Stephen King Poll.....

[Broken_Hero]

I have read over 20 of his novels, and watched a good handful of his movies, but this is a "book" poll only. So, the question is, what Stephen King book is your favorite?

on edit:spelling

[Broken_Hero]

1. DT series for me...:) nt

[Pendrench]

25. I like his memoir "On Writing"

I'm more of a "non-fiction" reader, and I found this book to be very interesting (and entertaining).

So I voted "Other"

Tim

[Broken_Hero]

2. Question, why the Stand?

I have read it, and I don't understand why, the Stand always gets more votes than any other. I have seen polls here, and on other sites(imdb.com) and The Stand always wins out...why? Just curious...

[Blue_In_AK]

16. It's such a pure good-versus-evil story.

That's why I like it. Plus entertaining characters.

[Broken_Hero]

18. Okay...:)

Just wanted some feedback on it, thank you...:) If you haven't read the DT I highly recommend it...:)

[AutumnMist]

3. Christine..Insomnia..Pet Cemetery

Love them. :evilgrin:

[Broken_Hero]

4. of the three, I have only read Insomnia

it was decent...Insomnia ties in heavily with the Dark Tower series...:) BIG time...:) :hi:

[China_cat]

5. Rose Madder

[reyd reid reed]

6. I'd have to say the Dark Tower series

I've read everything he's written and, while I think a couple of books within the series...well...sucked; overall I liked it. Even if it took him 16 years to get 'em all out. The last book in the series and the way he ended it just made it all worth it. Loved the way he used metafiction in it towards the end too, but the ending just...

*thud*

[reyd reid reed]

8. Oh...and Dolores Claiborn I loved.

Gerald's Game sucked but Everything's Eventual was great.

[Broken_Hero]

12. I got Geralds game on my book shelf, waiting to be

read, I have read Dolores Clairborne...very interesting style/format he used in writing that one...:) Both, I believe tie in also...

[Jamastiene]

45. I loved the part with the old lady grunting for spite.

I honestly didn't know how to spell a grunt before that. I laughed out loud literally when I read that. King floors me with his humor.

[Broken_Hero]

10. so true...:)

I htought the weakest was the first book, Gunslinger to me was...slow, but Drawing of the three...whew, just took off for me...:) And I did like how he tied in...well, not to spoil, you know what I mean...how he tied in other "things" into the series...:)

If you haven't read insomnia yet, I recommend it, especially if you liked the DT series...ties in a lot, even mentions it in book...6 of the DT I believe, but Roland turned the book down.

[reyd reid reed]

22. Yup. Read Insomnia

I like the way he tied so many of them together.

And the lobstrosities....just....

:scared:

[last_texas_dem]

7. Based on what I've read by him...

I think I'd pick the Night Shift story collection, with Pet Sematary, Cujo, and Rage (the now out-of-print early novel he wrote as Richard Bachman, which was the first one I read by him) coming in as runners-up. FWIW, the others I've read are Carrie, The Stand (the original, shorter version), The Tommyknockers, The Green Mile, On Writing, and the Skeleton Crew and Different Season story collections, so I know there are some big ones I haven't yet gotten to.

[reyd reid reed]

11. Oh, damn

I completely forgot about The Green Mile. On Writing took me forever to read but in the end I'm glad I did.

And as far as the Bachman books....The Long Walk, hands down. Rage would be second.

[Broken_Hero]

14. Only Bachman I have read

is Thinner...pretty decent IMO...:) I'm still getting King books in for future reading...my goal, to read all his books. I also have that "writing" non-fiction book of his, pretty small, talks about writing, and what not..

[reyd reid reed]

21. You're going to have a hard time finding Rage, I think

If I'm not mistaken, he asked that it be taken out of print following the Columbine incident. You might be able to find it in a used book store. I've got a trade paperback of the Bachman books...but I bought it close to 20 years ago.

I've read all of them. Some are better than others, but that's true with any author.

[Broken_Hero]

23. used book store is the only way

I go...:) Anytime I come across a King book I don't have, I jump all over it...:)

[reyd reid reed]

44. I Should be the same way

But there's just something about a brand new book that just...something about the way it smells and the way it feels and the way it crackles a little bit the very first time its opened...

