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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

What we're reading

Best Stephen King to get started with?

66 replies

Slipsliding · 19/01/2013 11:59

Never read him as put off by potential gore but loads of MNS recommend him so I must be wrong!?

OP posts:

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SpeckleDust · 19/01/2013 20:08

The Shining

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SoYo · 19/01/2013 20:09

Needful Things first and then The Stand if you like it, also The Dark Half.

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Manda472 · 19/01/2013 20:13

My all time favourite is the stand, have read it so many times but have never tired of it.
It does depend on though what type of books you like as his a lot of his books are not necessarily horror.
Would agree that his earlier ones are the best.
Can't wait for his sequel to the shining that's due out in sept. Now if horrors your thing the shining is excellent....."here's johnny"

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OmgATalkingOnion · 19/01/2013 20:13

Bag of Bones.

I thought 11.22.63 went very flat at times. It was too long. Imho.

Lol poor Slipsliding will be more than ever now we've all said different ones.

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OmgATalkingOnion · 19/01/2013 20:15

I also thought Under the Dome was disappointing.

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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 19/01/2013 20:22

Loving the divided opinions.

Slainte - I adore King and would happily read his shopping list / notes to the milkman - but 'Needful Things' imho is shockingly, embarrassingly awful.

The Stand is sublime - but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point.

Agree that 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' could be a good one to begin with.

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Sallystyle · 20/01/2013 11:07

11.22.63 is awesome!

The Stand is also amazing. They are both in my top favourite books of all time.

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Slainte · 20/01/2013 17:22

Admittedly Remus I was in my 20s when I read it but it was the book that got me started on reading him so I may be looking back on it with misplaced affection :)

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tillyfernackerpants · 20/01/2013 22:25

Hope the OP comes back & tells us what she picked.

Probably a different author altogether

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pointythings · 21/01/2013 18:51

I think Duma Key is one of his very best - not gory, just very, very creepy. I also really like The Dead Zone and The Green Mile, and IT. The Shining is the only book that has ever given me nightmares.

I also like Under the Dome, Insomnia and Needful Things, just because King does small town awfulness so very well.

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Slipsliding · 21/01/2013 19:22

It's going to be Duma Key ...... or The Stand but could also be 11.22.63 still. But thanks for all the heartfelt recommendations - he's obviously worth reading as you're all so passionate about the subject.

OP posts:

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CoteDAzur · 21/01/2013 22:17

I'd start with Dead Zone, Firestarter, The Stand, and The Shining. Old favourites.

I wouldn't say any of the above is really scary, except The Shining in parts. Duma Key really scared me, though. It is one of his best imho.

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pointythings · 21/01/2013 22:30

I agree with Cote - that's a good way to start with King (but then she is a King expert ). Just please don't miss Duma Key.

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CoteDAzur · 21/01/2013 22:42

Thanks for the vote of confidence, pointy, but I don't think I'm a SK expert, at all Remus has probably read more SK than me. I read all his books (I think) until they started getting a bit dopy with Misery, Needful Things, etc. I came back to SK with Duma King which was exceptional but then read The Cell which was shockingly awful. So can't say if I will read another SK anytime soon.

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tillyfernackerpants · 21/01/2013 22:47

I liked Misery, there were a couple of moments in it that were really heart-stopping for me. But agree that Needful Things was dire.

Has anyone read Blaze? Read it recently but haven't come across anyone else who's read it.

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Ceasnake · 22/01/2013 04:13

Cujo and NEEDFUL THINGS? No, no, no. Even King admits that he barely remembers writing either of them (written at the height of his addictions).

For beginners:

Pretty much any collection of short stories - esp. Skeleton Crew
Different Seasons - wonderful collection that is pretty much not horror. 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption' particularly brilliant.
The Stand
IT
Misery

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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 22/01/2013 18:24

I like 'Blaze' for its links with, 'Of Mice And Men.' As a work of fiction it's good but as a KING work, I don't think it's one of his finest.

The one I find most scary is the novella, 'Apt Pupil.' Horrible and unsettling. And another one that has really stayed with me is another novella, 'The Langoliers.' And what's the vampire-esque one with the Library Policeman? Is that what it's called?

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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 22/01/2013 18:25

Don't know as I'm an expert but, as far as I know, I have read every novel and story collection he's ever published and most of them several times at least. I haven't read everything only published in magazines or anthologies.

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DontHaveAtv · 23/01/2013 11:33

The Stand is one of my favourite books ever. Under The Dome was good too. I love Stephen king.

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EuroShagmore · 23/01/2013 14:02

I read my first Stephen King last year (at 36) and started with The Stand. I loved it and nothing else has quite lived up to it, although I did like Under The Dome too. I hated It and was a bit ambivalent about The Dead Zone.

BTW, I find the first third of SK books dull. It's all scene setting and goes on and on for far too long, but just at the point I am really sick of it, it tends to hot up. So stick with it if you are not sure at first. The Stand is particularly long, but a masterpiece.

I must read The Shining. I love the film.

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HumphreyCobbler · 23/01/2013 14:13

The Langoliers is a terribly gripping read. YY to Apt Pupil too.

I adore The Dead Zone

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pointythings · 23/01/2013 18:40

Euro if you are referring to the Stanley Kubrick version of The Shining you are in for a few shocks - he changed a lot of things. Including the ending, in a massive way. I prefer the book, by far, although Jack Nicholson is fabulous in the film, and the scene with the fire hose in the film is brilliantly done and very true to the book.

The Shining is an amazing book.

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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 23/01/2013 18:47

Noooooooo Jack N totally miscast and the woman even worse. As a film it works but as a representation of the book it is an abberation imho.

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HumphreyCobbler · 23/01/2013 18:53

I have never read the Shining. I wonder why? Perhaps because I loved the film so much?

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rainbowriver · 23/01/2013 19:13

I love Stephen King and have been reading his books since the eightees! I loved IT, The Stand, Carrie, The Dome. I've not read anything of him I didn't like so far.

Though definately haven't read all of them, none of the Gunslinger series? Also don't remember Duma Key at all, saw it recommended on this thread but not heard of it, don't know how I missed it!

Are there any Stephen King biographies worth reading?