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What's the best Stephen King Book?

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What's the best Stephen King Book? - 16/9/2008 11:37:08 AM   
Fluke Skywalker


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 I've just read a Stephen King book for the first time in years and thoroughly enjoyed it (Cell). The books of his I've read are the first part of the Dark Tower series, Firestarter, Cujo and Carrie but want to jump straight into another great one without messing about.

I was thinking the Stand but what do others reckon
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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 16/9/2008 12:15:55 PM   
CORLEONE


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 Salem's Lot is my favourite. Enjoyed The Dark Half too.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 16/9/2008 12:21:39 PM   
Angelus


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quote:

ORIGINAL: CORLEONE

Salem's Lot is my favourite.


Same here. Go for that one, The Stand or It.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 16/9/2008 12:50:50 PM   
chilipenguin


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 The Stand is awesome but I really like Needful Things. Well worth a read. I also quite like Tommyknockers but its to everyone's tastes.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 16/9/2008 1:14:37 PM   
Fanboyslayer


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quote:

ORIGINAL: chilipenguin

The Stand is awesome but I really like Needful Things. Well worth a read. I also quite like Tommyknockers but its to everyone's tastes.


Yeah I love Needful things as well can certainly recommend that one. My favourite would probably be Dolores Claiborne, don't let the crappy film put you off the book is fantastic. I also really enjoyed Geralds Game which was really scary.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 16/9/2008 3:15:40 PM   
Fluke Skywalker


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 I liked Dolores Claiborne the film! I might go for The Stand, the rebooted to 1990 version

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 16/9/2008 3:29:37 PM   
Hobbitonlass


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 IT, Needful Things, Christine, Carrie and Night Shift all rate highly on my list but there are just so many to choose from 

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 17/9/2008 10:45:37 PM   
richCie


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 i aint read a whole lot, i got bored of him pretty quickly, and tbh he's rubbish at endings...
only one i was really happy with was Salem's Lot so try that.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 18/9/2008 8:53:19 PM   
evil bill


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 DEAD ZONE for me just loved it but for a great fright and can't put it down ending Pet Semetery.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 19/9/2008 4:34:37 PM   
Lazy wolf eyes


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 Misery for me.  He tends to waffle so much in many of his other books.  

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 2/10/2008 8:40:55 AM   
From_Hell


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 Try some of his earlier books like Carrie, Thinner, Cujo or Pet Cemetary...... These books are slightly shorter and tighter than his 800+ page marathons. They've all got decent endings too, because as someone noted above, he's great with the build-up and sometimes not so good at pulling off a satisfying ending.
 
From his more recent output, I thought Geralds Game and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon were both pretty good.



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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 2/10/2008 4:22:24 PM   
BigKovacs


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 The Running Man, half the waffle, double the tension.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 2/10/2008 9:53:36 PM   
Lazy wolf eyes


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quote:

ORIGINAL: From_Hell

Try some of his earlier books like Carrie, Thinner, Cujo or Pet Cemetary...... These books are slightly shorter and tighter than his 800+ page marathons. They've all got decent endings too, because as someone noted above, he's great with the build-up and sometimes not so good at pulling off a satisfying ending.
 
From his more recent output, I thought Geralds Game and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon were both pretty good.




I've read Carrie and Pet Cemetary and loved both. Haven't seen the others but I will check them out, thanks.


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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 3/10/2008 8:20:11 AM   
From_Hell


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quote:

ORIGINAL: BigKovacs

The Running Man, half the waffle, double the tension.

 
Agreed. And it's got a great ending!
 
I'm about 150 pages into the The Talsiman at the moment, but it hasn't gripped me at all yet. I hope it gets better soon, else I might well ditch it.......

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 3/10/2008 6:13:49 PM   
Baby Bear


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 Salems Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Carrie, Pet Cemetary, Christine, Needful Things, Dark Half and Dolores Claibourne. After that things get a bit muddy.........

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 4/10/2008 12:26:34 AM   
Funkyrae


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 I'll echo what most people have said above, but I have to admit to a bit of a special place in my heart for Eyes of the Dragon.  It's not his usual fare, it's quite a departure, but it's very good.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 4/10/2008 5:31:03 AM   
Squidward Hark Bugle


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 "It" is in my top 5 books ever, and is my favourite Stephen King book. Read it.

I still need to read The Stand.


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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 4/10/2008 9:59:26 AM   
Tech_Noir

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Squidward Hark Bugle

I still need to read The Stand.



Read it now!