*sigh*

[Broken_Hero]

13. Good list

the only collection i have read is Nightmares and Dreamscapes, it was good, my wife says Four Past Midnight is better...she's a big SK fan. I'm still struggling through Tommyknockers...:) :hi:

[last_texas_dem]

17. "Tommyknockers" is weird, but in the end...

...I found myself kinda liking it. It's definitely the most rambling and disjointed one I've read by him, but in the end it had enough strange and unique things about it to make me like it. :hi:

[johnnie]

9. Misery

That was the first time that a book made me cringe. The breaking the ankles part. :scared:

[Mist]

15. I voted for DT, but I also really liked Christine, Rose Madder, and

Gerald's Game. Also, the recent collection of short stories Everything's Eventual. The one that disappointed was From a Buick 8. I just felt it could have been so much more. And I've never read The Stand--though the movie was good. And oh, yeah, The Regulators was pretty good. There's still some King I haven't read, and may never get around to: Pet Sematary, The Tommyknockers.

[graywarrior]

19. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was one of the sweetest books

he's written.

[reyd reid reed]

30. It was sweet

And it was different...and I didn't care for it much at all. I don't know why, it's not anything I can put my finger on but there was just something about it.

[graywarrior]

33. I've hiked those woods, so it kinda hit home for me

[SeattleGirl]

20. The Stand

Though I pretty much like all his books.

[AlCzervik]

24. i voted for The Stand but Pet Cemetery scared me shitless! I made the

mistake of reading it at night when everyone was away for the weekend.

[Momgonepostal]

40. I'd vote Pet Sematery as the scariest

That book terrified me so much I had to keep putting it down.

[seaglass]

26. It's a 3 way tie - It, The Stand and DT series. I don't think there

is any SK I haven't read - except the download-only one (The Plant?).

[RebelOne]

70. You definitely should have read "The Plant."

[ScreamingMeemie]

27. I really enjoyed "Insomnia". I'm kind of irritated that I lent it ( a hard

cover) out and never got it back. :(

[reyd reid reed]

28. Heh...

That's happened to me too often. I don't loan my books any more. If I want someone to read it badly enough, I'll buy a copy and give it as a gift.

[ScreamingMeemie]

32. I never learn.

I got two copies of "The DaVinci Code" for Christmas... I now have no copies of "The Davinci Code". Sigh...

[Blue Fire]

29. My wife keeps bugging me

about why I have to keep all these SK hardcover novels. She thinks they take up too much space!

[Jamastiene]

48. They do.

I love SK and have many of his books in hardcover form. They do take a bit of space but they are worth keeping. I'd strongly encourage her to read one that you think she'd enjoy. Maybe then she won't complain. She'll be glad you kept them. :evilgrin:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

31. Other. Short Stories: Nightshift. Novels: 'Salem's Lot, Firestarter,

The Dead Zone, The Shining.

[Tikki]

58. Yes, Salem's Lot and Dead Zone.....

and I like more of his books.



Tikki

[WritingIsMyReligion]

34. Only Steven King book I've ever read is his memoir, ON WRITING.

That was piss-your-pants funny. :D :rofl:

I'm not into horror, even though I know it is quite well-written horror.

[Blue_In_AK]

35. My youngest daughter taught herself how to read

on Stephen King books. I always used to read her little kid books before she went to bed every night, and by the time she was four she was "reading" them back to me. I thought she had just memorized the stories, but one day she picked up a Stephen King novel that was sitting on the coffee table and started reading it aloud to me like she'd been reading all her life. FOUR YEARS OLD! Not even in kindergarten yet. Something about Mr. King must have appealed to her because she ended up reading ALL of his books. She's almost 21 now, and although she's a bit eccentric, I don't think her mind got warped too much. :crazy:

[Scruffbunny]

36. But no matter what, he scares the bejeesus outta me.

Or grosses me out.


