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is there any steven king fans here? if so how many of his books have you read,which one is your favorite?

I think the stand or misery would be my favorite..Ive read about 10 of his books...truly a horror master

I don't really like horror books or films but I'm reading his Dark Tower books and they're really good.

yea i really like his books. my fav is Pet Cemetary. It was also good.

my mom bought me the dark tower IV~wizard and glass,but since I didnt read the other books in the series i thought i best wait...maybe I need to crack that one open

I read a few..The Green Mile, The Shining & Dreamcatcher and THe Shining is the best one i'd read by Stephen King

The shining novel was great.
the SHining movie was great.

agreed!

not as good as the Simpsons Shin-ing

lol

night shift was good. lots of good short stories for the reader on the run....(maximum over drive and the cats eye movie was from this)

I've read 2 of them: didn't like either of them

which were they? the only thing that bugs me sometimes about s.k. is that sometimes he draws out some pretty boring thing like if someones creeping through a door it can take 2 pages..that annoys me..but besides that I love him

I've read most of his work, my faves are The Dark Half, Desperation and Bag of Bones.

V.good.

Ive only read 1 so far i think it was called "The girl who loved Tom Gordon" It was okay. My sister gave me it to read cos she said it was a good one to start off on when you start reading Stephen King books.

Thinner and Dreamcatcher. I think I might wat to read The Stand, by BKK's suggestion

yay! its really good, the best of his work in my opinion...if you read it let me know if you liked it or not...hope you love it really

Will do

i loove his books!!!
the shining,girl who loved tom gordon,christine,CARRIE!! SALEM'S LOT!!!!oh damn ive read sooo many more i can't rem. all..oh the tommyknockers too!!um...i'll be back when my memory decides to work again...

i loove his short stories too,like "the mangler"!!!!!!!!!

thats in night shift how could I forget..awesome!

Can you reccomend a good Stephen King book, i wanna read one.

just don't read Thinner or Dreamcatcher, neither are very good at all

I agree with lord soth here...I always would recommend The Stand but its a big undertaking but hell of a good story...short stories Id recommend Night Shift (maximum over drive is in this) Misery was excellent also!

okies i think my sister has the stand

I thought Misery was pretty boring, although I was quite young when I read it.

How about The Dark Half or Desperation, both of those are truly class.

I havent read either of those books mech...now you have given me more ideas to some great recommended books..my list is getting long!

I'm suprised you have time to read, with all those world domination plans you have going too.

You'd be surprised how much you can get done when you schedule your day out, even w/ world domination plans

i'd love to get into the dark tower series, but being a writer, you don't have much time to read, because you're always writing!

I once thought I wanted to be a writer, but it was a ruse. I'm better suited for directing

yea I havent read as much as Id like too lately.building my empire of evil is more time consuming than I thought...I hope I can pick up some books this weekend..a little s.k. and little dragon lance a little harry potter and..oh my I better put my costume away for awhile.

You'll love the DragonLance, I guarantee it

I keep saying BKK, I'll be happy to be your evil sidekick if the workload is too much for you.

*throws moggy a cape and some extra tight spandex* to the kat kave!

ps~someone left the dark half at my job(which I..um..borrowed)...its a sign!

Yoink!

Oooh, this spandex doesn't leave much to the imagination.

...um...I'll look in my kat apparel for some more comfortable attire. *meow*

AGGH!!! I don't like hardback books, so I need to wait a year for The Dark Tower Book 5 AGGH!!!

the first book of his i read was rose madder which i thought was cool but a little trippy for his short storys i gotta go for nightmares and dreamscapes ( i actully got one of the little gargoyles from the cover tattoed on my back its so cute) but i also liked insomnia

Insomnia was pretty good, I read that only holiday this year.

I havent read that many books of his.Unlike Dean Koontz,I think he takes his books too far over the line when it comes to murders.Dean koontz has crossed the line a few times himself but not as many times as King has.But Christine is MY favorite novel of his.Not only is it my favorite novel of his,its my favorite novel period.

I've read Kujo, Pet Semetary(the first one), Hearts in Atlantis, (currently reading) Dark Tales(one that came out a few years ago...a bunch of short stories), Firestarter, I made it through 1/2 of It and my FAVORITE was Needful Things(or Pet Semetary).

I've been reading these books since 5th grade!!! I love them!

I just finished Dead Zone and I am starting on Firestarter.

