Stephen King books. What is your fav? [Archive]

Immortal Goat

Jun 15th, 2003, 11:37 PM

I can't really decide mine. I really like "Salem's Lot", "The Shining", "Needful Things", and "IT", to name a few, but I want to know what you think are the best so I can get new reading ideas.

Grazzt

Jun 15th, 2003, 11:59 PM

The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass and The Tommyknockers.

Cap'n Crunch

Jun 16th, 2003, 12:01 AM

I attemped to read IT once, but I don't usually read. I only read when I have to. I got to page 19 and I stopped. I winded up watching the movie.

Generator86

Jun 16th, 2003, 05:44 PM

IT the miniseries was horrible compared to the book.

IT is probably my favourite, due to nostalgia(first book of his I ever read). Other than that, my faves are the short story collections.

Oh, and stay the fuck away from Insomnia, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and Rose Madder, unless you really, really need to get to sleep.

kellychaos

Jun 17th, 2003, 11:55 AM

If you literally mean book, which includes his collections of short stories, then I would go with Different Seasons. If you meant a novel, then The Talisman (with Peter Straub).

Jun 17th, 2003, 03:33 PM

Bah. I liked Insomnia and Rose Madder, long-winded as they may be. My favorites are Bag of Bones, Misery and the Gunslinger, though.

Generator86

Jun 23rd, 2003, 08:32 PM

In terms of short stories, I'm going to have to go with "The Boogeyman". I was ten when I first read that, and Jesus fuck! It scared the living shit out of me. I'm not exactly sure why, looking back. :/

Also, are the Dark Tower books worth reading? I only got about two chapters in on the first one when it came out, and I got bored. But since a lot of people are considering them to be his greatest achievement or whatever, I'm starting to get somewhat curious.

Just looking for opinions.

Protoclown

Jun 23rd, 2003, 08:38 PM

The Eyes of the Dragon.

(it's the only one i've read :tear)

Esuohlim

Jun 23rd, 2003, 08:52 PM

Different Seasons (more specifically, the Body).

Jun 24th, 2003, 04:54 AM

Also, are the Dark Tower books worth reading? I only got about two chapters in on the first one when it came out, and I got bored. But since a lot of people are considering them to be his greatest achievement or whatever, I'm starting to get somewhat curious.

Well, depends what you're into. They're completely different from his other work, in my opinion. The first one probably stands off the most, because he wrote it long before the rest of the series. To me the characters seem to behave a bit differently than later on, and King seemed to be writing more of an excerpt from a longer story than a standalone one. Anyway, there's supposed to be a revised version of the Gunslinger coming out soon, which is brought more in line with the rest of the series. You might want to try that.

Daphne

Jun 24th, 2003, 09:44 AM

Different Seasons, The Stand (fucking amazing book) The Shining, Eyes of the Dragon, It.

I like Stephen King, but I keep hearing his newer books are poopy, so I'm afraid to read them.

kellychaos

Jun 24th, 2003, 11:56 AM

I like Stephen King, but I keep hearing his newer books are poopy, so I'm afraid to read them.

I wish you'd quit throwin' those fancy, schmancy literary terms around.

Jun 24th, 2003, 03:35 PM

For a while I thought King's new work was getting worse too, but there's just a number of titles throughout his career that are crappy. Books like From A Buick 8 or the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, I just don't check out because the concept seems asinine to me. For recent titles, I thought Black House, Everything's Eventual and Hearts in Atlantis were pretty good.

Generator86

Jun 24th, 2003, 03:41 PM

Everything's Eventual was great.

I'll check out the revised Gunslinger when it comes out, most likely. Thanks.

kellychaos

Jun 25th, 2003, 10:05 AM

Everything's Eventual was great.

I'll check out the revised Gunslinger when it comes out, most likely. Thanks.

I was only half-listening to the "Today" show interview. So those were revisions and not additions to the series? I've been meaning to start the series as I'm a fan of most of King's work although I understand this series falls more into the fantasy genre. That's really not a concern to me as I get into just about any genre of nonfiction, most noticably excepting romance, as long as the writing is good.

Jun 25th, 2003, 02:50 PM

From StephenKing.com (http://www.stephenking.com):

Stephen's Rewritten the Gunslinger
To bring the language up to date, and the style in line with the style of the other Dark Tower volumes, Stephen's rewritten The Gunslinger. The new version, available in June 2003, will also be released in audiobook format.

It's probably available already. I think I'll check it out myself, it's a pretty thin book and (in its original form) it's my favorite book of the series. Dark Tower 5 is set for November, right now, and then two more books will follow to conclude the series.

