Suggest a steven king book to me please
Unfortunately i grew up with a mother who watched every steven king related flick religiously so i have preconcieved feelings of hatred twards all things steven king. My question: What is a good book to encourage me to get into the works of steven king? (that sounded wierd, all im asking is what is a good steven king book for someone who isnt familiar with his actual work).i believe between me and my mom we have a good bit of them, so most likely what ever you suggest i should be able to get easily.
so please fire off some suggestions.
Wow, Stephen King... I remember the days when he was all I read. Id have to say that he has some good stories- The Regulators was good, look for it under Bachman, though. Another good collection is a bunch of shorter stories... theres a book called The Bachman Books- its got two stories that I really liked, Rage and The Long Walk, but there are a bunch of other stories in there that I thought were pretty good too, Chattery Teeth and one other... Dolans Cadilac or something like that. But if you want an awesome "King" book, I so suggest Hearts in Atlantis. The book and the movie are totally different, the book being awesome- the movie being suck. Its four stories, not just one... really good- not scary, but good. Then you can go with a classic- Firestarter was le awesomeness too. That might be the first one I read by King, so Ill always remember it...
the long walk
Why do you want to read Steven King? Nothing good will come of it.
I was saying to someone the other day that a bunch of times I read a Steven King book almost all the way through and just stopped a few pages from the end. I never looked back, no regrets!
[QUOTE=Vendetta]Why do you want to read Steven King? Nothing good will come of it.
I was saying to someone the other day that a bunch of times I read a Steven King book almost all the way through and just stopped a few pages from the end. I never looked back, no regrets![/QUOTE]
I sat through the stand & dreamcatcher (2 different events not one day) and the entire time i kept saying "man this would a hell of alot easier to enjoy if it was a book".
Is the majority of kings work supernatural/horror or is that just the more popular stuff?
I like Misery, I've read quite a bit of his stuff and didn't dig a lot of it, but Misery was great. It's about a writer that gets in a car crash and is rescued by an obsessive fan who keeps him at her house and he's unable to escape cause of his broken legs. Really tense, awesome.
Like the Judascow mentioned, check out the Bachman books, it is a collections of books from when Stephen King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. From that collection, I suggest you read The Long Walk and The Running Man (that Arnold movie is based on it, but the book is totally different). Those two stories always stick out in my head.
If you need a good bathroom book, read his two short story collections Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. Nightmares and Dreamscapes is also good. Everything is Eventual is all right too.
If you want to read some novellas, I highly recommend Different Seasons. That has the Ritahayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (the book on which probably one of the greatest movies of all time was based on), Apt Pupil, The Body (the movie Stand by Me), and Breathing Lessons (a so-so story).
If you like, check out Four Past Midnight...that contains four novellas aslo, Secret Garden, Secret Window (the book Secret Window was based on), The Langoliers (has anybody seen that movie?), The Library Police, and The Sun Dog.
Carrie is a neat book to read. If you like cars, Christine isn't too terrible.
But first and foremost, I would read King's shorter works.
I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence --- Amy Hempel
[QUOTE=188416]I like Misery, I've read quite a bit of his stuff and didn't dig a lot of it, but Misery was great. It's about a writer that gets in a car crash and is rescued by an obsessive fan who keeps him at her house and he's unable to escape cause of his broken legs. Really tense, awesome.[/QUOTE]
I was just about to suggest Misery. 
I think it's one of his tightest books (I read quite a few of them in my teens) and if you're a budding writer it's that extra 10% worth reading.
It was tight, you know some parts in some of his books where he waffles on for three pages about the grey of someone's coat, i like how that didn't really happen in Misery.
[QUOTE=188416]It was tight, you know some parts in some of his books where he waffles on for three pages about the grey of someone's coat, i like how that didn't really happen in Misery.[/QUOTE]
Exactly. And even books such as [I]The Shining ([/I]which I quite liked) have a kind of rambling narrative (Jesus - [I]IT[/I] is like four stories confused into one big gibbering mass).
The idea of Misery is just so simple and effective.
Skeleton Crew - for some short stories
The Stand - for when you got the scrotes to attempt its ascent
oh yeah, Nightmares and Dreamscapes is good!
Four Seasons
Stephen King is a good author to get you into reading. If you are already reading more advanced and better books (ie: shit like brett easton ellis or chuck's earlier stuff) you will not enjoy it and he writes 3rd person which fucking sucks.
But good king stuff: different seasons, skeleton crew, night shift, shining, salems lot, It, Misery. But this is all shit to read when you are a kid.
-K
pet semetery is the only steven king book i've actually read and that was years ago.... i liked it at the time though.
IMDB lists about 70 movies based on Stephen King's work... and if you picked any 70 movies at random, a lot of them would suck. For every good adaptation like Stand By Me, or Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, there's a Cycle of the Werewolf or Maximum Overdrive or about 50 made-for-TV movies which, by definition, cannot be any good.
It's a little easier to get into Stephen King via his shorter work. A few thing which are pretty good:
- Survivor Type (from the book Skeleton Crew)
- Apt Pupil (novella from Different Seasons)
- Misery (shortish novel)
Those are all psychological horror, i.e., what could potentially happen in real life, not involving ghosts, magic powers or vampires.