I have read just about all of his stuff. I am a true Dark Tower Junkie.
He's freekin brilliant.
My fav is definatly It tho

this is the first time that i've read a stephen king novel. right now i'm reading secret window, secret garden within four past midnight. i wanted to read that novella ever since i saw the movie, to compare. there are words that i don't know the meaning of. this is the first time i bothered to read an adult level book instead of a bunch of fantasy stuff. i like the book so far, the way king describes human emotions, what people look like, and the twisted, dark side to man. when i saw it at tower records, i was surprised to learn that the book was long and a collection. plus, there was other good books by him that i saw, like the dead zone. isn't there a show on usa called the dead zone and that it's based off of his book?

For the last year, I did a lot of reading. I started out on Stephen King's book, MISERY, and man, I have to say..it hooked me. I could not put the book down, I read at least 60 pages a night. I finished the 338 page book in about a week, six days to be exact. Most of the pages were read at late night hours, I suffer from on-and-off again insomnia. So in stead of watching some cheap re-runs, I dove n2 the book. A great time passer, its a hell lot better than counting sheep, thats 4 damn sure. So my question is to the Stephen King Fans, if theres any in this Book Discussion thread. Whats your favorite story, I love all. Also,remember, if you want to bash the movies then go to the movie thread, I dislike the thrash talking without a legit address. It's all about the books. Pages not scenes. Books like: towers, cycle of the wolf, fire starter, cujo, pet cemetery, dreamcatcher, needful things, green mile, bag of bones, shining, Dolores claiborne..etc. please, any KING fan is my fan, too.

I've read his story collection Everything's Eventual, and 'Salem's Lot. Right now I'm very close to finished the Dark Half, and when I finish that, I plan to get The Tommyknockers from the library.

His book that I want to read more than enything else he's written is The Stand. I've seen reviews on it, and it makes me want to read it just looking at them. The only problem is the Library here doesn't have it.

I didn't know much about SK until I had to do a project in school about one month ago, and after that, I've been trying to find all the books I can of his to read.

Cool! I just finished "everythings eventual" ,too. My favoite story is, road virus, lucky quarter, man in black suit, basically the whole book. everystory has it's own brand of horror. the book that everyone wants to read, especially me is the towers series. It's good that you read, and I hope you got a good grade. STEPHEN KING HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST AUTHORS OF OUR TIME.

Did you read the Towers series?

i'm sorry, but no. i'm still young, and i know i'll turn those pages oneday. for now i'll read what inspires my mind. i've heard it was one of the best books to read. i know i'll have that book. i just know i will.

The Dark Tower books are AWESOME! I can't wait for book V to come out in paperback.

My faves are:-

The Dark Half
Desperation
Bag of Bones

Get going, Superman!! The tower series is great.

as fast as my hobbit feet can carry me. carry me to the book store. I want to read from the first book. i don't care if its a paperback. a paperback bestseller goes for 8 dollors, so i'm looking at 64 dollors to buy the whole paperback series. pretty smart, the only problem is that their not all out yet, are they? i went to stephen kings site and found alot of remarks and praise about the book. it has to be true. i know it just has to.

come one people, keep the thread going like that of a spider. speck what made you buy the book. spread the word about a great author, before we know it noone will ever pick up a book. i went to pick up my sick brother from school one day and i over heard a 14 year old kid say books suck. and i saw the book he held, it was a book by ERENEST HEMMINGWAY,"THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA". a man who killed himself, and the kid didn't know it. in a few decades books will become a forgotten art. so to keep them(the kids) interested we have to explain the truth. books don't suck they give intellect, imangination, and a arsenal of words. if this thread ends and i hope not, i'm going to start another one. knowledge is everything.

Aye. What Superman said.

What made me pick up the books was more of an interest in what kind of books he wrote. My english teacher said that SK was a master of his craft, and that everybody should read one of his books sometime. I hadn't read any of his books before, so I took one out of the school library, and after reading that one, I've been trying to read all of them that I can.

I finished The Dark Half last night, and it was a great read. Everyone should read that one. Especially if you know about Richard Bachman.

Today, I got assigned my novel for English, that I have to read by June. I got assigned The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. I can't wait to read it. It looks shorter than I expected to be.

I'll have to look for the next books in the series the next time that the SFBC order form comes in.

No, and there is a chance that the last ones'll never be published. King's not quite sure he'll ever be able to finish the story, as it's quite a mouthfull. But even then, buy them! The're great and you'll understand more about all his other books, as places and characters seem to pop up where you least expect it.

