works best in short form). Skeleton Crew is probably your best entry, if for The Mist alone.
Rik wrote: "Start with Salems Lot. Its a standalone tale that isn't immense. Its one of his early works, so certain things will feel dated, but its also one of his better ones. If you don't like it then you likely won't like much of anything of his stuff."I disagree with the 2nd part of this statement. On a scale, Salem's Lot leans toward a pure horror novel in King's bibliography. If you don't enjoy Salems Lot (vampires & horror) there are plenty of King books that are very different that you may end up enjoying.
Here are a few that I don't believe fall under a horror genre tag (and are also pretty much stand-alone):
11/22/63
The Long Walk
The Green Mile
Needful Things
Rik wrote: "If you don't like it then you likely won't like much of anything of his stuff."Geoff wrote: "I disagree..."
Also, books like Salem's Lot and The Shining are early King works.
He grows, changes, tightens up his style and basically gets better over the course of his career, from what I've noticed.
I can't emphasize enough how much I liked On Writing.
I can't emphasize King's short stories enough. I started with those collections as Audio Books on loan from my library. I am now a full fledged King fan and have read and plan to read many more of his books. If you are looking for specfic titles now I would recommend the collection entitled Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales or Just After Sunset. They have some great stories that are all bite sized in length and shouldn't prove to daunting. I really especially enjoyed "The Gingerbread Girl" and others.
You could also join the Stephen King Fans book group here on goodreads as they are a very friendly and helpful bunch.
link: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/203
My first experience was with the Shining, then Carrie, then Salem's Lot, Christine, etc, and progressed to Dark Tower, The Stand, et al. I was in the military in the late 80's, early 90's and when in flight I took the "Novellas" such as Night Shift, and Four Past midnight for the trips. I sometimes doubled up with Dean Koontz and decided I would love the two to mix efforts. I found no other writer builds the world for the reader better than Mr. King, like a Opera it crescendo's into a peak, but I felt many times the end seemed to let me down(IT, The Stand, GunSlinger) Koontz, I felt made an awesome ending but not enough depth in the novel(Try reading The Dark Half the same time as Koontz's The Bad Place) although the authors at that time were a bit different in genre I loved them both!
I'd say start with It and then read 11/22/63. That's a two-book commitment and it will give you an indication of how King's books interrelate.They're both fantastic books, too.
Personally, I'm a fan of everything of his up to 'Misery.' After that, things start to trail off. 'Desperation', 'Tommyknockers', 'Rose Madder', 'Insomnia', etc. aren't terrible, but they pale in comparison to his earlier work. For me, he had something or a resurgence around 'Bag of Bones'. 'Dreamcatcher' was a bit of a duffer, but 'Duma Key', 'Under the Dome', and '11/22/63' are top notch.
Isaac, I would say that if you've ever read and enjoyed Robert McCammon's Boy's Life, you'll probably love Stephen King's It.
I am not a huge Stephen King fan but I do love some of his books. I didn't like the Darktower series although I did read three of them.If you want something small to start off with try The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon or LT's Theory of Pets. Dome was a really good book so I suggest trying it on audio if you don't want to read a tome LOL. Unfortunately King is wordy although you don't really mind because he puts you in the world thoroughly. Bag of Bones was another I loved. I like later Stephen King rather than really scary Stephen King.
Start with these two and see how you like his style.* The Shining
* Salem's Lot
Personally I'm a big fan of the Dark Tower series but you shouldn't start there until you get a feel for King's writing.
I actually would recommend the Running Man. Very underrated and fun, aggressive sci-fi. Nothing like the Arnold cinematic abortion that was shat out later.
Am I the only one who loved Firestarter? It is one of the few books I have read more than once. I also highly recommend 11/22/63. It's very well done.