The Dark Tower series are kind of a weird mixture of fantasy, westerns, sci-fi and regular King. The main character is sort of a cowboy/knight from another world that is both post-apocalyptic and like human Middle Ages, but he later gets help from people from various time periods of "our" world.

Husker Jew

Jun 26th, 2003, 11:35 AM

What about the Bachman Books?

Spectre X

Jun 27th, 2003, 11:02 AM

The Stand, first book of his I've read, and the Running Man, second book I've read.

gonna try and pick up an English copy of IT somewhere.

Protoclown

Jun 27th, 2003, 12:04 PM

kellychaos

Jun 27th, 2003, 12:18 PM

I thought Steven King announced that he was retiring a year or so ago? :confused

I don't understand why anyone that full of creativity would ever retire. As long as the ideas keep coming, keep on writing, I say.

My facts might be a little off but during the interview, King said that his illness recently really awakened him to the realization of how fragile/short life could be and was the catalyst in his working so hard on the revision and conclusion of his "Gunslinger" series ... sort of a "car pae diem" kind of thing.

Jun 27th, 2003, 01:57 PM

I don't think he every literally said he'd be retiring, it's more that journalists took his words out of context. He has said though that the Dark Tower is kind of his magnum opus, and when it's done he'll probably be cutting back on his writing more... Plus he's got some illness that's deteriorating his eyesight to -I think- the point of eventual blindness. I can't imagine that'll help his writing career.

I don't really see how a writer could choose to retire, either. Maybe you run out of ideas for a while, but there's no telling what may come in the future.

The_voice_of_reason

Jun 27th, 2003, 02:40 PM

My favorite King book is Firestarter but I've only read that and Hearts in Atlantis

Immortal Goat

Jul 2nd, 2003, 07:49 PM

What about the Bachman Books?

Not that great. I read only one of the stories in it, and it was about a kid that brought a gun to school, killed his teacher, and told his life's story to his classmates. Decent, but not King-worthy.

IdiotSavant

Jul 10th, 2003, 12:17 AM

If you got some spare time (make that lots of spare time) I suggest the Director's Cut of The Stand. Incredibly depressing, and a bit long-winded, but one of my favorite books of anyone, let alone King.

If your not into the whole apocalypse thing, The Green Mile or any of the Gunslinger series are both good.

One quick question: didn't he once write that he planned on never finishing the Dark Tower saga? I think it's in one of the "message from the author" things in one of the books.

Daphne

Jul 10th, 2003, 09:35 AM

crash0814

Jul 11th, 2003, 06:04 AM

IT is my favorite, but runners up would be The Stand, Needful Things, and The Long Walk (this has got to be the most disturbing book I've ever read).

IdiotSavant

Jul 11th, 2003, 04:37 PM

If you got some spare time (make that lots of spare time) I suggest the Director's Cut of The Stand. Incredibly depressing, and a bit long-winded, but one of my favorite books of anyone, let alone King.

Oh, so they have directors for books now? Idiot.

Only for The Stand. The original version cut somewhere from 200-300 pages out of the book, and they're back in the DC. Mostly in the parts about Trashcan Man.

Daphne

Jul 11th, 2003, 04:48 PM

holy jesus are you really that stupid?

Books don't HAVE directors, they have WRITERS and EDITORS what you're talking about is the UNABRIDGED version of the story. Directors cuts are for MOVIES.

So far I'm not seeing any Savant.

IdiotSavant

Jul 11th, 2003, 05:52 PM

The title of the damn book is The Stand: Director's Cut. Not Author's Cut, Director's Cut! I don't know why they called it that; they just did.

Daphne

Jul 11th, 2003, 10:04 PM

they didn't, they called it the UN-CUT edition.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451169530/qid=1057976505/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-2167018-2140925

jewishcarpenter

Jul 15th, 2003, 06:13 AM

The Eyes of the Dragon
and a close second would be The Stand (the uncircumcised edition) the book is about a sixteenth of an inch longer.

Daphne

Jul 15th, 2003, 09:38 AM

:lol

that was just plain clever.

Generator86

Jul 16th, 2003, 10:22 PM

Okay, I finished the Dark Tower books about two, three weeks ago, and I just don't see the big deal about them. I mean, yeah, parts are interesting and everything, but, aside from Drawing of the Three, they were just plain boring.

And don't even get me started on Roland's love interest, whatever the fuck her name was(already forgot it). I had no sympathy for her whatsoever.