I finished The Gunslinger, and it was great, but a little bit hard to follow. I learned after I read it that it was a collection of novella's, not one whole story, so I will soon reread it with that in mind.

the last time i was at tower records, i really wanted to get "the gunslinger", but i had to put that on hold since i was already buying alot of things as it was. can't wait to get that book after i read "secret window, secret garden"!

I finished The Dark Half last night and it was really good. I now want to read more stephen king books because of it.

My fav Stephen King book is definatly IT, I think it's really scary, but the relationship between the kids is really touching, too. I hate it at the end when they all forget each other. I also really like Dolores Claiborne, it's written in a really unique way.

that gunslinger series is his most recent series right?

Is it just me, or does anybody here think Stephen Kings books are not that scary, gruesome?

I also think SK puts waaay too much character building in his books.

What do you guys think?

Some are pretty scary, so they say. I've only read a few, so I can't say for sure. The scariest one of the few I have read was 'Salem's Lot.

Yeah, I find he does put a lot of character building in his books. Have you ever read The Tommyknockers? There's so much character building in that one it's not funny. He could have taken at least 100 pages out and it still would have been good.

I guess you can call be a Stephen King fan, though I'm not obsessed like some people I know. Some people on another site I know are just too crazy about the Dark Tower series, but I don't see the attraction with it. I've read The Gunslinger. I thought it was okay, but not the greatest book Stephen King ever wrote. The Shining is my favorite. It was creepy, yet provocative at the same time.

He does. But sometimes that seems neccessary as he's introducing us to a very strange environment. He needs to convince us these people are in every way normal people, before facing them with macabre and supernatural elements. This balance between what's normal and believable and what's utterly stange and grotesque is what charactarizes him and makes his books so interesting.

Top 10 Favorites:

1. The Stand
2. Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
3. Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
4. Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
5. The Shining
6. Desperation
7. Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
8. Dark Tower II: Drawing of the Three
9. It
10. The Mist (from Skeleton Crew)

Currently reading: Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (It will be bumping The Mist off of this list, I guarantee)

What's the sand, desperation, and the mist about?

The Stand essentially revolves around a supervirus that wipes out most of the population. Two factions, one good and one evil, form up and ulitmately face off against each other to determine the fate of the remainder of humanity.

Desperation focuses on several people out in the deserts of Desperation, Nevada. Each is unfortunate enough to come across a rather psychotic state cop. As each try to stay alive, they start to uncover what has contributed to his madness, as well as the evil running rampant in the town. After reading this, you need to go and read The Regulators under King's pen name, Richard Bachman.

The Mist is the first "short" story in King's Skeleton Crew collection. It takes up about a third of the entire book... if you've ever seen the old horror flick The Fog, you should have a pretty good idea about what this is about. Essentially, a town is overrun by a thick fog, and creatures lurk about in it.

The Regulators isn't a western, is it? the mist sounds cool. i'll check that out next time i'm at tower

Regulators is not a western at all. It all takes place on one suburban street. It has to be read right after Desperation... you'll understand why once you do.

When looking for The Mist, make sure you're looking for Skeleton Crew.

i loved the shining

for 1st timers tho,i'd seriously not reccomend the stand or the other 'full fledged' books- it's for when you really get into the world of this guy - sometimes he just drags out too much and lays it on a bit thick in my opinion,so you might get bored too easily....
i'd suggest that 1st timers start with Carrie, or Pet Semetary,or maybe even The Shining

but The Mangler remains my fav short story he's written til today

The first one I read was 'Salem's Lot, and I thought it was a pretty good initiation book. It's a page turner, so you shouldn't have any trouble reading it.

Hey Master Wizard, you read Wolves of the Calla yet?

Not yet, but over the summer I plan on picking up a copy, along with book 6. I've read the first four.

IT scared me. And I've read tons of horror. Nothing shook me to the bone as much as that book.

King said recently that he's working on a new novel. He said the best thing about ''retiring'' is now he can take his time to write.

such irony

You'll appreciate having read 'Salem's Lot once you start into Wolves.

i agree

Misery was my favourite.Annie Wilkes was one psychotic fan.She was demonic.

Have you read any of the Gunslinger books, Ock?

the other stories within' "four past midnight" any of them good or any particular one that you guys liked the best?

I'm half way through The Stand, the Complete, Uncut, & Unabridged version. It's good.

I was going to get Wolves of the Calla a few weeks ago, but it was 50$! I got Song of Susannah for 25$. That doesn't make much sense, but it's the truth.

After The Stand I'm going to read Hearts in Atlantis.

Originally posted by MasterWizard
I'm half way through The Stand, the Complete, Uncut, & Unabridged version. It's good.

