I'm reading my first Stephen king book. This asshole likes

The guy is a legend so he can get away with it.
Imo his books of short stories are the best. I love Just After Sunset. There's a story in there where the antagonist is mainly referred to as the Motherfucker.

>>603299649
honestly his shit went downhill right after he got off drugs.

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>>603300908
> never read a book
> gets info of The Simpsons

stick to early stuff and short stories. his big novels were good for their time, but will seem really shitty and cliche now

he also really likes making people piss and shit themselves

>>603299649
his best book: It
his worse book: any book after It

he went downhill fast and now pops out 3 or 4 shit-tier books a year

>>603299649
The Stand is fucking God Tier (book not movie)
Dark Tower series is legit, too. The first volume is slow, but the next 3 are epic. Especially Wizard and Glass.
Also... Anyone else hear theres been conversation about Ron Howard remaking a The Stand movie?

>>603300908
This guy gets it

OP is a massive tool and hasn't read up on King. Many of the universes in which his books take place are intertwined. Because some of them take place in our universe and others do not, it makes sense that his books would wind up appearing in other books


Read the dark tower saga. I cannot stress this enough. It is, by far , King's masterpiece.

>>603299649
You should look up Peter Straub too, he loves King even more.

>>603301304
It was great all the way to the final confrontation.
Then shit just crashed when they rolled with a giant spider.

Favorite: Salem's Lot.
Favorite that's not a horror: Lisey's Story
Least favorite: The Girl who loved Tom Gordon.

I'm a fan of King, at least some of his works.
I agree with most of the negative things said in this thread, though. Especially the fact that he makes a lot of shit books every year now.

Under the Dome looked....interesting?
Anyone read it?

Honestly.. the best of the 6 books that I read was his auto-biography, On Writing.

He's really good at talking about himself..

>>603301935
Bump for Black House.
A great read there

The Stand isn't terrible, but it's too long. In terms of his new stuff, Under the Dome is probably one of the worst books I've ever made it all the way through.

I really enjoyed 11/22/63 though. But I'm into historical fiction and time travel, so.

>>603301636
Bruh wizard and glass was the slowest of them all. Drawing of the three is where it's at ! Non stop action and mindfuckery at every corner.

dud-a-chuck confirmed for greatest onomatopoeia of all time

>>603301717
This is the truth about Dark Tower series.
Im 4 volumes in, and Wizard and Glass blew me away

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I've read
>Carrie (because /Chlo/)
>The Shining
>Pet Sematary
>Under the Dome
>11/22/63
>On Writing
>Doctor Sleep [spoiler] but gave up half way through [/spoiler]

11/22/63 is by far the best imo. Anyone who hasn't read it should do so immediately, shit is legit.

The only other books that I'd say are worth the time are On Writing and Pet Sematary.

I want to read It, The Stand, and the Dark Tower series. I've heard the second half of the series is dogshit though, can any anons confirm?

The long walk. It's written under his pseudonym but I highly recommend you wiki it now. It should be made into a movie now. Anyone know other dystopic books like this by him?

I heard the only thing worth reading of his is either IT or The Stand.

But I'm on Infinite Jest Right now.

I love King's Short stories which actually once did keep me up at night. lol.

>>603302793
>Under the Dome
I heard the ending was shit. NEver finished it though, since Kept getting loosing motivation.

>>603299649
I rather enjoyed the way From A Buick V8 was written. Storywise it was lacking, but it had a really good flow. My favorite King continues to be The Stand (Uncut).

>>603302402
So far...
1. Wizard and Glass
2. The Waste Lands (the train was perfect)
3. Drawing of the Three
4. The Gunslinger

The first 3 were so good I couldnt argue with any way you wanted to rank them.
I found The Gunslinger to be the slowest. Best opening line ever, though.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

Downhill from there, though

>>603302793

the second half of the dark tower books is pretty lame. i was kind of pissed when i finished them.

Wow look at b having a decent discussion about literature.

>>603300908
And after he got hit by that van.

Honestly, as much as I love Dark Tower, that shit got so bad after Wizard and Glass.

I really like 11/22/63, but that's probably his only post-van novel I enjoyed.

