How does everyone feel about Stephen King?

Steven King, at his best, is the greatest American novelist of his generation. His character building is unsurpassed and he can definitely turn a phrase. On the other hand, a lot of his books would have benefited from more aggressive editing and he doesn't always stick his landings. That being said, he's been a fixture in my library for decades.

I'm glad to see others recommend 11/22/63, which IMHO is the best "modern" King novel (and maybe his best ever). For less well known books, I read Duma Key recently and liked it a lot. I know it's been mentioned before, The Talsiman is one of my all-time favorite books.

He's written some of my favourite books. I'm a big fan of the Dark Tower Books, a brilliant book series and complete which is a big plus. Under the dome is also a great read, shame about the TV series. Haven't read any of his most well known works though!

I have been through just about everything I could find before around 2010 and a few of his newer ones and in my opinion I would just read everything.

Of course his supposed Opus are the dark tower books (which is what originally drew me in) and there are a fair few other books based around that world and gives nods to each other, some bigger than others.

Ones that I enjoyed a lot personally though (dark tower aside) are Talisman, Black House, Desperation, Needful Things, Cell, Under the Dome and definitely 11/22/63.

My least favourites were probably Cujo and Misery but people seem to rate them so that is more personal I think.

I much prefer his shorter works to the big bloated novels he wrote mid-career which have a tendency to waffle on.

Personal highlights for me: Carrie, The Shining, Night Shift, Different Seasons, Revival, the Hodges trilogy,

I feel people either love or hate Stephen King. I was the same as you, absolutely loved his work from the get go and devoured everything I could.

Personal favorites:

IT

11-22-63 - not horror based mostly but cool concept.

Dark tower books - these are his holy grail, everything connects to them.

The stand - I just love the feel of this book, it just feels right.

Seriously try the dark tower books. I've reread them multiple times and it's such a great experience.

He's written some of my favourite books. I'm a big fan of the Dark Tower Books, a brilliant book series and complete which is a big plus. Under the dome is also a great read, shame about the TV series. Haven't read any of his most well known works though!

I started a publication-order read through (skipping any Dark Tower entries and saving them for the end) a while ago, and i have made it half-way through Four Past Midnight (1990), so I will limit my recommendations to his earlier works.

I love all his short story/novella collections, but if i had to pick one to recommend it would probably be Different Seasons, though Skeleton Crew is up there as well.

For the novels, a few of my less well-known or less commonly recommended favorites (in publication order, since i'm looking at my e-reader history) are The Dead Zone (especially poignant in the current state of politics), Roadwork (very compelling story of a guy's refusal to come to terms with a changing world), Christine (the premis sounds dumb, but he really pulled it off), The Eyes of the Dragon (his foray into fantasy), and The Tommyknockers (this was written deep in his cocaine days and it shows, but i couldn't put it down and some of my favorite King moments are in this book).

Any of his well-known ones are fantastic too (a general rule to follow is: if they've made a movie, especially if it was a bad movie, it's gonna be a good read), but I'm gonna shout out The Shinning in particular. The book is very different than the movie; not plot-wise per se, but the character development is so much deeper and more multi-dimensional. If you've seen the movie but haven't read the book, you don't really know The Shinning. No shade against the movie being thrown here, I love them both but for very different reasons.

In the interest of stopping before I list his whole bibliography, I'll end by saying you can safely add any of the Bachmann books to your list, especially since you liked Thinner.

The man sure can spin a good yarn. I always think of him like the person you know who is absolute best at telling a tall tale around the camp fire, riveting everyone's attention. Is it technically perfect writing all the time? Nope. Is it trying to be fancy literature? Nope. Is it telling a story that holds onto your attention, leaving you sitting in a car listening to an audiobook for half an hour after you arrive home? Yep! He's a storyteller supreme. Some criticize him for weak endings, but he will sure drag you all the way to that ending.

