The Stand as a long story.
But his short stories are my favorites. The Langoliers, The Jaunt, Dolan’s Cadillac, The Mangler (shudder), Everything’s Eventual, Room 1408 (BIG shudder), all those!
His novels have sort of ceased to interest me. Many of them are absolute shit, but when he gets it right he REALLy gets it right.
'Salem’s Lot (yeah, check where the punctuation really goes–it’s short for Jerusalem’s Lot, the name of a town in Maine–where else?).
I’m old enough to have read the books as they were released. I’m commuting on the bus to NYC reading this one. Get to the part where the young kid is in a field–tension has been building and building and building, yadda yadda yadda. It’s the end of the chapter. He’s standing there and feels a hand on his shoulder… I almost freakin’ screamed out loud!!! And then the next chapter takes you to a different scene so you don’t know what’s happening with the kid until after THAT chapter. Yeah, he sure knew how to build suspense back then…
I like the earlier ones and was a fan for a long, long time but I kind of gave up when the Dark Tower series was slow in coming out with the later ones…
When The Stand was in paperback I had it in my purse. On my lunch hour I went to Barnes & Noble on 5th Ave. (Rockefeller Center). By coincidence/serendipity King was in there signing Firestarter which was just released in hardcover. I stood in line to have him sign my paperback. BUT, all of a sudden, I was overcome with a bad bad case of the CREEPS!!! Don’t know what the heck it was but I definitely felt it was coming from him or surrounding him. Crazy, huh? I had this overwhelming feeling that I had to get out of there…
I chose It as my favorite Stephen King book. It was also my first King book, I must have been 12 or 13 when I read that.
I’m particularly fond of The Last Rung on the Ladder.
I’m with the majority who chose The Stand, but my second might be Bag of Bones.
Old favourites: Cujo, Salem’s Lot, and The Shining.
Actually, I’m going to vote for his nonfiction. First, Danse Macabre, which is very re-readable even though it’s quite out of date now. (I wish, wish, wish he’d do an updated version.) And then, On Writing, which is just a really great treatise on writing/personal memoir.
I love much of his fiction as well, but for my money, those are two of his finest.
Heh. I remember I was 15 when my father handed me a copy of 'Salem’s Lot and said “Don’t read this at night”.
I knew nothing of King at the time. I started reading. For those of you familiar with the novel, almost the first half is pure background/build-up. So I’m reading, thinking “Why am I not reading this at night?” and of course, started reading it at night. :smack:
Before you know it, I’m sleeping with a crucifix under my pillow, and my bedroom light on. . .
I’ve been hooked on King ever since.
For those who say his writing has changed since his accident, well, yeah, it has. The first thing any teacher teaches in writing class is “write what you know”. Therefore, I couldn’t even grok a novelist who could go through such a life-changing, traumatic experience, and not incorporate it into his writing. It was horrific, and when it happened, it became a part of ‘what he knows’.
Some of it is probably just getting older, and evolving, too.
But I don’t believe it’s just coincidence that his next novel is due out on my birthday. . .
The Mist is so one of my favs…scared the crap out of me
Oh, heavens no!!! I could maybe, just maybe, narrow it down to my favorite ten. Or maybe my favorite “scary” one out of each collection, and favorite “non-scary” one. Or favorite supernatural one out of each collection, or. . .
Oh, no, no way there are enough options for a favorite King short story! Especially if you list his Novellas in that (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemtion; Breathing Lessons; Apt Pupil; Rage; The Long Walk; The Running Man). . .No way!
Agreed. Q. to the masses: are they as abrupt a departure from his other stuff as I (generally having not read most of the rest of his oevure) think they are?
I picked Christine. Been my favorite since the first time I read it around age 13 or so.
Watching “Friends” where Joey goes and puts “The Shining” in the freezer when it scares him too much, my first thought was, “Huh. Wish I’d thought of that.” 
One of my reasons for choosing “The Stand” as my favourite was because it is post-apocalyptic fiction, which is my favourite brand of fiction.
Add me to the list of people in awe of “1408,” too - that story scared the living crap out of me, and I couldn’t really tell you why. “This is Nine! Nine!”
Misery made me very genuinely uneasy. And I understood the frustration at someone not liking a piece of your writing that you consider your best work.
Though if the poll were to be called “Favorite Stephen King Work,” then I would’ve picked “1408.” I watched the movie, and liked a couple scenes, but thought it was generally silly. Then I read the short story and had to sleep with the lights on.
The Stand
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
Carrie
The Langoliers
Needful Things
Two of these are novellas, but they count.
Entirely agreed. I read the story as a child, and the mood of the story was so heavy, I was a bit traumatized. To this day, memories of the story creep me out in a way I can’t put my finger on.
The movie missed out on the harsh guttral voice…
They did? That must have been much less effective then (I haven’t had the nerve to see the movie yet).
Other than the Dark Tower series. I would have to say may favs are (in no particular order)
The Stand
IT
The Long Walk ( makes my feet hurt reading this one)
From A Buick 8 ( I don’t understand the hate for this book)
I don’t either. I just re-read it, and it was good. It’s a good story, well-told. I’m not looking for much more in my reading for entertainment.
In the movie, there was still a voice on the phone, but it played a somewhat different role. Every time Enslin picked up the phone (in the movie) he would get a perky yet frighteningly implacable ‘service operator’ saying things like “Are you ready to check out, sir?” in a chirpy, female voice; but then the surrounding scene would make it clear that by “check out”, she (or it, or whatever) meant was “kill yourself”. I think the makers of the movie thought it would be too hard to find a voice that audiences would find universally horrifying and inhuman, or maybe Bobcat Goldthwaite was already busy with another project.
Definitely The Stand, which I’ve read umpteen times, believe it or not. Every time I re-read one of his books, btw, I pick up some nuance that I missed on previous readings, it seems. I’m so glad that they re-published Stand, putting back what had been cut from the first time it was published. Although some of that stuff seemed unnecessary, it was generally good background material, imho.
I think It is probably my second favorite. It really put me off clowns for a -long- time. LOL