From his last few books I really liked Joyland. It was light on the supernatural, but had a good coming of a age story from a likeable protagonist.
His novella, The Body is still my all time favorite. The movie adaption, Stand By Me is in my humble opinion the only Stephen King movie worth watching.
Yeah, not a big fan of Shawshank Redemption. I've never read the book it's based on, but the movie was so predictable and, in parts just plain silly, that it never engaged me.
Favorite - From a Buick 8. I think my second favorite is Duma Key. Least favorite, by far, Mr. Mercedes.
Did you read Finders Keepers? Mr. Mercedes is IMO the best of the Bill Hodges trilogy. Finders Keepers barely has anything to do with the other two books, and the finale of End of Watch I think sucked.
I've only read five or so of King's, but my favourite would have to be 11.22.63. The ending might be a little bit of a letdown, but he painted 50's/60's America so believably that I genuinely felt that I was there with the protagonist. I was sad to see it end, which I can't always say. Least favourite is The Gunslinger in the Dark Tower series. I just couldn't buy what he was trying to sell, and had very little interest in the backstory to Roland and no particular care where the story was going. I've not read many of his really "big" ones. The Shining and IT were both very good, but need to get to The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and the rest.
The only King I've read all the way through is 11.22.63 which is very long but worth it, in my view. Then again, I always like time travel stories so perhaps I'm biased? I read the Shawshank Redemption and some other of his short stories a few years back.
What's your fav time travel story? I remember the 2002 Time Machine movie with Guy Pearce being pretty bad...
My favorite is "Eyes of the Dragon". I don't think people give it enough credit in favor of his grander fantastical series ("The Dark Tower") or his horror ("IT", "Pet Sematary"). I can reread "Eyes of the Dragon" and be immersed in no time.
My favorite is It. I'm halfway through re-reading it right now. Salem's Lot and Hearts in Atlantis are also some of my favorites. The Stand was another good one, but some of the sub-plots in it bored me.
Pet Semetary is definitely in my top five favorite books of all time. Cujo and The Green Mile are phenomenal as well. I also think The Green Mile is the best movie adaption out of all his books, hands-down. One of the rare movies that actually do the source material justice.
The Green Mile wasn't a bad flick. IT was great with Tim Curry. And Kubrics The Shining is a damn masterpiece. Personally I think King is boring and likes to bitch about his works made into film, even when he has a hand in them. So I like when he can admit he is not the Horror Master.
I think it's got to be "IT". It's this huge indulgent doorstopper of a novel with a huge cast, that wanders between two time periods, and has huge amounts of wandering, where we'll spend fifty pages reading about the history of the town or the backstory of a random victim or supporting character. Yet, it works. There's this feverish intensity to the whole thing, and a sense of rising dread as you steadily realise how the whole town has been subverted by the monster and converted into, essentially, a farm where it can wake up, murder children at a rate that would be national news anywhere else, and nobody notices--or they just look aside and let it do its work without entirely realising what's happening. It's one of the best depicitions of childhood & puberty as a time of emotional extremes, where it feels like the summer will never end and the possibilities seem endless, but adulthood is starting to creep up on you and change you, and you're starting to become aware of how the adult world is constraining you--and menacing you with threats that can range from bullies to choking parents to outright sexual abuse. Honourable mentions to The Waste Lands, Room 1408, Misery and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a wonderful read. It was the perfect length and it really took me by surprise. I had a similar surprise with Lisey's Story. It was longer and slower than TGWLTG but gave me that same 'wow what a book' feeling. I agree with your sentiments on It as well. I loved all those kids. It took me a month to read and I'm glad it did. It made me so invested in all those characters and their fates. The ending was a bit of a let down. Though when you've read over 1000 pages of a book and want to reread it again immediately, who cares about the last fifty pages? Misery was fantastic, Dolores Claiborne made me tear up, and Carrie is a great book to get into and read in a day. It's always interesting hearing everyone's different King preferences. I respect the hell out of a writer that can reach so many different types readers with their body of work
My favourite was probably the running man (book not the wtf film) ... least favourite would be 'cell' which started well but fell to bits by the midpoint and the ending was "Oh fuck how can I nail a happy ending on to this, i'll just write some random shit because I'm SK and I can "
My favorite King book was Lisey's Story. I actually did not read it but listened to the audiobook and the reading was done well too. My second favorite would be 11.22.63 , though I thought the ending was predictable, the past cannot be changed without screwing up the future type of thing. My least favorite was Revival, the ending was a total letdown, stupid in my opinion. But, it was popular and that is hard to argue with.
The Ballad Of The Flexible bullet or Carrie, I’d say. I also like a bunch of the writing he did under the Richard Bachman pen.
Was Eye of the Dragon book one in a series that never got finished, or...something? It's been a long time since I read it, but I remember really enjoying the start and then being REALLY dissatisfied by the ending. Can't remember what the problem was, though. In terms of my favourite? The Stand. I really cared about those characters.
I recently read Chatty Teeth a short story but I haven't read any novels by King since the 90s. I think my fave was the Stand. ( I read The Tommyknockers, It, Carrie, Gerald's Game) He's really good with characters but sometimes his plots seem to run out of steam towards the end. I think because he's writing towards an illogical means but can't go there or fathom that.
A tie between The Boogeyman story and Rage (I believe was the title) under Bachman name. The Bachman story I am thinking of was about a writer whose objects revolted against him.
Easily my favourite is The Langoliers Novella, part of four seasons book? This one story left me with that kind of gobsmacked feeling one gets occasionally when a story really hits home. I have read most of Stephen Kings books, and in no particular order i like. - The Shining - IT - The Stand (although i couldnt re-read this) - Cujo - Pet Cemetary - the one with the alien space craft - The dark half Rgds