Bag of Bones

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>>603299649
He is legend

11/22/63 is a fun ride.
Stephen King (aside from his short stories) is not meant for an impatient reader.
You have to go into his books willing and ready to submit and submerge yourself into this world that he slowly builds around you.
If you're looking for a straight to the point kind of writer-prepare to get disappointed. A bunch of his books are 400+ pages and he LOVES describing things in detail.
First time someone told me about Stephen king books, they said "he takes 10 pages to write about a guy turning a door knob"

>>603302854
You should read all of the Bachman books. Actually, if you see "The Bachman Books" in a used bookstore, that's pretty much the only way you can read "Rage," which was a really good story. King suppressed its publication because the news media loves to exploit school shootings for ratings, and somehow he felt responsible for that shit.

>>603303236
I think the second half of books were disappointments because the writing had drastically changed. There were some great parts later on, but man, Song of Susannah felt.. rushed? Uninspired? Boring?

The series in general ended perfectly. What a mind fuck.

>>603299649

I like his stuff under the alias Richard Bachman. His best one would be Rage. Awesome story placed in highschool class. Lets say my school wasnt pleased I was reading it.

>>603299649
not sure if it was just a bad batch but I've read most of 'nightmares and dreamscapes' and it was like goosebumps with adult language...

>>603302060
under the dome was amazing, until the end which ruined fucking everything and the whole book was a waste of fucking time

>>603304899
You could say that about most of his endings.

I think Stephen King is awesome at writing an interesting ten pages.. then another interesting ten pages.. and so on and so on, but there is never anything to tie the ideas together so you end up feeling like you wasted your time (I've read about half a dozen of his books because an old girlfriend was into him).

>>603299649
What book?

>The Stand.
>Insomnia.

The end.

>>603304790
That book isnt even allowed to be printed anymore.

>>603302060
Under the dome was shit.

>creepy intro
>mildly interesting characters
>blow everything up
>whack football head aliens

Literally, that is the story in a nutshell.

I like King. Very entertaining.
Biggest problem is he's a little verbose. Writes a lot about dumb shit, but sometimes this "diarrhea of the typing" is exactly what draws me into his stories.
I liked Bag of Bones, From A Buick 8, Misery, Pet Semetary, It, Needful Things, and all the short story books a lot.
Didn't like Delores Claiborne, Mr. Mercedes, or Revival very much at all.
Duma Key is my absolute favorite.
Cell is good, and very fast paced, but I didn't think it "felt" like a King novel. Seemed more like The Walking Dead before it was popular.

>>603301636
I heard the Ron Howard remake of "The Stand" will be 2 (possibly 3) movies made for theatrical release.

Howard is also working on a possible miniseries of "The Dark Tower" thats being shopped to AMC, HBO, etc.

Next King project to get released will be movie version of "The Cell" released later this year

>>603305686
This. When I read it I started out thinking, "finally, a post-van novel that isn't shit." By the time I finished it it was as bad as Dreamcatcher.

>>603299649
God, you are all terrible at reading.

His best book is The Shining. It's the modern American gothic novel--it's fucking great.

The rest of his work is best in short story form. He writes the best Lovecraftian stories since... since whenever--they are the best.

The Dark Tower starts ok, gets awesome, then jumps off a fucking monorail into terribletown. Stop after The Wastelands. The Drawing of the Three kicks ass.

The original edit of The Stand is WAY better than the 1000+ monster he was allowed to publish later. He needs an editor to keep him paced and once he sold a zillion books he could do whatever he wanted. This was not a good thing.

>>603305895
The whole emphasis on propane was fucking retarded.

>>603302854
i was gonna say this one
when i was a teenager i think i read that book like 9 times haha...
check out the running man, thats pretty dystopian.
also under his pseudonym check out The Regulators and its companion Desperation. I prefer Desperation but both were cool.

needful things was great
and the green mile of course

oldfag here.

definitely read The Bachman Books. They are great! Here is the list of his i remember that I read, All worth checking out. I havent read any of his stuff for years (and i mean over a decade)...


- Carrie
- Salem's Lot
- The Shining
- Cujo
- Christine
- Pet Sematary
- The Talisman
- Skeleton Crew
- The Bachman Books (novel collection)
- It
1987 - Misery
- The Tommyknockers
- The Dark Half
- The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition
- Four Past Midnight (stories)
- Needful Things

>>603305375
>Insomnia
Is that the one about senior citizens, and the main old guy would make a pistol gesture with his hand, then shoot lazers or some shit?
I think thats how it went, but its been a really long time.
Needless to say.... That book was utter shit

>>603306151
Same with the revision of The Gunslinger. As much as I loved the original Stand, I feel that the original version of The Gunslinger is THE defining work of Stephen King.

He gets so full of himself in his later works. The earlier stuff is a much better way to experience King's writing before he realized, "waituhgoddamned minute... I'm motherfucking Stephen King!"

