I got hooked on H. Ryder Haggard some years ago and read all of those Alan Quatermain stories. The original Indiana Jones!
Embarrassed about my reading choices? Never. But I forestall the inevitable pointing and laughing of others by only reading Reader’s Digest Condensed Books in the privacy of my own home. 
Try “The Stand” It’s far and away his best. An interesting tid bit about “It” Mr King and Peter Straub were close friends. They colaborated on a couple things.
Straub outlined a story he planned to write, and showed it to his friend. Stephen wrote “It” and Peter wrote “Floating Dragon” Peter didn’t speak to Stephen for some time.
I got some stares and giggles while reading the latest Harry Potter as I’m 26 and therefore not in what most peope consider the series’ target audience, but life’s too short not to read wht you like and naysayers be damned!
So few people seem to actually read books these days that I figure I’m ahead of the game no matter what “crap” I may be reading.
Picunurse, I, too, found The Stand to be not only far and away his best effort, but…IMO an extremely good book in its own right, as in by anyone, writing in whatever genre.
I have a fairly complete collection of early Michael Moorcock “Eternal Champion” fantasy paperbacks. Now, Moorcock has come to be considered something of a major influence in SF (due in part to his editorship of New Worlds magazine, an early vehicle for several very well-regarded SF authors) and he’s actually a decent writer who has grown into bigger and better things, but… Maybe I’m a victim of my own prejudices. Maybe it’s the cover art. I dunno. But I’d just as soon people not know the hours, days, weeks of enjoyment I’ve received immersed in this world of magic swords and epic battles between the cosmic forces of Law and Chaos.
I got lost in Cujo. As in “couldn’t put it down” lost. I was completely absorbed by his treatment of the dog’s POV. I re-read it three times. Now I think it’s been long enough that I can read it again.
No, I’m not embarrased about anything I read. What a shame that would be.
Peace,
mangeorge
Years ago, I had to go on a business trip so I grabbed the biggest paperback book in my boyfriend (now Hubby)'s house. It was The Stand. I tried to read SK’s stuff before, but he kept getting lost on tangents. But this was different! And GOOD!
On the way home, the flight was delayed boarding at Dulles, so there I am reading this HUGE book. A flight attendant comes up and starts to tease me for reading a “slutty” romance book and being so engrossed in it. I laughed and said I was actually embarrassed to be caught reading Stephen King. I showed her the book and she asked “OOOoo, how far are you, have they gotten to Mother Abigail’s yet?” Yep, it’s a small world.
OMG, if you had also read Tommyknockers, you probably would have just hired a hit man to go kill him! I’m an unabashed and unashamed huge fan of King’s (I’ll vote for the “not a great writer, but a great storyteller” label), but these books sucked!
No Dead Zone fans here?
IMHO, if there’s anything worse than someone who never reads fine literature, it’s someone who’ll only read fine literature.
IIRC, the Glass family’s bookshelves were described as containing a mishmash, from Sappho to the Hardy Boys. I always thought there was something really cool about that.
OTOH, I was embarrassed on an airplane to find myself reading Gone With the Wind whilst seated next to an African-American woman and her daughter. I know how to put the book into context, but I worried about how my selection would be interpreted & I surreptitiously put it away. When the plane landed the woman was reunited with her female lover & they commenced a PDA to end all PDAs, so I doubt she’d had anything but anticipation on her mind. I’d burdened myself with both an unwieldy book and unnecessary guilt!
Never been embarrassed by anything I’ve read. Can’t imagine why I would be.
You’re reading It and you’re not sure you’ll like SK? Heh. Wait until you get to the kiddy porn, that outta put paid to any SK books for a good long while.
(P.S. I like SK a lot, I’m just sayin…)
Nothing to be ashamed of, The Stand is my all-time favorite book. I used to read a ton of his books. My other favorites were 'Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Apt Pupil, Misery, and though some people seem to dislike it, Pet Semetary. Its been awhile since I’ve read his stuff, maybe I’ll finaly get around to It which I’ve never read.
Oooh, oooh, me, me!! I loved The Dead Zone! The movie didn’t suck too bad, either. Thought Christopher Walken was a great choice!
Even hubby liked The Dead Zone, and he’s not a fan of King’s (he enjoyed The Green Mile, too, which, IMHO, is the best of King’s later works).
I was about to say “No, no way, I read Harry Potter, the Princess Diaries, and Regency romances completely without shame.” Then it hit me that I never, never take my Pokemon comics out in public (I’m 36). Some lines just aren’t meant to be crossed.
DaPearl, ooohhh, just wait! You are in for one good scarefest with It. Think evil clowns, grown-up kid heroes, a noble mission, in short, all the stuff that makes SK novels at their best unforgetable page-turners.
Thank you! I’m glad I’m not the only one who likes Cujo.
But The Dead Zone has to be my favorite. I also like Misery and Eyes of the Dragon.
Not the only one, perhaps, but definitely in a minority. I thought it was one of his worst. For one thing, in the beginning of the book, he kinda sorta hinted that there was something supernatural going on, and then never followed up on that! WTF? My thinking about Cujo was that it might have been a pretty good short story, but there simply wasn’t enough there for a whole novel.
Cujo was – I was going to say “masterpiece of plotting” but I’m not well-read enough to call anything a masterpiece.
But it was pretty good, the way he strung together all those coincidences that resulted in the Donna and Tad in the Pinto in the barnyard with Cujo.
What started it? Cujo being bit, then the affair, the problem with the food color in the cereal? Someone even had to win a lottery, for pete’s sake. But it all worked. He did say he was strung out while writing that – I think he talked about it in On Writing, didn’t he?
The dog POV was good too, I’d forgotten about that.
Oh, I thought I was the only one that thought like that! Of course, I say the same things about other best-selling writers too.
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Are you my long-lost twin??? I really like obscure, interesting science-fiction that most “mainstream” readers wouldn’t appreciate. How sad is that? 
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Well, not… embarrassed, exactly. But I do read a fair number of juveniles, and have recently started reading manga. Sometimes it occurs to me to wonder how silly it looks for a 50-year old woman to be reading kids books and “comic” books.
But I don’t really care.