Oh my god a Stephen King thread! Yay!

For me, IT was the first book of his I ever read, it got me hooked, and remains my favorite to this day. Not only is it brilliantly written and scary as all hell, I love the theme of the adults trying to recapture the magic of their youth not because they want to, but because a giant fucking monster is going to destroy the town if they don't. Classic. As an author wannabe, I'm also completely in love with the parallel storytelling thing he does for the whole book. Just magic. (I admit I could have done without the whole "kids having sex in the sewer" scene, but I guess it's another testament to how good King is that that didn't bother me nearly as much as it should have.)

I do like Tommyknockers a lot too, although I haven't re-read that one in a very long time. From a Buick 8 is absolutely in my top tier as well...I frigging love that story. And Eye of the Dragon is a personal favorite too, even though its not even close to his usual style.

I have to say though, as much as I love his novels, I love his short story/novella collections more than most of those (except maybe IT.)

sidewaydriver wrote:

My favorite was Say Cheese And Die, followed by Go Eat Worms.

Excuse me, you got some Goosebumps in my adult horror

Besides, everyone knows that One Day at Horrorland is FAR superior to any of the others.

Klimbatize wrote:

SoldierHawk wrote: I have to say though, as much as I love his novels, I love his short story/novella collections more than most of those (except maybe IT.) I do like his short stories compilations quite a bit, as well. Nightmares and Dreamscapes would be up there as one of my favorites of his. There's one story in particular that has a visual in it that has stayed with me forever. I don't even remember the name of the story, but it was about a guy who goes to an airport, and everyone is dead. He goes into a bathroom and through a mirror sees a stream of blood pouring out of nowhere into a urinal. It was a vampire pissing. That visual pops up in my dreams every once in a while and freaks me out.

*Shudder* the Night Flier. Great one. N&D has some of my all time favorites...Crouch End among them. (And you haven't REALLY read that story until you've listened to the audio book version ready by Tim Curry. High octane nightmare fuel of the nth degree.)

^ Well, I'll grant you that that's the case in a lot of his later works. His earlier novels don't seem to have that problem as much. At least imho.

Aw man I love all four of his Bachman Books, and The Long Walk is totally my favorite. Absolutely not his best written or most imaginative piece, but its got that batshit-insane, I-don't-give-a-crap-what-people-think-because-this-ain't-my-real-name exuberance that we don't see from him very often. I need to track down a copy of the Bachman Books and buy it...library is probably getting tired of me checking it out all the time.

On another note, anyone ever read Pet Semetary? Definitely not my favorite book (she said with a shudder) but it wins the prize for the one that disturbed me the most.

Huh. Roadwork was actually my least favorite of all of them (despite its themes probably being the ones I'd identify with the most.) Not quite sure why that is.

I feel so bad for admitting this, but I couldn't get past book III of the Dark Tower saga. I WANTED to like it so badly, but I just couldn't get into it. I'll give it another shot in a year or two though.