Still not as bad as Robert Jordan though. Why didn't THAT motherfucker have an editor?

>>603299649
Like most of his stuff. Nice readable, not hard work or challenging but then you don't need great Literature all the time.

That Dark Tower spinoff was good, hope for more. Wind through the keyhole.

oldfag again. i remember reading the bachman books when i was about 14. Thinner was aesome. The film was crappy, but they all are. The one about the guy who is going to have his house taken down for a bypass is good, he takes mesculine etc. and the school shootout one that was excellent. i remember there was a part in there that really aroused my teenage self lol

>>603306668
I read it while piping some serious LSD at the time. Best book I ever read.

>>603306521
>The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition

The only version of the stand that matters

>>603307153
I hate it when people feel the need to state this shit when discussing Stephen King. It's genre fiction. No one is expecting Tolstoy or Burroughs. There's a reason that there's pretty much only one genre author who is widely recognized as literature (yes, it's Philip K. Dick). It's still damn good genre fic.

>pet cemetery
>desperation
Those are my favorites anyway

Only read the running man to see how different it is from the film. Both are awful. Both are dystopic and prophetic, but that doesn't save either from being awful.

>>603307547
No shit. King wrote has Rage, which features a school shooting and The Running Man, wherein a large jet is crashed into a building.

Still waiting for The Long Walk to become a reality show on Bravo.

oldfag again

watch the film of Cujo... brilliant :p

>>603307747
i love PKD!!!

>>603307747
Yeah because Genre Fiction isn't just some made up category for exactly what was said - non-challenging fiction. Tautology much?

>>603308052
Green Mile, too.

>>603307943
thats it, rage. i think the one about the guy with the house being knocked down for bypass was roadwork, and running man...and thinner... they were all re-published as a single book called the bachman books (he originally wrote them as pseudonym richard bachman for anyone who didnt know)
~oldfag

>>603308210
You don't know anything about the publishing industry, do you.

>>603308577
And here I was thinking we were discussing reading and enjoying books.

sorry i was wrong, thinner was publish seperately. good read, shit film.
bachman books were
>>Rage, (school shooter)
>>The Long Walk, (lethal walk-athon with groin cramp)
>>Roadwork, (middle aged rebel on mesculine)
>>The Running Man (get to the choppperrrrr but actuall good)

>>603308907
Yet you have no idea what "genre fiction" means, or why it exists as a category.

Talk about what you read or enjoy, but don't pretend to know things you don't.

And yes, I am pissed that Margaret Atwood isn't usually considered sci-fi.

Mostly a fan of his short stories / novellas

>"The Mist" - Person favorite AND translated well to film ( with the nice fuck you to Hollywood endings

>"The Jaunt" - Fucked with me big time. Kept thinking about the premise of this shirt story over and over and over... Gave me nightmares

>>603306847
>Robert Jordan didnt have an editor
This explains so much

>>603309369
And his spanking fetish explains the rest.

Now if only we could figure out what the fuck kinds of preversions made Terry Goodkind the author he is today.

>>603299649
God damn what's wrong with his fucking face? That's why he mentions himself in his books, no one else could love that fucking thing.

>>603301636
no the guy who directed FAULt in our stars is making it
But he is a Stephen king nut and got multiple movies to tell the story with. Listen to the podcast with him and kevin smith

Who is he?

>>603309245
"The Mist" is one of my favorite short stories of all time.

>>603307547
>The film was crappy, but they all are.

Cujo, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, Carrie, Apt Pupil, Secret Window, The Mist.
All of those are great, and Shawshank is regularly on best movies of all time lists.
Generalizing doesn't work all that great sometime.
That said, there are a lot of shit movies based on his stories, too.

He's alright. The Dark Tower series is a MUST READ for anyone. Fucking masterpiece, it is. Favorite one for me is a tie between The Waste Lands and Drawing of the Three. Books 5 and 6 are boring as fuck but worth it to get to 7, which has the best fucking ending.

Read about halfway into Mr. Mercedes and put it down. It seemed like it would be pretty rad but the story is boring, the characters are boring, boring as fuck. So maybe his recent stuff isn't so good.

Ima vote for Night Shift
...but not the movie

>>603299649

I like some of his stories. Nice themes, premises, characters.

But the writing is shit. Come on guys.

currently rereading the Tower series again. About a third through The Drawing. Don't forget the graphic novels.

>>603309515
He is married. To be fair though, his wife is fugly. And also a shitty writer.