[B]'Salem's Lot[/B]
[B]The Shining[/B]
[B]The Stand[/B]
[B]Different Seasons[/B]
[B]Night Shift[/B]/[B]Skeleton Crew[/B] -- short stories
[B]Pet Semetary[/B]
Or: [I]Roadwork[/I] ([B]The Bachman Books[/B])
There, out of early-King. Those are in no order, but [B]'Salem's Lot[/B] would be my first recommendation. Also, [B]Different Seasons[/B], four novellas, contains some of his best. And personally, I always liked [I]Roadwork[/I] from [B]The Bachman Books[/B], which includes [I]The Long Walk[/I], [I]The Running Man[/I], and [I]Rage[/I] (King's book written as a senior in high school, badly done & full of Freudian bullshit subtexts & allusions, and his one "self-censored" book...).
[QUOTE=Spike]
- Survivor Type (from the book Skeleton Crew)
[/QUOTE]
i'd actually put this on a short list of the all time greatest short stories that i've read
its muay bueno !
Survivor Type is good stuff. Great storytelling. In my opinion Quitters Inc. is a pretty damn good short story too. It is such a great idea.
I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence --- Amy Hempel
ok i know my mom has skeleton crew & different seasons, I bought nightshift and the green mile but i have no desire to read the green mile series. thank you, keep up the suggestions. Ive seen misery too many times to read the book and not know whats going to happen next, same with the shining.
[QUOTE=Vendetta]Why do you want to read Steven King? Nothing good will come of it.
I was saying to someone the other day that a bunch of times I read a Steven King book almost all the way through and just stopped a few pages from the end. I never looked back, no regrets![/QUOTE]
ugh, You were right, i made it a little bit into Different Seasons before i got bored.
I picked up misery, but i realized i knew the story too well to really get into it, i just kept going "allright break his ankles with the sledge hammer allready".
Excellent concepts, just it gives me this feeling; The feeling is alot like that frustration you feel when someone is talking down to you.
His books translate really well to film so maybe just stick to that in future (which is what I do) instead of trying to plough through the books. Have you seen the size of those fuckers? I get exhausted just looking at them.
Has anyone seen Stephen King's Rose Red? It's a dodgy mini-series about a haunted house, cheesy as all hell but fun.
The Dark Tower.
[QUOTE=Nightrious]The Dark Tower.[/QUOTE]
That was good, but with each successive book in the series the story got more and more melodramtic and soap opera like. Like Orson Scott Card with the the Ender's Game series. The books get longer and longer as all the characters considers their relationships to other people and go on and on about every miniscule detail of their inner dialogue. What happens, do they no longer have editors willing to speak the fuck up?
[QUOTE=Vendetta]
Has anyone seen Stephen King's Rose Red? It's a dodgy mini-series about a haunted house, cheesy as all hell but fun.[/QUOTE]
Yes, it's a good way to waste four hours of your day.
[CENTER]Simple Logic is Wasted on Simple Minds.[/CENTER]
i said firestarter
Like someone said before, King is definitely good for sparking you interest in reading, but once you move on to bigger and better works, you'll have no desire to go back. I've read a bunch of them, and there was a time when I wanted to read them all, but that died out. Some good ones I'd recommend are Pet Semetery, The Stand, Different Seasons, Rage (but good luck trying to find a copy if you don't have one), The Long Walk, and The Dead Zone is a classic. He did write a lot of crap in his career though. And he's still pumping it out. Did anyone hear about his new novel, Cell? Worldwide death and chaos, caused from cell phones somehow. I read that since he's finished his baby, The Dark Tower, we can expect some work that feels more like "Classic King". The same review also said that he's done more work than any other retired person, ever.
[B][COLOR=Red]and it's a story that might bore you but you don't have to listen,[/COLOR][/B]
[QUOTE=shacks] The same review also said that he's done more work than any other retired person, ever.[/QUOTE]
i don't really picture retired people doing a lot of work ?
I don't really like his popular horror ones much.
The Dark Tower is my favorite by far, I read them all, and was sad when I finished. You could easily get through just the first one though, for a fun read.
The Stand and Regulators were my other favorites. Oh, and The Talisman.
Still need to read "On Writing"
[I]Fuck not with Rocketman [/I]
The Stand is one of the greatest books ever written. Not read that much more King apart from the dark tower series which was great. Been meaning to read the shining for a while.
I was more of a James Herbert kid myself.
Oh and stay the fuck away from needful things! Trust me.
Firestarter was good as is On Writing (and I'm not even a wannabe writer...) and the Dead Zone is worth a shot.
But yeah, he writes some seriously crap stuff. I mean utter tosh. And he rambles forever.
Remind me *why* you suddenly want to read something by him?
...and as they both drowned the scorpion said to the frog "because it's in my nature."
[QUOTE=skeletorfonze]
Remind me *why* you suddenly want to read something by him?[/QUOTE]
i dont anymore, i tried reading a little bit (see the first page near the bottom) and i felt like i was being talked down to.
haha. Yeah he definately writes for the paperback crowd (Dean Koontz and Sheldon and all that crap.) Maybe that's why he's so popular, he's a great storyteller that kept himself in the lower bracket, so to speak. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, I suppose. Does that apply? I dunno i just wanted to say it.
[I]Fuck not with Rocketman [/I]
I have never been really into Stephen King and have only read a couple but for what it's worth, despite being a bit of a cop-out, lazy reason, the first of his books that I read was Carrie. Mainly because it was short and would not be too painful to get to the end of if I didn't like his style.
I should also mention that I was very impressed with his non-fiction book 'On Writing'.