It is perhaps unfortunate that King became so popular so quickly that he could override the judgment of his editors. His early books, which were subject to editing, are better reads than his later, bloated ones.
However, at the short story length, he packs an amazing wallop. Here are my favorites:
Horror/supernatural stories:Survivor Type - just plain gruesome! The Mangler - a commercial laundry is an awful place, even without any monsters! Grey Matter - eewww!
**The Raft **- hypnotic. The story, also. Jerusalem’s Lot - a classic vampire story Graveyard Shift - King, writing as old H.P.
A surprising number of non-supernatural stories.Strawberry Spring - perhaps my all-time King favorite The Wedding Gig - no one beats King at lower-class dialog The Ledge - great story, not a monster in sight Quitters, Inc - sounds as though it could really happen Last Rung on the Ladder - John D. MacDonald loved this one
And a couple of great romances:Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut - sweet and somewhat disturbing Word Processor of the Gods - a King story with a happy ending?
We all have our own opinions, and as I said in my follow up I wondered whether the order and time and [perhaps the reader’s age] has a lot to do with our rankings.
I read Salem’s Lot when it was first released in 1975, I was twenty years old. The story may be simple and of course vampires were staple horror figures even back then. But King didn’t have compete with his earlier works. I absolutely devoured the book.
Adding to Brother Cadfael’s short story list:
[ul]
[li]The End of The Whole Mess[/li][li]Graduation Afternoon[/li][li]All That You Love Will Be Carried Away[/li][li]Autopsy Room Four[/li][li]In the Deathroom[/li][li]Battleground[/li][/ul]
Agreed. It’s uniquely chilling in so many ways, not least of which is in how it shows how stupid we can be when we’re young - and how bitterly we can grow to regret it. (All of the characters recognize, in short order, that entering The Walk was a serious mistake.)
I also quite liked Salem’s Lot and The Stand - both do really neat jobs of showing the “in-between” time, when societies are starting to fail but still just … barely … tottering along. There are plenty of “outbreak” novels in which disaster is averted in the nick of time, and plenty of post-apocalypse novels - but King does a better job of showing a developing apocalypse than anyone.
The Long Walk is an allegory for life. I cannot read the ending without thinking of the ending to the Green Mile–“We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”
I stopped reading King around the time of Misery. That book really crystallized my problem with many of King’s books – the better written they are, the more disturbed/paranoid I am for several days afterward. I also found that many of his books, like the Dark Tower series, just didn’t do it for me. But I read enough of his early books to pick a top 5:
The Stand (the original version of this is among my top 5 books, period.)
'Salem’s Lot
Thinner
The Shining
Needful Things (I actually didn’t read this but listened to the unabridged version on cassette, but the effect was the same.)
My favorite movies made from King’s works would include at least a couple of his non-horror works
This is really tough. Let’s do what I can about it, however.
Salem’s Lot. I’ll repeat what someone said above: what makes this good is that it never feels surreal or fake…it’s what would happen if vampires showed up one day. I just reread my (autographed!) copy last year, and it still stands up.
The Stand, original version. I love it all the way down to the walking-across-the-desert-to-purify-themselves ending. Stu Redman, Harold Lauder, Franny, Nick…and Randall Flagg. Great characters all of 'em.
Pet Semetary. I know. Believe me, I know. But watching Lou Creed (that “rock and roll animal”) slouch his way ineluctably toward a Really Bad Decision is gripping reading, and I liked the ending.
Cujo. Someone said it above: the dog is the insane side story to a great domestic drama. And I also love its Castle Rock companion piece,
The Dead Zone. A creepy, mesmerizing book.
It. Every good thing King does is poured into this book; it’s only (nearly) ruined by a stupid gimmick near the end, but still it’s a lot of fun. Creepy clowns!
Yeah, so mine goes to 6. Oh well.
A comment on*** On Writing***: in that, King wrote: “Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.” What kind of out-of-fucking-touch comment is that? Large parts of the book were great, but that really pissed me off.
Lisey’s Story
Gerald’s Game (not trying to be contrary with those two picks, I swear! I find them more poignant and ingeniously-written than anything else he’s done) Dolores Claiborne Danse Macabre (this book guided my reading for years)
“The Langoliers”
The Shining
IT
Eye of the Dragon
The Raft
The Stand
I know* IT *and *The Stand *have notoriously weak endings, but I don’t care. I just like the characters, and I love how long they are because I just get to hang out with my “friends” that much longer.
*The Shining *earns its place just for those hedge animals.
*Eye of the Dragon *has that excellent piece of suspensful writing when Flagg is chasing up the stairs of the tower, while Peter is making his escape.
And “The Raft” is just plain gruesome and awesome.
I suppose I might have included *Pet Sematary *and Apt Pupil, because I know they’re well-written, but that’s the problem–they’re *too *well-written. I love being scared, but those two stories just made me feel sad and…oogy is the best word I can come up with. I have no desire to read them again–I don’t like feeling bad.
Very tempting to go with this list, but I’ll try to come up with my own.
The Stand
On Writing
Needful Things
Different Seasons
The Gunslinger
I haven’t read anything by King since I read Wolves of the Calla. It was so connected to 'Salems Lot, which I am ashamed to say I haven’t read. I should probably read 'Salems Lot
People say a lot that the ending of It is weak, but I don’t see how that is - I can’t think of any more impressive way he could have finished that story.
While it’s not a favorite, I want to give an honorable mention to Blaze. It is very clearly influenced by Of Mice and Men but takes it to darker and more twisted ends, sort of like the Alice Hoffman novel Here On Earth did with another piece of literature.
I confess I haven’t read anything of King’s in more than 20 years.
Still, I will heap more love on 'Salem’s Lot. It really is a terrific book. I grew up in a small town (Ohio, not Maine), and it rang very true to me. The characters, their secrets, their strengths, their vulnerabilities… yeah, I could see things unfolding pretty much that way. Brrrrr.
The Stand, of course, for its epic sweep, careful plotting, dark humor and fascinating characters.
Misery, for its almost unbearable tension, its musings on the joy and pain of being a writer, and for one of the most hissable but oddly sympathetic villains ever.
The Dead Zone, because it works just as well as a political thriller, a murder mystery and a pathetic (in the classical Greek sense) exploration of what it means to be cursed with a superhuman “gift.”
And finally Night Shift, which has one great short story after another.