Stephen King books- fav. and least fav.

In My Humble Opinion
61

Nope, too busy fuming over Bloom (and the fact that I shelled out $30 for that book – I already had most of the essay stuff, so the only thing new was his intro).

I guess my favorite is The Stand, followed by Cujo and The Dead Zone. I couldn’t believe it when he said he didn’t remember writing most of Cujo (coked up) – it took some doing to keep all those coincidences going, starting with what? The red dye in the cereal? Then the woman winning the lottery, and going on from there.

My least favorites are Tommyknockers, Insomnia, Rose Madder and Gerald’s Game. If someone else had written them, I’d have never picked up that author again.

I have mixed feelings on the Dark Tower series. I can’t help but think he doesn’t know where he’s going. I wouldn’t care if he didn’t finish it.

62

Oh dude you gotta read Cujo. I’ll murder whomever stole it from your 'brary. I’ve read it three times. So sad, I was nearly crying the first time I finished it. Definitely, I think you should get it. Buy it, its that good!

I’ve always wanted to read Rose Madder: but it seems to be getting some negative review here…I might as well eventually though…right? And I should finish Danse Macabre. And Insomnia. (I don’t hate it or anything, but I was never able to get through the whole thing.) I never finished Hearts in Atlantis either…oh well…

On the Shawshank Redemption- I’m sure he wrote it. Just because it didn’t involve sadistic clowns and insane hotels, doesn’t mean SK wasn’t behind it. I wasn’t actually there when he typed it out- but it seems to be written in his style. Has your dad ever read anything apart from Shawshank?

63

Zoggie, he hasn’t even read Shawshank. Just seen the movie.

You know, the library in my dorm has Cujo. I would read it now, but I have a backlog of books to read already, and no time to read those. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for an uninterupted day with no homework…

64

My favorite was It, and my least favorite was The Green Mile.

65

Well, my faves are going to differ a little. I liked King’s early stuff when I was younger, but these days I enjoy his more introspective, personal stuff (same thing with Dean Koontz).

My two most favorite are The Talisman and Insomnia. I loooooove the Talisman, god that book is like one long bout of incredible sex. I love the chapter called “News from around the world” or something like that. “Can I get a hallelujah, amen?” I also cried like a baby over Wolf, and I loved the part after Jack leaves Wolf and he talks about how Wolf was noble. I have an old, torn, dog-eared copy of that book that I bought for $0.50 at the library, the cover is gone and the first and last pages are all taped up, but I cherish it.

Insomnia - I have read this book maybe 10 times. I adore it. I love the whole concept of fate King uses - that this one child must be saved because when he is 18 he will save another boy whose death would mess up the while balance of the universe. I also like the love story. And I adore the passage on page 440 (of the hardcover copy) where Ralph goes to the hospital and remembers when his wife died. And the ending is incredible.

I actually loved The Regulators and Desperation. I got such a kick out of the characters - the name’s the same, but they are completely different in each book. I read them both back to back, which helped. I think I might re-read them sometime soon.

I also liked Hearts of Atlantis - especially the part about the first kiss with Carol.

I have read all of King’s work, and for that reason (and because I read so much in general) I don’t remember a lot about his other books. But I distinctly recall not liking The Tommyknockers or Cujo. I enjoyed The Shining and Salem’s Lot, also Different Seasons (Rita Hayworth - the last four pages of that novella are so incredible!)

I didn’t hate Gerald’s Game, but The Dark Tower series did not do it for me at all. I actually just sent all four books away to Purple Heart.

66

Relic- Cujo is great. I think you’ll enjoy it if you ever get a chance to pick it up. Thanksgiving is coming. It’s just great…I have such fond memories connected with it. One of the first two books that I read by SK. In fact, my two year anniversary of SK books has passed. That is, I read my first one a little over 2 years ago…:slight_smile: Ahh. how could i ever have survived without him?

67

My favorite was the Stand. When the uncut version came out, I read it all in one sitting! And got a monster migraine for my pains.

I love Misery (book & movie) simply because it is a plausible story. A good book to recommend to people who think King only writes supernatural stuff.

Rose Madder was good, except for the mirror stuff. When I first read it, I thought “If I had the wherewithal, I’d buy the movie rights and cast Bruce & Demi.”

The best short story was the Mist. And Survivor Type was the grossest thing I have ever read.

Don’t forget Danse Macabre, a good non-fiction look into the horror genre. It proves Kind is a write, not just a writer of fiction. I wish he would update it.

Worst were Gerard’s Game and Tommyknockers. The absolutely worst, though, was the Langolies (whatever). And the made-for-TV movie was the worst one I have ever seen.