I was going to get Wolves of the Calla a few weeks ago, but it was 50$! I got Song of Susannah for 25$. That doesn't make much sense, but it's the truth.

Most likely because Song of Susannah is on the current best seller list, and Wolves has been out awhile.

"hearts in atlantis" was a stephen king novel? hey...wasn't there a movie called that with anthony hopkins in it?

Yup. But they based the film only on the first section of the book. Not a wise move.

WHAT THE HECK?! why did they do that! that's stupid!

Yes, it was. As much content as there was in Low Men in Yellow Coats, there was just too much left out by cutting it off there. It probably should never have been made into a movie. Miniseries, maybe... but I have never really found any of King's works ever to be made into miniseries format with too much success. I sure as hell hope that King doesn't grant anyone the rights to create a miniseries for the Dark Tower for fear of them cannibalizing it in the same vein as Hearts in Atlantis.

i was watching "kingdom hospital" earlier on abc, then checked for that title within' a list of books that king has written, but it wasn't there. either that book's list is a bit old or he just wrote that stuff for the tv show.

No, Kingdom Hospital is an original regular series... not based on any of his novels. Kind of like what Storm of the Century and Rose Red were, only extended out as a normal prime time television series instead of miniseries.

Hearts in atlantis wasnt a bad movie. Infact i enjoyed it alot. Granted the book is far better, but doing a faithfull adaptation would have been farfetched and and quite challenging. I mean hearts in atlantis is one of the only king movie adaptations that i enjoyed. atlantis is one my fav books by him aswell. One movie i think they should do is desperation. I think that would be a great movie, but i guess the regulators kills any chance of that.

What was everyones favorite miniseries of kings work? I think the only one i enjoyed was storm of the century, i loved that. I think every other one was terrible, the shining had to be the worst though.

I would agree that Storm of the Century was the best output as it was an original adaptation for television. Still have to go with the Stand as the worst miniseries being based on may favorite King novel and all. High expectations and bad acting/cast selection... not a good combination.

I've only seen 5 King movies adaption, and my favourite of them all was Needful Things. The others I seen are The Dark Half, Dreamcatcher, Misery, and Stand by Me.

I just finished The Stand, and it is by far his best work I have read. Better than The Dark Tower in my opinion.

The stand is better than which Dark Tower Wizard. Are you refering to the Gunslinger in particular? Any ways the only adaptation i've seen is the shining and Carrie.

The Stand is better than all of the Dark Tower novels combined, especially when you consider that the Dark Tower series draws a lot off of books such as The Stand and 'Salem's Lot. But the Dark Tower series has been an excellent epic series nonetheless.

Misery and Christine and a couple others I cant remember are the only STEPEHEN KING books I have read.Christine is not only my favorite stephen king novel of all time but its my favorite book of all time.Now that you have mentioned the shining,I think I might just rent that today.

i m currently reading DREAMCATCHER, i'm now starting on chapter 2, with Kurtz and Underhill, i plan on reading about 40 pages tonight.

I really enjoyed Needful Things. My 2nd fav out of all the SK movie adaptations. There are two versions: the 4 hr version and the 2 hr movie. My all-time fav is Storm of the Century.

is "hearts in atlantis" a collection of stories, but each story not about the same characters?

Bobby Garfield is the prominent character featured throughout each "subchapter" of the novel. Each story focuses on a different time, all of which have very strong references to the Vietnam war. This is why the film was such a terrible idea... while it looked at innocence lost during childhood, it completely removed the significance to the remainder of the book.

I don't think Bobby was prominent in all of the parts, but he was mentioned, either directly or indirectly, in all of them. How did part one reference Vietnam? In all the others the reference was out in the open, but part one took place before the war.

You're right. It was Carol from Low Men in Yellow Coats that is bridged over to the Hearts in Atlantis chapter. The third chapter was about the bully that beat up on Carol before Bobby stopped him back during their childhood. The last dealt with Bobby's childhood friend well after he returns from the Vietnam war. Coming back now...

one thing i cant figure out refering to king movies and book adaptations, is why they changed then ending of dreamcatcher, and It. Why would it have been so difficult to do those endings, i mean especially dreamcatcher, the movie was really good up untill the final ten minutes.

How did Dreamcather end in the book? I've only seen the movie.

