Ye Olde Staging Point

IT is still my favorite King book. However, I think that The Stand and Wizard and Glass are close seconds. And then there are about 5-10 novels behind them that I'm very fond of as well. Included in this list is 'Insomnia', which I know peeved you a bit, Andy, but I thought it was a nice little DT tie-in.

Yeah, Insomnia annoyed me--almost enough that I'd like to re-read it to find out if it was really that bad, or if I was just in a terrible mood while reading it.

I think my favorite King books would probably be:

• It (the ultimate King novel--everything he has to say to the world is in there somewhere)
  
• The Stand
  
• the Dark Tower series
  
• Salem's Lot
  
• The Bachman Books
  
• Pet Sematary

Included there should also be his short story collections, which I have loved without exception (well, I haven't yet read all of Everything's Eventual.) There are a lot of other King books that I greatly enjoyed which would probably come pretty close to the above titles. I really like the non-fiction Danse Macabre as well.

My least favorite King novels:

• Rose Madder (by far the worst thing he has ever written, IMHO)
  
• Insomnia
  
• Tommyknockers

There are probably others, but those three stand out as having made me regret reading them. King's a really fun author, though--with so many "hits" you're bound to get a few "misses."

A bit of a dark horse candidate here, but... my favorite King book is On Writing. It's King's autobiographical account of the accident which crippled him and a 'taking stock' of his whole career. He comes off as a really humble guy with a good grip on his strengths and weaknesses as a writer and as a person. The only book of his that really connected with me on an emotional level.

Second up would be the The Stand.

If you ever want to be truly frightened, try counting the number of King movies you've seen. I did so and easily reached 20+, of which I actually enjoyed about four (The Shining, Cat's Eye, Creepshow and Misery).

You didn't like Shawshank or The Green Mile?

I forgot about The Shawshank Redemption. Add that one to the list. And Carrie and Stand By Me, come to think of it. Wow, I guess I actually like quite a few of his.

Unfortunately, my image of "Stephen King movie" is overshadowed by stinkers like Children of the Corn, Maximum Overdrive, Salem's Lot, The Lawnmower Man and The Tommyknockers.

Aw c'mon man, Children of the Corn rocks the hizzouse! Actually, I do kind of like that one, even if it's pretty campy.

Used to be that the only thing worse than a King movie was a King made-for-TV miniseries (cf. It). At least with the movies, things have been improving to the point where I won't write it off just because his name is associated with it.

Insomnia really was that dumb, I wouldn't waste more time in your life re-reading it. My favorites were The Stand, It, and the Dark Tower series (which seemed substantively different than his horror books). I've always thought the short story Rage would make a WONDERFUL movie, especially focusing on the psychological aspect. But after Columbine and all the rest, that will never happen. The Long Walk was another amazing story from The Bachman Books.

It seems like King hit a really bad streak there starting about 10 (?) years ago with Insomnia, Rose Madder, Dolores Claiborne, Gerald's Game (and an apparent love affair with strong (read: feminazi) women?)... I haven't gone back since. :-(

Apologies for lack of punctuation, I forgot I could use HTML. :-P

Peter, I agree in general about King's efforts over the last ten or so years--I felt he started slipping around the Insomnia period. Since then, I've made numerous attempts to read some of his more recent novels, but I'm just not enjoying them. In my opinion, he sort of peaked during the mid-to-late 80s and hasn't been as good since then. Even his good stuff since then hasn't touched his good stuff from earlier in his career.

I've often wondered whether it's me and my tastes that are changing, or if it's King and his writing style who are changing. I imagine it's some of both. I also have a sense that King has reached the point in his career where he's already said everything he really has to say. He had a lot to say earlier in his career about the nature of childhood, what scares us, and how to write a good old-fashioned story; he presented all those themes with great eloquence in his earlier works, especially It and a few others. But now, all his horror stuff just feels like a pale rehashing of earlier ideas, and his non-horror, more "literary" (if that terms works) stuff just doesn't resonate with me at all.

Ah well. There's enough good King stuff from his earlier years to keep me more than occupied should I ever wish to revisit the works that hooked me way back in the day. I plan on reading the final Dark Tower books when they're eventually released, but I doubt they're going to blow me away the way The Gunslinger did.

Pardon the rambling thoughts...

Great, now I have several more books to add to my eight foot tall pile, waiting to be read :-P My familiarity with King is sparse, but I absolutely devoured The Stand. It looks like the general consensus is that It and the Dark Tower series deserve attention first.

The Dark Tower series is Absolute Gold. I've read them probably a few dozen times apiece, and am eagerly awaiting the other two books in the series before King decides to retire (I don't know how many books left he has before he retires, I just know he's retiring soon). Up until about 1999, I read every stephen king (and Dean Koontz) book in existence (my parents, somewhat strict individuals back in the day [ mother is a schoolteacher, father a pastor] had no problems with me reading them - I think they figured that if I was reading, it was probably better than me out doing bad things, like firing my potato gun in residential areas). While there are some BAD ones, and many people write off Stephen King altogether (in some cases, they are correct) the Dark tower series demand a good read. So far, four books. Alan, I'll lend you mine. I like how the Dark Tower kind of ties into the Stand. Sort of. Alan, they aren't the intellectual or philosophical read you might be used to, but I find them most enthralling. I've modelled my online gaming persona after Roland and named myself "The Gunslinger" (as you might already know). Wow, that's nerdy.

Wow, I should have kept up with this conversation, it would have been a fun one to contribute more to.

I thought of another King book that I loved -- The Talisman. It's a collaboration with Peter Straub, but, let's face it, it's a King novel. Two words: parallel universe. It's an awesome story, and contains one of King's most frightening sequences ever.

Its sequel, Black House, released a year or so back, was a bit of a disappointment, but still very engaging. I'll probably read it again sometime soon.

As for the Dark Tower -- wow. There are three books left in the series, and I can't remember anticipating a book more than I am volume 5, Wolves of the Calla, due in November. I'd like to say that I'll re-read the first 4 before I read TWotC, but I know myself better than that.

Andy -- if you look at my 'current amusements' page, you'll note that I have finally tackled Rose Madder. I know how dear you hold this tome to your heart, so I'll be sure to let you know what I think. So far, I don't hate it.