I enjoy a variety of his writing. Growing up, I only thought of him as a "horror writer", because that's what made it to film. Then I found The Eyes of the Dragon in the library (which is a fantasy novel), and discovered that Mr. King can write more than horror. I truly enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Tower, and his "Hard Case Crime" books The Colorado Kid, Joyland, and Later. Joyland really is a great little gem of a book.

Then, his writing drew me into some of his horror works after all. Things like Firestarter (loved), Carrie (didn't love), The Shining (loved), and Salem's Lot (solid and interesting for it's place in vampire fiction). I also enjoyed his more recent book The Institute as well.

I'm not his biggest fan, and I see issues in the details of his writing from time to time (far too many hours spent in Literature classes), but I have tremendous respect for him as a storyteller, and as a writer who can capture the effect of a good storyteller so well so much of the time. To me this overcomes the criticisms some make of his work.

Love seeing all of the recommendations in this thread! My husband has read almost all of them, he's got about 20 books left (most of which are the Dark Tower books) and his top 5 favorites are 11/22/63, Needful Things, Duma Key, Gerald's Game, and Joyland. His 5 least favorites so far are Dreamcatcher, The Eyes of the Dragon, Hearts in Atlantis, Sleeping Beauties, and Insomnia.

I myself have read The Outsider and and The Institute and immensely enjoyed both. I just finished Song of Susannah, book #6 of the Dark Tower series today, and I can't wait to finish it. It really is an incredible story/saga/epic. I plan on reading much more King but I plan on staying away from the darker stuff, as I'm a lot softer/sensitive since I've had a child lol.

I tried, but was unable, to find a video clip of Jon Lovitz portraying Stephen King on SNL. Good stuff.

Thinner is one of my favourites by him!

The normal favourites are IT, The Stand, The Shining etc. But my absolute favourite of the ones I have read is Salem's Lot.

I have only read a few Stephen King books so I can't really recommend any deep cuts (although I will say I do really enjoy his depiction of central Maine in Cell - he gets it), but lucky you if you find you really enjoy his work! King is so prolific you will have enough stories to keep you busy for the forseeable future.

What I really enjoy in his books I've read is how well he captures the mundane horror of the every day. My favorite book of his is The Stand and the section that has stuck with me for years afterwards is this one, almost random chapter where he outlines the fates of several unimportant and otherwise unmentioned people who avoided geing killed by captain trips.

I'm sure you've also been recommended The Dark Tower a bunch as well, to which I will only add - the audiobooks are great if you choose to delve into the series!

I read most of his work and can't say there's any of them I was disappointed with. Some of them stick out above the rest, personal favourites are The Dark Tower and Insomnia, but they're all very readable. It's not great literature that will be studied in 200 years from now but he's a great story teller and knows how to hook you in.

'Salem's Lot was decent. I liked The Stand and 11/22/63 but I didn't like the end to either of them. I read The Green Mile too and remember liking it but it was so many years ago I don't remember much more than that.

I'm most familiar with the stories that were adapted to film. Shawshank, pet semetary, IT, green mile etc. Green mile is soo good.

The only book I actually read was The Dark Half, because of my situation, I did not have much choice as far as what I could read, and there being nothing to do but read, I thought it was good and I couldn't put it down. Not sure I would have chosen to read if it wasn't for circumstances, but was ultimately a worthwhile read.

I'm taking on The Stand for my first Stephen King book. It's pretty good so far, around 10% in, but it's a big one.

Stephen King? Don't you mean Richard Bachman 🤣 Just kidding!

I read Thinner after watching the movie on AMC Fearfest and enjoyed its grimness. Overall I love King and find most of the novels I've read super engaging and absorbing and finish them rather briskly despite their length.

I haven't read Stephen King in probably two decades so this might no longer apply. Family members are BIG fans and I started every one I read expecting to love them. But it turned out how much I liked them was inversely related to the death count. The higher the percentage of characters who died, the less I cared. There's a novella where they're trying to get to Hartford CT (I think it was Hartford, anywhere somewhere around there which is the last place you'd think of as being salvation), I liked that one.

Yes, I realise I am not the norm in this but you did say everyone ;)