Best Stephen King Book

[Melodybe]

Poll question: Best Stephen King Book

Don't be mad if I forgot your favorite, we're talking Stephen King here are I only had 10 slots to fill.

But I think that we can all agree that King has cemented his place in literary history.

He is actually one of the few contempory writers that I can say with confidence will be remembered in a hundred years.

[terrya]

1. The Stand,

It's the only King book I've read more than once.

It's also very plausible. In the sense of "Captain Trips"

[Melodybe]

2. The Stand was my first King Novel

Saw the miniseries and had to read it.

I agree it is one of the more plausible, too.

But IT is my favorite and the one that scares the beejebus out of me. It's been about six years since I last read it and I get chills just thinking about it. :scared:

[Wetzelbill]

3. I really liked The Green Mile

[XemaSab]

4. the stand

there are other king books that are a lot simpler and tighter, but the stand has a cohesion that most authors would not be able to maintain in such a lengthy work.

and the ending is badass.

[RebelOne]

5. Hands down, it is the Stand,.

The unedited version was the better one.

[Clintmax]

6. I agree!

I read the unedited version once in a while and love it!

[Dora]

7. The Talisman

He co-wrote with Peter Straub. Its sequel was nowhere near as good.

My next choice would have been the Dark Tower Series. Dickensian, I think.

[gpandas]

8. It-pennywise haunts me to this day

[Nigel_Tufnel]

9. the unedited Stand is my favorite

used to read it every year without fail. haven't this year, it's too close to reality!

the green mile is my second favorite.

i like the short stories, also. the mist and the raft leap to mind. and apt pupil, too!

i always loved stephen king, he's very accessible and highly underrated...

[El Fuego]

10. The Stand

One of the best books, period.

[bicentennial_baby]

11. The Stand

and no, i wouldn't go to Las Vegas ;)

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

12. For me a tie between The Stand and The Dead Zone

Re: The Dead Zone. There were so many "moments" in that book that just resonated.

A very small passage comes to mind...an individual with the ability to "see" inside people as in their intentions, thoughts, emotions, etc., when making minimal physical contact with them, even when coming in contact with their belongings.

He is looking through a restaurant coat rack for his coat, and as he touches the other coats on the rack he receives a snapshot of the owners.

Most are mundane, or a little sad, then he touches one that makes him recoil because the owner is deeply disturbed, probably psychologically unstable and, he feels, evil.

Somewhere in the restaurant he just left, this individual is sitting, blending in, a ticking time bomb.

Of course, the "evil" presidential candidate is a little too close for comfort. However, it's been well over 20 years since I read the book and the above scene still stays with me. MKJ

[bikebloke]

13. The Stand and 'Salem's Lot

Though I think 'Salem's Lot edges ahead for me. Stephen King was good in his early years. A pity he killed his editor.

[flamingyouth]

14. 'Salem's Lot is my favorite

[LaurenG]

15. The Stand nt

[sundog]

16. salems lot sacred the living shit out of me

more so than anything else i read by him :scared:

[Juneboarder]

17. The Stand

The book is better than the movie by far!!

[jandrok]

18. "The Tommyknockers" would get my vote.

Although I dearly love "The Stand" as well. He had a good run there in the mid-to-late 80's. That was clearly some of his best work.

Tommyknockers amazed me as a good work of almost Lovecraftian proportions. He built the suspense well, and had good characters getting in real trouble. It's one of his lesser recognized works, but it stands up with his most famous stuff.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. For me, his best work is "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank

Redemption." This is not, properly speaking, a book. It is a novella, and is contained in a book of short stories. And of course, it is the excellent basis for the movie. It is the most wonderful, heart-lifting, excellent story I've ever read, bar none.

:applause:

[Nigel_Tufnel]

21. i can't believe i forgot shawshank...

that's a really moving story, and it survived the transition to the movies really well! it's a shame how few stephen king books have made good movies. i think the green mile made the best movie of all.

forgot the dead zone, too. i liked that one, but it hits kind of close to home nowadays....

