In college I had an assignment to write a paper, no topic limitations except that it must be critical writing. The same night I was given the assignment, my prof complained how there was NO critical writing in pop lit. I wrote my paper on King. I can’t find the darn thing right now, but you can really look at what was going on in the world while he wrote his stories and see that they are commentaries on society at large. BTW, I am one of those “finish the DT series, you won’t be disappointed” folks. it ended the only way it could have. If 6 is slow, it is only a reflection of real life. Is your whole life exciting all the time? Mine isn’t and I appreciate literature that reflects life (did I just say that about Stephen King?) And yes, Cell sucked. My personal favorite is The Talisman. Or maybe the full version of The Stand.
Interesting how many people hate Cell. Personally I didn’t think it was great, but it wasn’t too bad either.
On the other hand, Dreamcatcher was – you should pardon the expression – pure shit. 
No love at all for Misery? To me, that was one of his most terrifying books: nothing supernatural, nothing that couldn’t actually happen to someone, and no Magical Negro or Hand of God to provide an escape route at the last minute. Unlike a lot of his books that started strong and then ran out by the second half (ETA: Just like MacSpon’s nominee, Dreamcatcher which went on auto-pilot at the one-third mark), he kept up the suspense the whole way through.
And it made a great movie, too!
King is uneven, but when he’s good he’s good. Salem’s Lot is a good one, as mentioned.
I also agree that he’s usually better at short stories. The Mist creeped the hell out of me, and I really liked The Jaunt; “Wanted to see ! I saw ! Longer than you think, Dad ! Longer than you think !”
I saw Hearts in Atlantis and thought it was great movie. I then went out and got the book and was astounded to find that the movie was made from the first 1/3 of the book!
Another vote for “The Mist” here. His account of his son’s Little League Season, “Head Down”–just terrific. *“Stand By Me” *is one of my favorite movies, and I loved Stephen’s adventures with the Rock Bottom Remainders.
To me, the creepiest thing is how the driver that hit him in 1993 ended up dying on King’s birthday.
For the life of me, I will NEVER understand all the hate for The Tommyknockers. It’s one of my favorite SK books.
That being admitted, I recently finished Cell and really enjoyed it too.
I’ve read every SK book save for The Dark Tower Series and I really enjoyed most of them. Some however, well…
…like some said in here sorta expressed already, From a Buick Eight stank. It was also God-awful boring. Bag of Bones was a bit better than this but still didn’t really capture my attention like most of his books do. And Dreamcatcher was really great, I thought, but the movie (well, the ENDING of the movie, more or less) sucked extremely. WHY did they have to go and change the ending? Man, do I hate the movie’s ending. The book is much better, IMHO.
I enjoyed Cell, and read it in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down. I didn’t like the ending, but I liked the pacing and the flow of the rest of the story.
Desperation gave me nightmares for weeks, and I still think it’s one of King’s scariest novels yet.
That was a great read… I’m actually totally freaked out by it. I’m home alone with my cat and a wicked cold. Thanks for scaring the crap out of me! 
Oh, you really need to re-read that one. It’s a really great book about addiction, what it’s like to fall into one and what it’s like to be at the nadir of your alcoholism. The book, especially the first 200 pages, really reads like a junkie/alcoholic who is trying to work out their problems on paper and given what SK was like when he wrote it (he was in the midst of a huge cocaine habit when he penned the book - he even says he doesn’t remember writing much of Tommyknockers), it probably is.
Chapter 4 in Misery, really the Epilogue, is one of the finest (and bittersweet) endings of any novel I have ever read. You truly had a sense of the books world continuing even after you finished the novel.
I totally agree. I love Rage and think it’s one of his best novellas, right up there with The Long Walk.
I’m getting ready to start Lisey’s Story, and I just finished Cell (which I thought was an updated Stand with the ending of Thinner).
I absolutely loved The Stand. It’s one of those books I revisit every couple of years. I like his easy conversational way of writing.