Does he have Fetal alcohol Syndrome?

>>603299649

Everyone who keeps saying Dark Tower is his masterpiece...


CORRECTION

The Waste Lands, specifically, is his masterpiece.

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>>603309515
oh contra!
Exhibit A: former uk prime minister John Major
always get them confused

>>603309611
i stand corrected! :) always good to be reminded

>>603305703
MY NIGGA DUMA KEY DA SHIT

>>603299649
"our" generation's weird fiction writer.
He is the only one doing it who has mass apeal
He also cribs off of the old greats which for someone who loves old fiction is great. He is an amazing and (sometimes too) prolific writer deserving of all the accolades.
he also coached a team in the little league world series... so thats something

>>603309949
Wizard and Glass is absurdly good.
Waste Lands is right behind it, though.

Fi!

>>603299649
"If you say, ‘Well, OK, I don’t believe in God. There’s no evidence of God,’ then you’re missing the stars in the sky and you’re missing the sunrises and sunsets and you’re missing the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together. Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design."

>>603300908
>people think this

No stephen king is just incredibly inconsistent, and has no problem publishing absolute shit

>>603309611
shawshank redemption is often heralded was the best movie ever made... period

>>603299649
he got lucky.

go read the bachman books...

basically he put out 3 books under a different name... sortof a test to see if his writing would sell... or if he was just running on the name...

he later re-released them as stephen king... which is why we know about them at all...

he got lucky, got published and now has enough mass market exposure that he can make millions by shitting on paper and putting his name on it...

in the words of tom clancy
"I don't write because I love it. I write because it pays the bills"

>>603309226
>Name Drops literary in-crowd fav for no apparent reason
So I was talking with Umberto Eco at this party in Milan the other week with Really Big Industry Players and...

>>603310347

Wizards and Glass is where I dropped King. I waited SO LONG for it to come, after Waste Lands. I have the limited edition hardcover with crazy artwork and everything.

Fucking flashbacks to some old witch put me to sleep. Jesus Christ, is he paid by the word?

>>603309611
No love for The Green Mile?

>>603310431
Wasent the original story like 50 pages long?
That movie is like 2 and a half hours.

>>603310677
>literary in-crowd fav
It's like you have no idea who Margaret Atwood is. It's nice that you think that though.

>>603299649

Dr sleep was cool. I think my favorite is pet semetary. The brief chapter of Tim baterman is so descriptive it would be a great story on its own.

>>603310370
he's a fucking hack. talk about lowering the bar. it's sad to me that he's so popular, but then again, when i was 14, i thought he was awesome. but i agree with you. this man lives to make money, like so many others. how does he do so? by selling books about monsters, gods, and fairy tales. he's a leech upon the collective reserve of ignorance.

>>603303709
give us 5 minutes and we'll be back to pictures of your fat ass girlfriend and traps.

>>603310895

Who the fuck is Margarine Applewood?

Been reading the dark tower series over the last couple months. Just finished it last night. Ending pissed me off. Fuck you king, fuck you.

>>603310951
On a scale of 1-10, how euphoric are you right now?

>>603310875
yeah its in a collection of short stories
but almost everything is in the movie that is in the book,,, other than Red is not a white man (red is still an Irishman in the movie)

>>603311078
Doesn't it end where it began?

Best:

Rage
Carrie
The Long Walk
Shawshank Redemption
The Body
Skeleton Crew
Night Shift (lots of cruft, but some good)

Worst:

Anything after The Tommyknockers

Most overrated:

IT
The Gunslinger

>>603309835
His son is a pretty good writer though

Writes under the name "Joe Hill" to distance himself from his father.

I give him a lot of credit for that - If I was his son and wanted to be a writer I would change my name to "Stephen King Jr."

>>603310951

Are you sure you aren't talking about James Patterson?

>>603303196
That's how it ends. Long as epic, turns out he's in limbo chasing that fuck for ever. Literally the last line of the last book. Almost as bullshit as a 'he woke up and it was all just a dream' ending

>>603310646
Rage
Long Walk
Road Work
Running Man

There are 4 Bachman books. Rage was censored. It's the best of the bunch, too.

>>603310793
Did you even read the post? It's listed.

>>603300753
this
when i was a kid i used to read all the big books, the stand, tommyknockers, It, etc
now that im older i prefer his 5 books of short stories

Favourite book: All of them
Least favourite: The endings to all of them.

>>603310370
That is the best piece of fiction Stephen King has ever written (even if he doesn't know it)