I’m just including his full length, stand alone novels. To save space, I’m not including his short story collections, his non-fiction, collaborations, illustrated works, the Bachman books, or the Dark Tower series. But feel free to vote for any of those with the “other” option.
I voted for ‘‘Other’’: his Bachman novel, The Long Walk. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it so it’s hard to be specific about why it’s my favorite, but I just found it unique, dreadful, well-crafted, and powerfully concluded.
My second favorite is Gerald’s Game. Probably the most emotionally resonant of his works for me.
I went with “Other”. A Stephen King poll that leaves out the Dark Tower books is woefully incomplete.
Gerald’s Game. It was a hard decision tho… I love The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon-just finished re-reading it-Cujo, Pet Semetery, 'Salem’s Lot… his older stuff was SO good.
Oh, it was a hard choice! When people (IRL) ask me what my favorite King book is, I have to break it down by category. Favorite all-out scare book? It. Favorite fantasy book? The Talisman. Favorite non-horror? The Green Mile. Favorite no-supernatural-elements? Misery. Favorite non-supernatural short story? Dolan’s Cadillac. Favorite supernatural short story? Everything’s Eventual. Favorite all-out-creeped-my-shit short story? Room 1408.
On and on. But all-around, I still had to vote The Stand.
Oh, and of course, favorite Bachman book? Rage.
Other. At least 3 of the DT books rank higher for me than what’s on that list. Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, and The Gunslinger, is how I’d rank them.
Another vote for The Stand. It’s a close call between The Stand and The Long Walk for me, but I think The Stand has to take it.
The Stand just edges out The Drawing of the Three for me.
It’s been years since I read The Drawing of the Three; these posts are making me believe it needs a re-read.
As a matter of fact, I ferociously avoided reading any of the DT books at first. But then my MIL bought me the first three of them at a library sale, so then it felt rude to not read them, then I was hooked. 
Ohh… very tough call. For me it’s a close match between the Dark Tower series and The Stand with the DT series winning by a nose. As a teenager it was probably The Eyes of the Dragon or The Shining. If novellas are included, all bets are off. Tough decision though, the man does pen a fine story.
It was it for me.
And another vote for The Long Walk.
I really like his new one, or rather, the one that was the new one when I started writing this sentence. By the time I finish this post he’ll have about four.
What a surprisingly hard choice! I’ve loved Stephen King since I was about 12. For me it was a 50/50 between *The Stand *and The Shining, but the Shining won out because I have fond memories of the physical act of reading that book on summer vacation when I was in eighth grade, and I let the nostalgia tip the balance. The *Long Walk * or Bag of Bones would be a close third.
FTR, If the Dark Tower books were formally included, I would have chosen one of those (the the Waste Land, The Gunslinger, and Wizard and Glass, in that order). But with the fact that they’re a series and as profoundly different and expansive as they are from his other novels, I figured I’d continue to consider them as a class apart. Plus I hate selecting “other” in polls.
(Now that I think about it, the only Stephen King book (and I’ve read all but maybe a dozen, mostly neglecting the new ones) I’ve read and didn’t like was Eyes of the Dragon. I liked the plot, but something about the writing style was just…meh…for me).
The Shining is his best. As with some of his other books, he had something going on two levels: your basic horror-story creepshow thriller but also a sense in which everyday non-supernatural life is chock-full of horror-story stuff, like when you turn over a rock and multi-legged things are crawling around under it. In The Shining he made both levels work all the way through to the conclusion. (In many of the others, he gave up on the reconcilications and reveals for the non-supernatural stuff).
OTHER REASONS:
a) In his earliest book, Carrie, his writing was terse and sparse. In his later work, he had developed a bad case of diarrhea of the pen. The Shining represents the perfect medium.
b) From about IT onward, he developed these annoying OCD ‘tics’ in his writing, where some stupid phrase would amuse him and he’d wear it out over the next 800 pages. “getting up to didoes”. “when in doubt, strap on”.
c) Similarly, he’d get enamoured of some paragraph in which the contents of some character’s head is suddenly a bit dirtier or coarser, and in his later writing he got in the habit of going BACK to those bits and elaborating on them getting ever raunchier. Like some character watching another person wipe their nose with the back of their hand while eating and wondering if some of the snot got on the food. So far, same as he would’ve done in his earlier writings, down to earth, makes his characters human, great writing… but then he’d have his character think back on that later and wonder if the person regularly wiped snot into their food to add a bit of salt flavoring to it. And then later thinking the person is probably active plucking out gooey buggers to garnish their food. And so on, ad nauseum, always returning to the SAME thing and elaborating on it. After awhile that plus the “didoes / strap on” thing really takes me out of the story.
The Stand was his best big story of those choices, but I’m a huge fan of The Long Walk as well- that was the first story that I read by him and got hooked.
Also, I like the DT series as a whole, that’s the only reason I didn’t vote for that choice- else I’d pick that series over the Stand, but otherwise, make mine Captain Tripps.
I had a hard time choosing between The Shining and Salem’s Lot, early books, much tighter than the later ones, and with decent endings. Dang. I can’t remember which one I voted for.
I read The Dead Zone before I read The Shining, so even though I may like the latter more the former was the book that made me go, ‘Hey, wait, this isn’t trashy horror.’
Really I like his short stories and novellas the most. That is where he shines. Or did, until that latest collection. Should have been tipped off by it being in the bargain bin.
For novellas it has to be The Mist or Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Or Low Men In Yellow Coats. Maybe The Langoliers.
I’m glad to see The Shining’s getting some love! My vote for it was the only one for a little while.
I voted The Stand, but my all-time favorite (The Talisman) wasn’t included because it was a collaboration. I think the last one I read all the way through was Insomnia–I just couldn’t justify the time spent in proportion to the enjoyment received after that.