Like SRSLY. Did Roland REALLY have to have sex with the almost-material oracle? I do not think so. And the little sisters of Eluria--I will nbot talk about them. I do my best to forget that short story.

[graywarrior]

37. He's the sweetest man you'd ever want to meet.

[Momgonepostal]

41. So you have met him?

Tell all! He seems like an interesting man.

[graywarrior]

46. Yes, several times.

He's sensitive, honest, kind, and you just wanna hug him, he's so sweet. Last time I saw him he was driving a big, white pickup truck over in Fryeburg Maine.

[Momgonepostal]

47. Interesting..he does strike me as down to earth

Are you from Maine?'

One of the things I really like about King is that most of his main characters are relatively normal people, with regular jobs, regular lives (other than the freaky supernatural stuff that happens to them). So many authors only like to write about the rich, exotic, glitzy, beautiful, etc.

[graywarrior]

51. I lived in N. Conway, which is right next to Fryeburg.

Stephen lives in Lovell during the summer, which is not far from Fryeburg. He visits N. Conway quite a bit. People there tend to let him just be himself. He's very down to earth and comes across as genuine and real. His wife, tabitha also writes fantastic books.

[Momgonepostal]

38. The Dead Zone

But The Stand is right up there. In a way, it's tough to say because so much time passed from the first books of his that I read from the last. If I'd read them in a different order, at different ages and stages of life, they might have hit me differently.

[Redneck Socialist]

39. Misery is one of my favorites

Personally I didn't care for much he's done since Tommyknockers.

[Whoa_Nelly]

42. Voted The Stand, but am also into DT series

Just finished Song For Susannah Book VI

[Jamastiene]

43. I adored both the DT series and The Talisman.

I'll never forget Blaine the Train. That was a trip and a half.

[OnionPatch]

49. Another vote for The Stand

It was just really good. None of the others I've read by him came close, IMO.

[nytemare]

50. We all float down here.

Didn't matter what you were afraid of, he knew it. Creeeeeeeepy.

That was my favorite book. For movies, I'd say "Green Mile", "Shawshank" and "The Shining".

[Reciprocity]

52. The Dead Zone

[BlueIris]

53. "The Dead Zone," all the way. Runner up: "Pet Sematary."

How anyone could have any other King books as their favorites beyond those is beyond me. :-)

[Kickoutthejams23]

54. Pet Semetary is my favorite book of his.

His writing is so tight on it it is almost not a King book. (Except he kills the kid a standard King approach)

I actually like most of his books except for It. That book put me of King for about 10 years. 1000 pages and I get to a Ninja Turtle. I wanted to kill him.

If no one mentioned it his Non-fiction Danse Macabre and his short story collections are top-notch as is his Bachman stuff.

[Patiod]

73. Exactly, exactly, exactly

He's at his best when he's at his tightest - Pet Semetary and The Shining, and his short stories.

"It" put me off as well, and I didn't like 'Salems Lot, either

[wickerwoman]

55. Can I say only the first four books of the Dark Tower?

Especially "Drawing of the Three" which as a stand-alone is Stephen King's best book. The last book of "The Dark Tower" was excruciating- turning one of my favorite series of all times into an exercise in mental masturbation. I was really, really, really pissed at that ending... Why finish the series at all if you're just going to turn it into... (grrr...) Can't even continue...

[reyd reid reed]

57. Really?

That's what I liked about it.

I'll agree, the first three, maybe the fourth were the best up to the last one. Drawing of the Three was the best of those and just kicked ass...but that ending just, well...it gave me chills. Was NOT what I was expecting at all. Maybe that's what I loved about it. I'm usually very good at reading the foreshadowing and predicting the end of a book.

This one...

[wickerwoman]

60. I guess I just get pissed off

when Stephen King tries to be Joseph Heller or even Joseph Conrad. He isn't and he should just accept it. He's a great story-teller but when he tries to be a great modern "writer" he just comes off as pretentious. He's very, very weak at modernist and postmodernist style. I think the Dark Tower had his best moments (Drawing of the Three) and also his worst (the second half of Wizard and Glass and the Dark Tower.)The ending just smacks of a middle-school kid who has reached the word-limit of his homework and adds a final sentence to say "Poof, I'm done... and it's ironic!"