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 4/10/2008 3:06:15 PM   
Rhubarb


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 Christine is my favorite.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 4/10/2008 9:01:13 PM   
b

 

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 depends what you're after - if you want none 'spooky stuff' then different seasons is possibly the best thing he's ever written. it's a book of novellas containing 'the body' (remade into stand by me), apt pupil, rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption and breathing lessons.

for more 'classic' king, then the stand's probably the way to go. the dark tower books are also worth checking out.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 9/10/2008 10:01:52 AM   
jonson


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quote:

ORIGINAL: b

depends what you're after - if you want none 'spooky stuff' then different seasons is possibly the best thing he's ever written. it's a book of novellas containing 'the body' (remade into stand by me), apt pupil, rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption and breathing lessons.


Yes, Different Seasons is brilliant, but try reading Shawshank without using the voice of Morgan Freeman. It's impossible

I've read all of his novels apart from the Dark Tower series (which I keep menaing to) and IT is without doubt one of the best horror books written.
Nostalgic, thrilling, funny and goddamn scary in places, it's his best book IMO. It's a long read but well worth it.


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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 9/10/2008 1:11:23 PM   
sharkboy


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 Another vote here for Different Seasons - I always love that for a man so synonymous with the supernatural, only the story with the blatant supernatural elements hasn't made it to celluloid!

I'd always had a start/stop affair with Dark Tower - I got the first 2 from a bookclub just after they were published, the 3rd shortly after, the fourth a few years after that, then gave up waiting for the rest.  Then a couple of years ago I came across the complete set in a 2nd hand bookshop for a tenner.  I read them one after another and they're now close to my favourite King work ever.  They're not without fault (book one is still a bit of a mess and there are too many attempts to weave other King worlds (including the real one) into the plot), but they're one hell of a read with a nicely satisfying ending.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 10/10/2008 4:36:44 PM   
b

 

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 i was going to mention the dark tower (like jonson i've read all of his stuff up to his last couple) but whilst the story's great, i found them a bit too lengthy for lengthy's sake - specifically wolves of the cella. he could probably have told the same story in about three books and it would have been just as good. saying that, the ending is terrific.

i'd also like to put a shout out for misery which i re-read recently and loved.

i think part of it all is your current taste in books; he's got such a varied back catalogue that you can really find something to suit what you're looking for.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 10/10/2008 10:02:38 PM   
Chris Smithee


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 I don't think his recent novels like Cell, Lisey's Story and Blaze have been as good as his earlier work. I like a lot of his books, but my current favorite is Bag of Bones.

< Message edited by Chris Smithee -- 10/10/2008 10:04:30 PM >

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 17/10/2008 1:18:58 PM   
kaner316


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 for a simple, to the point horror, you can't go too far wrong with Cujo. The Bachman Books collection is also excellent, containing not just The Running Man as mentioned above, but one of my favorite of his stories, The Long Walk. Also The Dark Half and The Dead Zone are good reads too.

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 26/10/2008 12:03:05 PM   
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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 2/12/2008 7:59:14 AM   
scarface666brooksy!!


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 My Top 3
3. Insomnia
2. Salem's Lot
1. The Shining

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 2/12/2008 2:31:18 PM   
James74


Posts: 4314
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 1. It
2. The Stand
3. Carrie

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 9/12/2008 7:32:58 AM   
The Intimidating Eye


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 Just got into the wonderful world of king
so far i've only read;

Misery (which i thought was a cracking peice of psycological terror. In only allowing just two people into the novel, king has really been able to build upon the characters. Very descriptive and well written, this is defintley in my top 100 books of all time)

At the moment i'm reading Pet Semetary. I'm just about halfway through now i think (almost 200 pages in) and so far it's fucking fantastic. Once again astonishing characters, although there could be a bit more depth into them as i can't really relate to them too well as i could the characters in misery. It deals with a very powerful issue and is very well written, so so far so good =D

The one questian i wanted to ask though is what one shall i read next. I wanted to read his shorter ones first, before i read the likes of it and The Stand
I was thinking of maybe Salems Lot or Cujo or The Shining but what do you think i should read first. I was thinking maybe thinner or here there be tygers but i'm not sure

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RE: What's the best Stephen King Book? - 9/12/2008 1:32:29 PM   
dark crystal


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 If you didn't want to tackle a huge novel right away, you could try a short story collection such as the Richard Bachman books, which includes my favourite 'The Long Walk'. A ripping yarn, that.

Or another of my favourite short story collections, Four Past Midnight, which includes 'The Langoliers' and 'Secret Window, Secret Garden'.

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