I just simplify things and read in order of publication - starting with Carrie (most of the movies based on Kings work are pretty bad but after reading Carrie watch the film which is very good. Brian DePalma's not the shitty remake). Though when you hit the first book in series follow it with the next book i.e. The Talismen followed by Blackhouse - All the Dark Tower books (you can intersperse the side stories or read them later - Low Men in Yellow Coats etc.
I agree with those who are recommending his short story collections to really get a feel for his work. Skeleton Crew and Night Shift were great. Although I enjoyed his most recent collection of novellas (Full Dark, No Stars) I don't know if I'd recommend it as a starting point.
I love the Dark Tower series. I think the books are among King's best. Also I recommend Salem's Lot and Insomnia as two of the characters in the Dark Tower series appear there too. I also liked It and the Stand a lot. The Shining is also very good, although I couldn't finish it because I was really scared...
NOT Insomnia. It was my mistake to try that book first. In my review, I asked your same question, and got some great suggestions. I'd personally second The Dark Tower or The Stand, but I haven't read all of it.
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I enjoyed Insomnia, but I'd read a bunch of King before reading it.
I also liked Insomnia a lot and it was the second King book I had read. My first was The Tommyknockers, which is good but not one of his best.
Isaac wrote: "Darren wrote: "What did you wind up choosing, Isaac?"I think I'll be ordering Salem's Lot from Amazon as it seems to be liked fairly universally."
Good choice. I don't think it's his best book but it's a great place to start (without biting off a 800 page doorstop) to give you an idea on if you like his writing (style).
Let everyone know what you think
Jenny wrote: "NOT Insomnia. It was my mistake to try that book first. In my review, I asked your same question, and got some great suggestions. I'd personally second The Dark Tower or The Stand, but I haven't re..."Yeah. Though Insomnia is a decent book you need to have read some of the Dark Tower stuff first to understand it.
Rob wrote: "Jenny wrote: "NOT Insomnia. It was my mistake to try that book first. In my review, I asked your same question, and got some great suggestions. I'd personally second The Dark Tower or The Stand, bu..."I think Insomnia was written when his addictions had really gotten the best of him. I wouldn't choose that as a first read, either.
Isaac wrote: "Okay, so I've really been wanting to get into Stephen King, I got the book "The Dome" ..."I'm not being a pedant (honest!) but I want to point out that it's called "Under the Dome" not "The Dome". I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the book is far more about what happens to people living under the dome than the mystery of the dome itself (where it came from etc). The later is dealt with eventually but 95% of the book doesn't really concern it.
Paul wrote: "Isaac wrote: "Okay, so I've really been wanting to get into Stephen King, I got the book "The Dome" ..."I'm not being a pedant (honest!) but I want to point out that it's called "Under the Dome" ..."
That is the same way in 11/22/63, where King built up the main character, which is about 65% of the book, which to me is the reason I did not care for it.
Totally forgot, Duma Key was a most excellent read, anyone new to Steven King that does not want to get started in the "dark man" series that invades many many of his novels then Read Duma Key, Salems Lot, Christine, and then the rest. But I would go older before the newer stuff like Rose Madder or the Stand right off. You will miss much of his genius!
I want to echo the sentiment of many people who recommend 'Salem's Lot and the novelas. I would suggest the writing in 'Salem's Lot has many flaws but the story is highly compelling. As King says in On Writing - a good story will carry bad writing a lot further than good writing will carry a bad story.
'Salem's Lot is the only book I have ever felt compelled to read in one sitting. At midnight, I was about one-third done and felt there was no way I could go to bed without resolution.
That stated, many of the early stand-alones are a good introduction to King and are a lot of fun.
If you are interested in writing, do be sure to pick up On Writing; it is excellent.
I started with The Shining then The Green Mile. I find it hard to get into King's novels for some reason but with the two I read, once I did get into them, I really enjoyed them. My mum has read everything by King I think.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Green Mile (other topics)The Shining (other topics)
11/22/63 (other topics)
The Shining (other topics)
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The Shining is good too.
My favorite of his books is On Writing.