[nuxvomica]

22. Then you should've voted for "Different Seasons"

What a great collection that was! Besides "Shawshank," there was "Apt Pupil", "The Body" and "The Breathing Method". That's three stories made into three pretty good movies. I voted for "The Shining" but DS would be my second choice.

[Nigel_Tufnel]

23. nah, i'm faithful to the stand!

that would be my "desert island" book. i wish they'd have made a better movie of it, but what movie can be as good as your imagination?

there are just so many good works to choose from -- one of my favorites is "danse macabre," which is based on the coursework from a "themes of supernational literature" class that king gave at the university of maine. it's a fascinating look into the way king's mind works, and his influences. i always enjoyed the forewords of his books -- it's like talking to a neighbor, ya know? he just sounds like someone you'd love to know...

[nuxvomica]

24. I've never understood why so many folks like "The Stand"

I was very disappointed in it but I must admit it had a really good start, which is probably why the resolution just seemed so inadequate to me.

[rudlop]

26. Never heard that before

Interesting. I always thought the start was the slow part. Once i began to understand the characters it really picked up for me.

[nuxvomica]

33. Everybody I know IRL who's read it seems to feel the same way

Of course, I always start the discussion like "Didn't you think 'The Stand' was kind of a letdown after such a good beginning?" ;-)

[Nigel_Tufnel]

28. did you read the unedited version of the stand?

i believe they changed the ending in the unedited one. it's MUCH more terrifying!

to me, the stand just seems less supernationally oriented, and more like something that could actually happen! almost a warning. i like the characterizations (except for frannie goldman, who is the usual cliched king heroine, alas...)

i think king mentions something in the forward (my books are packed and i can't get to 'em right now) about being accused of having diarrhea of the pen in these long stories. i'd have to agree -- in most cases the shorter his story is, the better it is. but in my opinion, the stand is the exception that proves the rule!

can't you tell i just love stephen king?

[nuxvomica]

31. I read the original version

I think I read it the year it was first published. I loved the stuff about the virus and the dreams and the elderly black woman in the cornfield, etc. The beginning reminded me a little of "Alas, Babylon", a book I fondly remember, though not completely so, from my childhood. Maybe I should give the unedited version a chance, most likely in those dead-of-winter nights when I just want to read something scary.

[Nigel_Tufnel]

32. i guarantee it'd be worth it....even though it's 1000 pages or more!

when i got to the end of the new version i was very pleased. it seemed just as it should have been! thinking back, if you only read the original, i could see how you might be disappointed.

[jpgray]

30. That always read to me sort of like a Ken Kesey ripoff

Specifically, the plot is kind of borrowed from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. You have the same "institutional man" narrator, an implacable antagonist who is ostensibly supposed to help the prisoner/inmates but tortures and exploits them, the exceptional outsider individual against society and authority, etc., just with a quiet, dignified sort of McMurphy. Still, a very cool story and well-executed, even if the plot is essentially borrowed.

[CatholicEdHead]

20. Christine

[rudlop]

25. Single book: The Stand Story: Dark Tower series

Best compilation: Bachman books

[rudlop]

27. Must say The Stand TV series wasnt half bad.

also like TV versions of The Langoliers and It.

[Nigel_Tufnel]

29. i thought the langoliers MOVIE was better than the book!

i didn't enjoy that story much. once in awhile he steps into absurdity, and i don't enjoy the story so much. like the moving topiary in the shining. i stopped being scared and went "oh brother"

it was a great book and i enjoyed the movie also

[rudlop]

34. Prefer Langoliers book, but...

The movie was pretty good. I was quite young when i read Langoliers, it made a heck of an impression on me. I was a jaded and cynical college student by the time the movie was made.

[Nigel_Tufnel]

35. i was "young and impressionable" when i read salem's lot

still in high school! i was pretty warped before i even read it, because i grew up watching "dark shadows" on tv after school. i thought it was one of the great vampire novels.

i really should read the dark tower series. i haven't read a lot of king's more recent work. i started on "desperation" and actually got bored and put it away. that was a first for me! i should give all of his books a try. it's hard to find time to read fiction when there's so much horror in the real world to keep up with, ya know?