Favorite Stephen King Book

MLeigh85 · Thu Apr 01, 2010 8:47 pm

I am such a fan of Stephen King. He is the one that actually got me to start reading as much as I did. Pet Cemetrary (not sure of the spelling on the one) at the age of 11 it got me hooked. Now I know alot of his books go off the deep end, especially at the end, it is very irritating to me too :!:

. I am just posting to see what others will say. Now I am currently reading his Dark Tower series, I am on The Wizard and The Glass, absolutely entertained with this book. My all time favorite read from him is definitely The Stand. His worst book, to me, is The Tommyknockers. This is the book where he just goes completely bonkers towards the ending. I know some people are not fan of his and if you want to give an explanation that would be fine. I am always interested in what others have to say about an author that I absolutely adore

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wilde · Thu Apr 01, 2010 10:05 pm

I'm actually planning on reading The Stand during school, since I finished Atlas Shrugged. I'm a big fan of (post) apocalyptic fiction, so it'll be good.

I really liked "Under the Dome," his newest book. Definitely long though. His short stories are also pretty good, but I haven't really read too many of his books. My mom keeps buying me them so I'll read them eventually.

I also love his articles in Entertainment Weekly. He seems very down to earth.

bleachededen · Thu Apr 01, 2010 10:37 pm

I'm not at all a fan of Stephen King, but I would like to read his novella The Mist. I've seen the movie a few times, and I think it was well done except for the supernatural element, which I think was over CGIed and so ridiculous that it took away from the entire movie, but the story was intriguing and a good look at how people react in crisis situations. Pretty deep stuff, and even though I could call the ending (I tend to be good at that), I still think the story would be worth reading in its original form. It's pretty low on my long list of books I consider necessary for me to read, but hopefully I'll get to it someday.

johnson1010 · Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:47 am

They had to cut budget on the CGI to keep the ending.

Besides that, there was a lack of good design on those creatures. They shouldn't have looked like just big spiders.

Still one of the best King movies, and i think they were right to keep that ending.

GaryG48 · Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:07 am

My favorate King novel is Misery.

I am not a fan of horror in general and I particularly don't care for King for the reason stated above; his books generally just keep getting further and further out as they reach for a silly ending. Misery is an excdption, the characterization matches the story line and the ending is the best one possible.

MLeigh85 · Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:02 am

I have not read Under the Dome yet or Misery. Some fan I am!! I really like his short stories, and not all of them are horror. His book Different Seasons has 4 short novellas, including The Shawshank Redemption, but the title is something different.
wilde you will enjoy The Stand if you like post-apocalyptic tales, Cell and The Dark Tower series also kind of go hand in hand with that type of genre. The movie on The Stand is very long though. I am not a fan of the movies they make out of his books with the exception of Shawshank Redemption and Misery.

GaryG48 · Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:18 pm


	MLeigh85 wrote: I have not read Under the Dome yet or Misery. Some fan I am!! I really like his short stories, and not all of them are horror. His book Different Seasons has 4 short novellas, including The Shawshank Redemption, but the title is something different. wilde you will enjoy The Stand if you like post-apocalyptic tales, Cell and The Dark Tower series also kind of go hand in hand with that type of genre. The movie on The Stand is very long though. I am not a fan of the movies they make out of his books with the exception of Shawshank Redemption and Misery.

I didn't know or had forgotten that King wrote Shawshank Redemption. I really enjoyed the movie so I should look up the short story--thanks for the tip.

rainbells · Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:26 pm

I am hot and cold about Stephen King. I loved The Stand when I read the first edition, back in 1980 or so, but then he made it longer, and when I read that version, it didn't seem as good. My favorites are Delores Claiborne, Rose Madder and Insomnia. Some of his books, though, I just can't get through. They are too horrible, graphic and gooey deaths just don't do it for me. I used to buy his books, and make my mom read them first, and she would tell me if I could handle them or not. No animal or children kills or tortures, no Satanism, no gory deaths. I loved my mom, she read and reviewed for me all of the books I gave her even though she didn't care much for Stephen King. Now I am on my own, and I read the first page of The Dome, and when the beaver got chopped, that was the end for me. I am such an old baby!

bleachededen · Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:48 pm


	johnson1010 wrote: They had to cut budget on the CGI to keep the ending. Besides that, there was a lack of good design on those creatures. They shouldn't have looked like just big spiders. Still one of the best King movies, and i think they were right to keep that ending.

I loved the ending. Even though I saw it coming, I thought it was the perfect and only way to end that story. I just hated the giant bugs. I mean, seriously, guys, come on. A simple clown was enough to scare the shit out of people in It, so why did The Mist need overdone, Evolution (the silly David Duchovny film) type monsters to act as the scary thing? If they had showed me nothing that was in the mist, but still showed the reactions that the characters had and the fear they experienced, I would actually have been more frightened, because the unknown is far scarier than giant spiders and other such bugs. George Lucas said something about his own redoing of the monster on the ice planet Hoth, something to the effect of "some directors think that the less you see of a monster is actually more scary," but he wanted you to actually see the monster, which I do think took some of the intensity away from that scene (having seen it both ways, I definitely liked the first version better, where all you see of the monster is his arm being cut off of him by Luke before he runs away). In a horror movie, less really is more, because the more you explain, the less is left to the imagination, which, in my experience, creates far creepier villains than any computer graphics could come up with.

bleachededen · Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:53 pm


	GaryG48 wrote: I didn't know or had forgotten that King wrote Shawshank Redemption. I really enjoyed the movie so I should look up the short story--thanks for the tip.

Just so you know what to look for, the story that the movie The Shawshank Redemption is based on is called "Rita Heyworth and Shawshank Redemption."

That is the only Stephen King movie I love 100%, most likely because it is pretty much a word for word following of the story (except for Morgan Freeman's character, who is supposed to be white and Irish with red hair, but they loved Morgan Freeman so much they changed the role for him :-P

), and it doesn't have anything to do with the supernatural. Truly an amazing movie.

johnson1010 · Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:14 pm

There's a good story about that.

King was asked by a lady why he never wrote any good books, like The Shawshank Redemption.

HA

bleachededen · Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:19 pm

wilde · Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:54 pm


	GaryG48 wrote: My favorate King novel is Misery. I am not a fan of horror in general and I particularly don't care for King for the reason stated above; his books generally just keep getting further and further out as they reach for a silly ending. Misery is an excdption, the characterization matches the story line and the ending is the best one possible.

That reminds of when they used him as a joke on Family Guy.

"So, Stephen, what's your next book about?"
"It's about um.. this couple.. who get attacked by a... GIANT LAMP MONSTER! Oooooh!"
"....When can I have it?"

:lol:

bleachededen · Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:41 pm

Good episode.

There's also the episode where Peter runs someone over, gets out of the car and goes up to him,
Peter: Oh my God, I'm so sorry, are you Stephen King?
Run over guy: No, I'm Dean Koontz.
Peter: Oh.
Peter then gets back in his car and backs the car up over Dean Koontz, then runs him over forward again.

Hilarious.

orelia · Sat Apr 03, 2010 1:35 pm

I've read a book of him about vampires. Anyone knowing the title of that?

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