What is the best Stephen King book/short story?

Personally, I think that his best overall work is The Stand, which isn't exactly unique. However, I think that his best writing and dialogue is in Rage. Rage is a controversial novel because of its subject matter and discontinuation, but I was very impressed by the empathy and atmosphere that he creates.
What do you guys and girls think? Fight me.

 

Also from his Bachman days, The Long Walk is one of my favorites of his short stories. I think The Dead Zone is a highly underrated book of his, and my God does it seem prophetic lately. Oh, and Dolores Claiborne really got to me too, particularly the twist at the end regarding her rich employer's family.

 

The Deadzone is a great mention. I think people might simply forget it, but King has some great plot twists and suspense at the end.

 

I really enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis. The book. As much as I love the story and Anthony Hopkins, I was disappointed by the movie. I'd highly recommend the book though.

 

Needful things.

 

Needful things.

 

For me, it's a toss-up between The Running Man (not the movie; that was complete donkey twaddle) and The Long Walk.

 

Are you talking about the movie?

As much as I like Arnie, I can't think of many movies outside of Red Heat where he actually made sense in the role. For Terminator, his accent made no sense even though it made his character scarier. In Total Recall, his character would have made more sense if he'd been played by Woody Allen. (It was no big stretch to believe Arnie could fight his way out of just about anything.) I think they tried to explain away his accent in Kindergarten Cop, but that was as close as they ever came to making Arnie right for a role.

Still, he's fun to watch.

 

I'd say Carrie!

It's the first Stephen King book I read, and I think that's partly why. You know when you read a completely new genre of book by an author you haven't read from before? The story kind of sticks with you in those situations, if you know what I mean?

I also really enjoyed The Shining much more than the movie. I couldn't even finish the movie, but the b0ok.... fantastic.

I'll be honest and say that I haven't read most of his work, though. Just the most popular ones, really.

Oh, I did also really enjoy Everything's Eventual! The stories there were spellbinding. Waiting to get my copy back currently so I can read it once more

 

Misery or Needful things, although there is only a small handful of King book that I never got into. is

 

Personally I adore The Dark Tower series. I was introduced to it at around the age of 16 and I fell in love. You can't go wrong with them, really. It's set on an epic scale and the sense of loss and foreshadowing is fantastic plus there's some really good imagination thrown in and I absolutely love the characters. SK is one of my favourites though I've read perhaps just a third of his work. Noteworthy mentions are Misery, The Stand and Hearts in Atlantis (the first story.)

I intend to read a lot more of his in the next few years, including Firestarter and Salem's Lot, probably.

 

...and that certainly helped them blend into the LA survivor community.