68

Best: It, and the first 3 of the Dark Tower series.

Worst: The Plant, no doubt about it.

69

What?! WHAT MADE FOR TV MOVIE? STORM OF THE CENTURY? Noo! That one ROCKS!! Not sucks, rocks!!

70

I think Annie meant “The Langoliers” movie. Which I personally liked, until we actually saw the langoliers. The little pac-man creatures. The guy who played Toomey was very good (Balki!), as was Patricia Wettig.

I agree that Storm of the Century absolutely rocked! Thinking about the last scene when the Dad saw his son again makes me shudder!

71

I had high hopes for Storm, but I think it sucked too.

It would have been the first time I’d seen a King movie/TV show without having read the book, and it was going to be an experiment – were most of the movies bad because I was familiar with the stories, or were they just bad.

Maybe the commercial breaks ruined it, I dunno. I hated it. No tension, no scary bits, didn’t care about any of the characters, stock “shocker” (splort) ending. Bleh.

Just MHO. I’m old, and I’m getting harder to please.

72

Well, I loved it. Still for the most part, I think his books are a lot better. The Shining is a good movie, (the Kubrick version, at least) but still doesn’t live up to the book. Carrie’s very good, and Christine seems to suck but i watch parts of it each time it comes on anyway…and Shawshank Redemption does rock.

All in all, though, it’s probably better to judge an author by their books…makes sense, right?

73

Yeah, Zoggie.

I feel kinda bad bitching about King, or any other writer or director or artist, because I know I couldn’t do what they do. They’re very brave, aren’t they, putting their stuff out there for everyone to look at and criticize? I couldn’t do it.

But sometimes you think they knew better, or could have put just a bit more time on a project, but got tired or bored or lazy and just sent it out into the world, naked and half-formed. That ticks me off.

74

It’s interesting that the books most of you hated are the ones that he wrote while an alcoholic and a Coke addict. In his latest “On Writing…”, he admits that he doesn’t even remember writing a few of them. (Cujo comes to mind)

I absolutely love The Stand. As a matter of fact, I had a huge, fat, assignment last year for my Honors English final Five essays: 3 on what affected the author (Other authors, society and personal life), theme, and type of literature.
Go! Read! Enjoy!
Also, the ending of The Stand is foreshadowed extensively throughout the novel, and it brings the novel full circle. (Technology destroyed society, technology destroyed the evil, and technology might destroy the good side as well. You can read more about it in my essays.)

The only book I really didn’t like was ** Needful Things.** But I read it 5 years ago, maybe I’ll try again.

I didn’t like The Regulators but only because it was exactly like my recurring nightmares. I have dreams like that every night, why do I want to read about it when I wake up?

75

I am sure everyone has been waiting anxiously for my mini-reviews of the King books I have read… :slight_smile:

In no particular order…

The Long Walk - One of the Bachman books - pretty twisted, but the story stuck with me in my head as a “what if” kind of thing. I enjoyed it.

The Running Man - Couldn’t really get into this one - part of the problem was that I kept seeing Arnold and Richard Dawson running around in my head while I was reading it…

Thinner - Good book. Good story. Well told.

The Shining - One of my favourites. A “believable” story, if King can tell such a thing in a supernatural setting. I also enjoyed the movie, although I know that is not true of everyone.

Christine - Another favourite. I love the idea of a killer car. Just the kind of story I like to read. Make something ordinary into something creepy.

Eye of the Dragon - Did not like it at all. Not into the fantasy setting of it I guess.

The Tommyknockers - First time I tried to read it, I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. I tried again a few years later and while I got through it - I was pretty indifferent towards it. Nothing special.

IT - Good book… Until the end. 10 year olds having sex in a sewer on the advice of a mystical turtle? Uh, no thanks…

The Dark Half - Another middle of the road book. Nothing I am desperate to go back and read again. Never saw the movie version either.

Carrie - Didn’t really enjoy this one, but it was one of the first King books I read. Maybe I should go back and read it again…

Firestarter - Pass.

Misery - Great book. I really liked this one because it was a believable story. Nice writing and well paced.

Needful Things - I enjoyed this one. I liked the idea of one person setting a town off against itself. But looking back, it was pretty weak.

Insomnia - Kept my interest up until the end when the little creatures with the scissors starting taking the main character (forget his name) for flights into the unknown. Bought the paperback version to read it again and give it another chance, but I lost it (anyone find it? Please send it back. Thanks).

The Regulators - King (or Bachman if you prefer) trying to get rid of some pent up frustration I guess. Maybe he was having G-Force cartoon nightmares (like we all have) at the time.

