If I were to tackle my first ever Stephen King, what would you recommend?

[Old Time Tales]

As an intro to King I always recommend Salem's Lot. It has all the elements of King's best features. It revolves around kids, all the best King books have kids as central characters. It introduces us to the Derry area, which is the heart and soul of King fiction. And it'll scare the piss out of you. I still make sure I turn on the light and make sure the stairs are all there when I go into the basement.

Cheers!

[WILLIAM]

The Stand

[Ben]

My first King book was IT. The book is great.

[Sarah]

The Long Walk!! If you can find a copy it will certainly stick in your brain forever!! What a plot.

If you feel like a super fat book then try The Tommyknockers.. it was one of the first books I read by King and I was hooked. Lots of bizarre things in there. I first read it as a teenager. Have read it a few times since then too.

[Sarah]

Morgan wrote: "This is semi relevant. I wanted to finally read Stephen King, picked Dark Tower, and felt like I didn't know how to read a book. I had zero clue what was going on. I Googled a section just to see a..."

Dark Tower is the last book in a 7 book series.. that is why you were confused. It's like watching the final Harry Potter movie without seeing any of the previous ones...

Try reading The Tommyknockers The
Tommyknockers as it's a stand alone book..

[Arielle]

I'm not into horror and I've only read Different Seasons (four novellas in one) by Stephen King, but I highly recommend it!

[Tim]

The beginning, Carrie.

[Jessica]

Honestly I would start with Fairytale, it’s more recent but it’s some of his best! Either that or Misery.

[Mandy]

Misery, The Shining, Salem's Lot or even Firestarter.

[Karen]

Salem's Lot. It's a very creepy, slow build Southern gothic based around the idea of what if Dracula came to a small out of the way town in the South and slowly took it over. Compelling characters, King's usual tragedy, absolutely iconic piece of the vampire genre. If you watch the series do the 70s version, it's closer to the book and much better.

[Becca]

my first Stephen King book is going to be fairy tale

[Georgia]

Pet Sematary. The descriptions of the family and neighbor are relatable. The weird stuff hits like a lightning bolt.

[Judith Speed]

Georgia wrote: "Pet Sematary. The descriptions of the family and neighbor are relatable. The weird stuff hits like a lightning bolt."

It’s also, in my opinion, the scariest book he’s ever written. I think he even scared himself.

[Nemdemae]

I started with pet semetary. I loved it. Definitely helps if you’ve watched the movie (imo). Its not super long, the plot moves along fairly well, it gets you into his writing. I think even Joe Hill books get you into Stephen’s writing just because they have such similar styles and Joe’s books are typically shorter. They have a couple books they both wrote together.

[Julie]

Gwendy’s Button Box. I rated it five stars. It was the first Stephen King book I’ve ever read. Since then, I’ve read about three more. They’re always very interesting. And they’re not all scary like some of his books that have turned into movies. I’m not really into scary things so this one was perfect.

[Nathaniel]

There is a very short Stephen King, which is semi representative of his work The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

Fairytale is a lovely rec, it is a self-contained story. But its long-ish.

The trouble with my recommendation is its very of a moment at the turn of the century, and a google search to figure out who Mr. King talking about. But the story is fine.

[becs]

I just finished reading 'the institute' by SK and it was reallyy good!!

[Jane]

The first SK book i ever read was Christine and many many years on it remains my favourite purely because it introduced me to his work. In terms of his best book then it has to be The Stand although perhaps a bit long for an introduction. In terms of his recent works then Billy Summers is my favourite.

[paddy]

The talisman , Buick 8 or needless things are my favourite King books

[Jonica]

Misery, The Shining, or It

[Stephanie]

The Stand is the quintessential classic of his that I'd recommend. I've been a fan of his since I read Thinner, which is also very good, but The Stand will be still making "The Best Horror of All Time" lists long after I exit from the world. I'm 57 and I've been reading King's work since I was 14, hard to believe! 😅

[Rob]

The Stand. By far my favorite King book. Followed by Needful Things ans Eye Of The Dragon.

[Rob]

Jane wrote: "The first SK book i ever read was Christine and many many years on it remains my favourite purely because it introduced me to his work. In terms of his best book then it has to be The Stand althoug..."

Billy Summers imo is where he fell off. Politics messed up his writing.

[Katlyn]

that would depend on how scared you want to feel while reading
if you want all the creepy feelings start with
if you want a more tamer book start with

[Trina]

I would start off with his classic work, Christine or Carrie. They both aren’t too gorey or scary.

[Trevin]

I'd start off with one of the collections of short stories - if you want to tackle a novel, you can always do so, but his short fiction is where his writing talent truly shines.

[sarah]

For me it is SALEMS LOT

[evlove]

@Morgan dark tower was my least favorite by him by far 😭 except book two was pretty good. Geralds game is superior to all ive read so far!!

[Karen]

His best book ever imo was Bag of Bones. Then it would be "It" or "Delores Claiborne".

[Stevie]

Such a good question! I’m intrigued and will definitely be taking recommendations here too.

[Janereads10]

I’d recommend Pet Sematary

[Wyetha]

becs wrote: "I just finished reading 'the institute' by SK and it was reallyy good!!"

indeed 👍🏽

[Annemarie]

I'd recommend Carrie