Here's a list of my favorites from the long list of books he's written.
It -- In my opinion, this is Stephen King's best work. Gripping from beginning to end. The scary killer clown will haunt your dreams.
The Shining -- Brilliant from start to finish. Redrum!
The Dark Tower -- This series of fantasy novels is King's magnum opus, and I hope they manage to make a good live adaptation for film or television someday. I would also include his book Eyes of the Dragon in this series.
'Salem's Lot -- One of the best vampire stories ever told.
The Stand -- Epic, frightening, with characters I'll never forget.
Thinner -- Of all the books that King wrote under his alias Richard Bachman, this one is the most chilling.
The Talisman -- Written with Peter Straub, this is a great fantasy story that uses all the cliches of the genre in a fresh way. I still haven't read the sequel, Black House, but I plan to.
The Tommyknockers -- What happens when a long-buried UFO is unearthed? From the mind of Stephen King, you know there's going to be trouble.
Needful Things -- The Devil opens shop in a small town and the residents' deepest, darkest secrets are uncovered with tragic results.
Pet Sematary -- Spookier every time I read it.
His Short Story Collections -- King is known for his jumbo-sized novels, but his shorter tales are just as entertaining. My faves are Different Seasons, Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, and Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
His Non-Fiction Books -- I also loved his examination of the horror genre in Danse Macabre, his look at his chosen profession called On Writing, and his collection of essays and other short non-fiction in Secret Windows.
There are so many more. The Green Mile, Misery, Delores Claibourne, Dreamcatcher, Desperation, The Dark Half, Cycle of the Werewolf. And then there are the classics that I still haven't had the chance to read, like Carrie, Dead Zone, Cujo, and Christine.
Stephen King threatened that he wanted to retire, but luckily for fans everywhere he's continuing to share the tales from his imagination and hopefully will continue to do so for years to come.
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Comments
I was both flattered and dismayed. Flattered to be considered as odd as King is considered to be, but dismayed because I had never expressed an interest in his books. Sure I saw The Shining, Carrie, Christine, Cujo and a host of other King horror flicks all before I was even a teenager. But I did not know then that Stephen King was their author.
I read the books. And far too often was disappointed by 2 things. 1 - the repetition of the same ol' gag such as eye squirting and 2- the lack of an ending as if some evil person had torn out the last page from the book.
This is certainly and thankfully not the case in every one of his books, but I did find the no ending thing irksome. Today, I like Stephen King, but unfortunately I gave my entire hardback collection to my ex-husband who was a die-hard fan.
I think my own favorites (I never read the books in which I saw the movie first, so I can't list them as a favorite book here):
Insomnia - top of my list of large Stephen King novels
Here there be Tigers - an incredible journey through the creative imagination.
The Survivor Type, I actually hated, but only because it was so well written. So well written that it turned my usually cast iron stomach to the verge of puking.
M-O-O-N. That spells Halloween! (Tom Cullen)