Desperation - Really enjoyed this one. Nice premise with the ultimate “Good vs. Evil” battle. Great one-liners in the writing made it a fun read too.

Bag of Bones - I thought that this was one of King’s better efforts. Really good story telling, and some very scary moments.

I have also enjoyed his collections of short stories. I wish he would write more of them. He seems to do really good in that format.

Anyways, there are my opinions. I enjoy King’s writings, but he could always do better… :slight_smile:

76

Which books would that be? <G> Don’t feel like going through and reading all the books everyone hated. Kind of scary that a guy could become a bestselling writer while on drugs. See? That shows what a great writer SK is. Could Shakespeare and Dickens and Hawthorne have become such popular writers if they hadn’t been sober? (Alright, maybe they weren’t sober all the time, but anyways)

77

I believe someone mentioned the audio book Blood and Smoke before. I have to say, I really enjoyed that one.
There are three stories (two of them only available on that tape), all read by King. My favorite one was ‘1408’, about a haunted hotel room. It gave me chills listening to it, and I even had a nightmare about it that night. I suggest listening to it during a long car ride at night…that’s what I did :). (What really creeped me out was that he mentioned the name of the road I was on in the story!)

Rose

78

To whoever said they wanted more backstory, like one that would explain how Carrie’s mother got the way she was, I agree, but it won’t happen. King said in the intro to one of his books, maybe The Stand, that he doesn’t like to do exposition. For instance, he said, if he could do Firestarter over again, he would have left out the sequence about the experiments that made Charlie McGee’s parents telekinetic. Ha! I groove on that kind of thing: government corruption is a fascinating subject! Besides, without that, no one would have known why The Shop was so anxious to get their hands on Charlie and her dad.

King does not seem to understand women terrifically well.

I liked Gary Sinise as Stu Redman. Reading The Stand, I pictured him as a classic redneck, with a gut and with oil permanently grimed into his face, and couldn’t understand why Frannie, who was a babe, and young, would go for him. On seeing him in the movie, I immediately thought, “Ah, now thiisss makes more sense!”

Rule of thumb: if a character uses gratutious, overdone hick vernacular, he’s a good guy. If he talks edjamacated, he’s bad.

79

I agree with this, Rilchiam, how SK doesn’t “get” women. I hate to say this- I am a huge fan of the guy’s work and all that…but still. Notice how he almost always talk about a female’s physical description before her personality. And a guy always seems to fall in love with a woman just because she’s gorgeous. Just seems rather superficial. And SK is such a good writer, that I think he should know better than to do something that’s so dated. Not that he always does. But note how in the Stand, its 4 males who go out to do battle with Flagg, while one of our most prominent female characters gets knocked up. Guys just seemed to be favored in the Stand.

And in that same novel, yeah. I got why she liked him in the novel, but I still never found Stu all that sexy. I had other preferences, but that’s another thread. Also, Stu did sort of seem like a good old boy- while Harold, who was well-read and well educated was the evil one.

I feel really bad faulting Stephen King. He has had, without a doubt, a lot of influence on me, and I really do love his books. Those above mentioned things have always gotten to me though. Am I just crazy, or has anyone else seen these things too?

80

I didn’t like the two instances where he had female characters going to an MD, asking for the pill, but not directly; rather by beating around the bush by claiming they had cramps and bad complexions, and then asking themselves, “Why can’t I just say, I need birth control?” Like he’d know what motivates a woman when she becomes sexually active. I especially didn’t like Frannie’s moment of self-realization in The Stand, when she states (only to herself, thank god) that women’s liberation wouldn’t have happened if men hadn’t created the technology to make it possible. Absolute bull. He seems to think that western civilization started the year he was born. There were plenty of women in the nineteenth century and earlier who could work the fields and fire guns and do everything they needed to do to be self-reliant. Men get all the credit for the Westward Expansion in the US. Well, they had wives and daughters, and I assure you, those women did not sit in the house, or cabin, doing needlepoint. If anything, technology is what oppressed women in the twentieth century. Glad to see you know your history, Stevie.

And don’t even get me started on Frannie’s journal and her wonderfully relevant “Things to Remember”. “You used to be able to get frozen cakes in a place called a supermarket any time you wanted. This was known as Conspicuous Consumption.”

I agree with you, Zoggie, about the gratuitous female descriptions of women. Has there ever been a female character, attractive or otherwise, that he did not describe in detail? Because, of course, the key to understanding a woman’s character is knowing what she looks like. Conversely, he rarely even mentions if male characters are blond or dark. Height and build come into play sometimes, but only so you’ll know if the guy can fight or not.