Your favourite Stephen King Books?

[Josephus]

Rolling Stone published a readers poll:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-stephen-king-books-20141105

10. Dark Tower Book IV (never read DT series)

9. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (not really a book---but different seasons is pretty solid anyway)

8. The Dead Zone. (yeah, would probably rate it higher)

7. The Green Mile (yeah, pretty good)

6. 11/22/63 (Agree. Also best placing of his post accident novels)

5 Misery. (Great, but movie was even better)

4. Salem's Lot (really? Salem's Lot?)

3. The Shinning (Excellent)

2. It (Yes, like it, surprised by its high placing though)

1. The Stand (Stephen King's epic masterpiece)

Probably can debate the order, but with the exception of Salem's Lot and including Different Seasons instead of Rita Hayworth, I'd argue those probably are his best 10 books)

[Admiral Yi]

I've only read The Shining and the scene with the fire hoses scared the Bejesus out of me.

[Agelastus]

The only Stephen King book I've bought (and one of only three I've read) is "The Stand"; I'm not surprised it's top given it can even appeal to non-Stephen King readers.

[CountDeMoney]

His On Writing.  Probably the best writing memoir I've ever read.

[Josephus]

His On Writing.  Probably the best writing memoir I've ever read.

Yes....I did like that.

[Razgovory]

His On Writing.  Probably the best writing memoir I've ever read.

That's what I was going to suggest.

[Josquius]

I read the first half of the stand and it wad pretty good but then it dropped the end of civilization mega plague plot and started being all about magic black ladies and the devil and...yeah. It lost the plot and i couldnt read on

[Eddie Teach]

I've read The Stand & The Dark Tower which were ok, Christine which was pretty dull, and some collaboration(with some guy named Taub or something like that maybe?) that was ok. Overall, I enjoyed reading Koontz more.

[CountDeMoney]

Overall, I enjoyed reading Koontz more.

Heh, my mother is a Koontz fan. 

The only King books I've read were Salem's Lot (back when I was 14 or so), Misery (which I thought was done very well), and The Stand.

Personally, when it comes to horror-suspense, I prefer Clive Barker by far over anyone else.

[dps]

I read the first half of the stand and it wad pretty good but then it dropped the end of civilization mega plague plot and started being all about magic black ladies and the devil and...yeah. It lost the plot and i couldnt read on

Apparently, there are different editions of the book that contain various amounts of the magic and mysticism.  I read the first paperback edition (I think) and while there was some magic/mysticism there, overall it was a fairly small if important part of the story.  It gets ramped up considerably in later editions.

I didn't realize this until a few years ago when I was visiting my brother and we happened to watch the TV mini-series. There was a lot of stuff in it about which I kept saying "That wasn't in the book" and my brother insisted was in the book.  We looked into it and realized that he had read a much later edition.  Apparently King went back in re-wrote parts of it or added new material to tie the Randall Flagg character into some of his other works.  Actually, in the edition I read the main magic-using character was never even named as Randall Flagg IIRC.

[Razgovory]

Overall, I enjoyed reading Koontz more.

Heh, my mother is a Koontz fan. 

The only King books I've read were Salem's Lot (back when I was 14 or so), Misery (which I thought was done very well), and The Stand.

Personally, when it comes to horror-suspense, I prefer Clive Barker by far over anyone else.

Books with S&M demons, yeah I could see that.

[grumbler]

Dean Koontz was the best when he was in his prime, before everything became Goddidit (much like the end of The Stand, except that it was every book).  The Watchers was simply excellent.  Clive Barker is good in short doses; he jumps the shark in his longer works.

I like the "hominess" of King - his characters' everyday lives are more believable than most.  I didn't care for It, by and large.  Too contrived, and the kiddie sex was a turnoff.  I'd have to say Dead Zone was my favorite, because you never knew if the protagonist's powers were real, or he was imagining the whole thing.

[Josephus]

I read the first half of the stand and it wad pretty good but then it dropped the end of civilization mega plague plot and started being all about magic black ladies and the devil and...yeah. It lost the plot and i couldnt read on

Apparently, there are different editions of the book that contain various amounts of the magic and mysticism.  I read the first paperback edition (I think) and while there was some magic/mysticism there, overall it was a fairly small if important part of the story.  It gets ramped up considerably in later editions.

I didn't realize this until a few years ago when I was visiting my brother and we happened to watch the TV mini-series. There was a lot of stuff in it about which I kept saying "That wasn't in the book" and my brother insisted was in the book.  We looked into it and realized that he had read a much later edition.  Apparently King went back in re-wrote parts of it or added new material to tie the Randall Flagg character into some of his other works.  Actually, in the edition I read the main magic-using character was never even named as Randall Flagg IIRC.

Nah not quite

Randall Flag, the Walking Dude, was always in the book. There was the original version. Sometime in teh 90s they released a longer version. It wasn't so much that King added stuff, but that the original version was cut down because otherwise it would be too expensive and at the time Stephen King wasn't a bestseller (The Stand was his third novel).
There was a character in the longer version who was only in it a bit in the original. Can't remember the name but ti was the firebug guy.

[Josephus]

When I was younger I read a lot about the horror stuff. I loved King and the English King, James Herbert. I read a lot of Clive Barker, he demanded a lot of your time, but in his prime was worth the investments....Imajica and Great and Secret Show are great books. I put them more into fantasy horror than out and out horror. But he kinda got a bit weird later on and I stopped reading him. Never really got into Koontz.

[LaCroix]

the stand was really great for the first two thirds or so. then it just fell flat.