ShelliBean, another vote for yes, do finish Dark Tower. *Wolves of the Calla * was interesting and worth the read. While I agree that *Song of Susannah * was not his best work, it’s pretty short and gets you where you need to go. If you hate it, hey, at least you’ll know how it ends and can form your own opinion.
My favorite King story, and the first thing I ever read by him, was “The Boogeyman,” in Night Shift. I slept with my closet door open and the light on for a week, I swear, it scared the crap out of me. I also loved Rage, read it at a formative age and thought it expressed quite eloquently a lot of what goes on in high schools. It’s too bad that it feel under the post-Columbine paranoia, because it does have a good deal of literary merit.
Just to be clear: I wrote the post about King’s allegorical symbolism in Pet Sematary. I never attributed it to my own analysis and gave credit to King for articulating it. Then Anaamika had to make sure you knew it wasn’t my original thoughts. Not sure why anyone having a snit over it was necessary. ::shrug::
I gave up on King after Insomnia, the worst in a running streak of increasingly mediocre novels. I read everything published before that except for Cycle of the Werewolf.
If you like Pet Sematary, I recommend his earlier stuff. If what you like is the sense of very normal-seeming people responding to the otherworldly, I would guide you toward 'Salem’s Lot, The Shining, and probably The Dead Zone. I would then guide you toward Skeleton Crew, a collection of short stories that also includes the excellent short novel The Mist. You’ll then want to devour his other early collection, Night Shift.
Different Seasons is a nice change of pace, but before reading The Body you might like to check out the somewhat lesser Cujo to get some of the references, as they are all set in the same town as The Dead Zone.
His track record becomes really spotty for stuff published after Pet Sematary for me, with Misery being a notable exception.
That’s it exactly. He makes you think, “Hmm, that sounds plausible. Like it could actually happen to anybody, including me.” and that’s not a very comfortable thought.
I am a huge King fan. I hated Tommyknockers (the story kinda sucked and the science was bad). It is about the only book of his I truely dislike, though the begining really did hit home for me*.
One thing I am suprised that I haven’t seen anyone comment on yet is the way he writes kids. The kids in It are believable. They have a depth that you rarely see other writers give kids.
Slee
*I need to go back and reread Tommyknockers. I am a recovering alkie and read it while I was still drinking. Maybe it will sit better with me now. His description of Gard really hit home. I did all that dumbass stuff (well, my version of that dumbass stuff). He nailed that part of the book.
Hmmm, scotandrsn, all your links seem to be broken.
d&r
There ya go. Thank you, Cheesesteak.
I’m a big fan of King. I especially love the ones that could really have happened (Shawshank, Misery, The Body); followed by the ones with ordinary people dealing with supernatural situations (The Shining, The Stand, Pet Sematary). There are a lot of King books that feel like a big pile of icky weirdness for its own sake (Dreamcatcher, Lisey’s Story, Desperation, The Regulators) and I’ll read those because I like King’s writing, but I don’t care for the books themselves at all.
One of my least favorites is The Dark Half, and I’m not really sure why. It just doesn’t feel like his stuff to me. I keep waiting for him to admit he didn’t really write it.
For the person that said DT was iffy because of his/her feelings towards fantasy books, I can tell you it’s not exactly like you probably think it is (how jumbled is that?). I am not a fantasy reader, and the closest I came to LOTR was in a theater. If you read Eyes of the Dragon (and that’s a real lunchbreak kind of book) it will give you a sense of the world in DT but add more western/epic journey in there. I highly recommend it.
Also, the only thing holding me back from reading Wolves of Calla right now are logistics. I have to get to the library all the way across town to pick it up. Otherwise it would have been read last weekend. So I am planning on finishing the series - and it really wouldn’t matter if everyone here told me not to. I have to now. I’m as greedy for the ending as Roland is for the tower.
And just to reiterate: Cell sucks. A lot. Like a porn star. Like a porn star that had a Dyson surgically implanted in her mouth and a pool filter in her ass (anyone here a Palahniuk fan?).