[Broken_Hero]

61. I don't know about that

I thought the ending of the DT totally fit the mindset of Roland. The ever pressing Ka, and how things go in circles, or repeat themselves....Ka, is a circle, no begining and no end...I thought the ending, totally fit, and it was ending, I couldn't have guessed, it took me by surprise.

I thought the worst was the Gunslinger, hands down, it took me roughly a month to read it, and its only 225 pages long...:)

[haf216]

56. The Stand, the "uncut" version.

[mykpart]

59. I voted for The Stand

but only because the Talisman and Black House were a joint venture with Peter Straub.

I loved Gerald's Game too.

[CanuckAmok]

62. "It"

I admit I haven't read many of his books, and I'm not crazy about the ones I *have* read, but "It" scared the crap out of me. Plus, ancient, evil, gravity-defiant clowns aside, it's a really good account of growing up in a small town.

[Broken_Hero]

63. thats true

what did you think of...well...Bev's idea at the end, in order to remember "themselves"....I thought it was wacky! Took me by surprise...I can see why they left it out of the movie...:hi:

[CanuckAmok]

64. Well, I think it was sort-of out of place.

But it's been about 20 years since I read it, so maybe I'm out of place.

When i was reading it, I could envision every location as a location in the small town in which I grew up. It was kind of cool to be able to juxtapose my town with Derry.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

65. I'm re-reading "The Long Walk" for about the 10th time

It is by far the most intriguing novel written by King/Bachman.

I love "The Stand", but it could have been about 800 fewer pages and achieved the same thing.

[Broken_Hero]

67. agreed about The Stand

I haven't read the Long Walk yet. Of all the King movies, the Stand flick to me was about 80-85% accurate to the book...when I read the stand I was hoping for more, and got...about nothing extra. Thats why I find it interesting that the Stand usually wins polls like this. A lot of people(who haven't read it) asked me how deep the Stand got, they were expecting some deep meaning spiritual war, or something to that regard...and I was like..well, you saw the movie right? Yeah, we did! And I'm like there you go!

No more in depth insight into anything. About the biggest difference was the ending, where the different groups of people move to different areas of the North America. I guess it was failed expectations...:shrug: I was expecting some insight, and didn't get it. Kings book Cell follows a lot of the same theme as the Stand, is about 330 pages long, it cuts to the chase on page 3 I believe...maybe page 2!...:)

I don't mean to bag on the Stand, maybe its just a matter of "how" many of his novels you have read...the DT is the LOTR for Stephen King, and I find it funny, that his main work seems to get overlooked a lot...:shrug:

[fishwax]

66. I voted for IT

probably because it was the first one I read, and at a time when I was roughly the same age as the protagonists :)

:hi:

[Broken_Hero]

68. Boy

your parents let you read IT, or Stephen King for that matter! Wow, some cool parents. My father/mother in law forbid my wife to read King novels while growing up, and she had to read his books at school, or in private. My own parents didn't really censor my books, I was a Tom Clancy fan in high school, and some of his novels can go off the deep end...I figure my parents were to lazy to read Clancy, and since his movies were ok, they let me read anything he put out...:)

I found it funny, that my mother would break my metallica cds, and yet, she bought me Without Remorse by T. Clancy, and that book was messed up! Funny....:)

[fishwax]

69. the written word can do no wrong

My mom is a teacher and a librarian and staunchly anti-censorship--I don't think she would've restricted my reading list much after I hit the seventh or eighth grade.

It's funny, but--as with your experience--music is another matter entirely. My folks never really restricted my listening, either, but I can imagine them freaking out about music ... books, not so much :)

[blondeatlast]

71. "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon."

I love most of his stuff, but this kept me reading straight through.

[chrisau214]

72. Salem's Lot

The Stand
The Shining
Christine

Although 'Cell' is good return to form I tend to like his earlier (pre-IT) books better than his later books. All of King's short story collections are terrific as well.





Chris

[terrya]

74. "The Stand" is his masterwork and my favorite.

No question.