Lets see, I've read:

Cujo (kinda crappy)
Sometimes They Come Back (the movie and book are awsome!)
The Shining (very scary but good.)
And I plan to read a few more, Stephen King's a psycho but a good writer.

yeah. i watched the movie last night. the story was confusing, couldn't figure out what was the deal with bobby's so called "gift", and why the fbi were after ted. poorly done movie, i say.

recently in book club for school, we voted on to read stephen king's "different seasons". we plan to read the first two short stories within that collection. i absolutely loved the movie of version of 'rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption' hope the novella is just as good. can anyone tell me if 'apt pupil', which is the short that comes after shawshank, is any good? i heard the first half of this book got good reviews...

The only two books I read from King was not that scary which is why I read them!THey are "Carrie" and "Misery" both are good.And when I have the time I would read them.JM

in salem's lot, or at least in the tnt tv movie, there was a very short scene that had a dog named "cujo". kind of funny that king later made a book with a dog of the same name.

when i saw the more recent cover for "different seasons", it said that 'apt pupil' was made into some tv movie...whose in it if it is?

Read em all and loved them all especially Christine and Cujo.

Carrie was okay, I've read books one and two of the Dark Tower series and they rock! Loved Christine, hated Cujo, also loved Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which is a collection of short stories by Steven King. I haven't read Misery, though, I kinda want to.

Stephen king has so much talent

Read Cujo on summer vacation this year. mmhmm the less said about that the better. Was gonna start the tommy knockers. thoughts?

did stephen king ever say how he got the idea for "cujo"? i'm wondering because there was this dog called cujo in salem's lot (the tnt movie)...

o.m.g. i hate s.k. i have the hell fear of the dark now and i don't stop reading his books do not read everythings eventual it is just freaky

I just finished Rose Madder... thought I would just say that -- and I loved it

Everythings eventual is my next book

while i'm on hiatus from reading the dead zone, i'm currently enjoying and recently started reading "rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption" for book club. love the book so far. comparing and contrasting it to the movie along the way. haven't gotten far in the novella. and surprised that it's such a short book.

I've read "It" and "The Stand." Both were good, but far too long. I'm hoping to start reading his Dark Tower series soon.

Ok, I'm not going to list all the ones I've read, for I've pretty much read all his old ones. My favourite one has to be Desperation! NOT the Regulators, (his attempt at making another story with somewhat the same plot). "Desperation" was definitely a pageturner!

i finished reading 'rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption' a couple of days ago and i loved it almost as much as the movie. i might read 'apt pupil' next. can't wait to show the movie in book club!

love his books the dark tower books are cool

im reading the green mile i saw the movie and the book is supposed to be even better so i thought i would give it a read

I've read 5 of them an Salem's Lot is my fave i love everything about
vampires.

I read Cujo when i was 13, i thought that it wasn't very good to be honest, and I've read quite a few more since then that have been better but still over-rated.
Cujo was ok, but the masturbation bit on the bed wierded me out seeing as I was 13.

Gotta love the King, Fave book os his is The Shining, read so may of his books already...all great ! soo WooOOooO

I've read Carrie and Cycle of the Werewolf. Two awesome books! I was disappointed by the movies when I saw them later.

After seeing Misery, I wanna check that book out.

salemslot, it, eye of the dragon (if my memory serves me) and the dark tower series are all excellent... sometimes king is a bit detail heavy but i like his style...

coolness

found out that cujo is a saint bernard in the book. man, why couldn't king have used a cooler looking dog? like a german shepard or something?

I read many books from Stephen King. And I think that Green Mile, Desperation, Shining, Cujo and Carry are the best!

Oh I love Stephen King... some of my favs were the Dark Tower Series I'm reading Nightmares and Dreamscapes right now.

I read Cujo, Carrie, and The Dead Zone. The Dead Zone was definetly the best.

Originally posted by RavenNightstar
Ok, I'm not going to list all the ones I've read, for I've pretty much read all his old ones. My favourite one has to be Desperation! NOT the Regulators, (his attempt at making another story with somewhat the same plot). "Desperation" was definitely a pageturner!

If you work your way through the Dark Tower series, you'll find that there was more to the Regulators. The carry-over of the names between the two novels is more than coincidence. Now reading back through King's (Bachman's) novels, the way he's tied his stories together is nothing short of incredible. Try reading through The Regulators again... and this time keep the Low Men in mind...

I guess I'll have to read Desperation then. I just finished the Talisman, and I thought it was good, tho it was pretty slow in the beginning.

Originally posted by BOPRecruit 16
found out that cujo is a saint bernard in the book. man, why couldn't king have used a cooler looking dog? like a german shepard or something?

its the cuteness factor...

yeah that makes a lot of sense....