I know there are many out there who just fawn over the horror of Stephen King, but I find his books to be laughable.

I liked Needful Things (interesting concept) on audio for the most part - like many readers on here, I tend to listen to audiobooks of works I wouldn't read in hard copy - but I don't understand the hype surrounding The Stand or It (which both were on the Top 100 for the Modern Library picks).

His movies are terrible (Dreamcatcher anyone?), with the exception of The Shining and Misery. Both of these were really brought to life with the amazing talents of Jack Nickleson and Kathy Bates.

Still questioning my loathing? He uses more similes and metaphors in his work than any author I have experienced, and that just doesn't fly with me for something that is supposed to be scary. Check it out - you'll see. This will make you laugh on audiobook when you start listening for them.

Any die-hard fans of his on here? Can anyone change their mind with a solid King recommendation? ;)

Try Misery; or Salem's Lot; or Rose Madder; or the horrid one about bondage, can't remember the title. Those were pretty good, I thought. I don't much care for his other works, though. Actually, several of his other works would qualify for my "worst books" list. Don't judge an author by his movies...different skills are needed for each, I think.

I like (or liked, I haven't read one in a while) King's shorter works, like THE SHINING, MISERY, DOLORES CLAIBORNE, CHRISTINE, PET SEMATARY. They're good tight books.

Unfortunately, King starts to over-reach, I think, with stuff like THE STAND and IT and that DARK TOWER thing. Page after page after page, these vast multi-character sagas that just go on and on and on, and get more and more pretentious.

What Stephen King needs, in my not so humble opinion, is a good editor. This books would be good if someone took half of the extraneous bs out. Carrie was good. Carrie was cohesive. I can't muddle through anymore. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that he wrote a book on writing. Puh-leeze.

I also loathe him. I've read the gunslinger and I forced myself to finish. I tried reading the second book in the series, so far I've only read about 12 pages. I started reading it over two years ago. I never read a worse piece of writing before in my life. The plot actually has great potential, but the writing style and the countless dribble on information that is not necessary for the story destroys that. He's one of the only authors that I can't understand how others can like as much as they do. I want to read the green mile, but Im not sure if it will be worth my time.

Hehe, I've just bought The Stand. I feel I should try to read a Stephen King. I kinda want to try horror, only now I read a few reviews and they say it isn't horror. Oh well.

I wonder if I'll like it?

Ugh, THE STAND is one of his very worst books. Go for THE SHINING or MISERY or PET SEMATARY.

Ugh, THE STAND, ugh...

Lol, oh dear. Well, we'll see... When I finish The Wind-up Bird Chronicles I might start The Stand seeing as I bought it now.

I got the expanded version as well...

You can always use THE STAND as kindling.

Or a door stop.

How is The Wind Up Bird Chronicles? It is on my book club's reading list right now.

Shameless plug here: Busy as a Bee Book Lists.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicles is 200 pages too long but still very good. Murakami is very obscure and abstract. You'll start of in the normal world and then descend into weirdness that doesn't seem to make sense. You just have to accept complete randomness, if you're expecting a straight book or a normal fantasy, that isn't what you'd get. It's just... weird but the writing is good.

It probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm enjoying it. Not as good as Kafka on the Shore though, which is the first book by him I like.

I'm up to page 415 (out of 607) and it seems to have lost some of its momentum... plus I haven't really felt like reading. Not sure whether its the book or if I'm just in a bit of a blah mood...

I'm not a Stephen King fan. I read "Firestarter" because we somehow ended up with a copy on the bookshelf and I really liked it. I think I liked "The Shining" and "Carrie" but it's entirely possible that I never read either and am just thinking of the movies. I started to read "The Stand" and only made it a few chapters in. It just didn't grab me.

"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is very good, if you're in the mood for something really weird, dense and different. I call it Japanese Gothic because it kind of reminds me of Faulkner with a Japanese sensitivity.

Hey Tom, there used to be a fun thread about the most creative ways that you've desecrated books you loathed (or wanted to). Got any good ones?

Kate, what a great idea. Alas, I've never really been able to desecrate a book. My Dad instilled in me a respect for books bordering on fetishization, so defilement of a book I dislike is impossible.

I have memories of gleefully tearing up a copy of WUTHERING HEIGHTS on the last day of high school, though.

Probably the only way I can defile a book is to dump it in a book donation pile.

King is not for everyone.
I tried to read his Dark Tower books, but I kept falling asleep. I figured it would get better and I continued to plow through it for about a week.

The Stand is not my fav book, but I thought it was interesting reading for my summer before college. Definetly a massive work to process. I was amazed a few years latter when it was rereleased as an even longer version.

Ive always been curious why King chose Boulder Colorado as the setting for the new craddle of civilization?
For some reason, Boulder keeps getting picked, in novels as the place where humanity picks up the pieces after a holocaust.

Was this a really really strange coincidence or an inside joke from King?

I agree, the movies other than The Shining all suck. I think his best work is The Stand. It's not scary in the traditional sense which is why I think it works.

I hated The Gunslinger but loved the rest of that series. I don't know what possessed me to continue after The Gunslinger but I'm glad I did.

i'm a king fan, i have to admit (although not so much with his latest books... for some reason i like the ones he wrote when he was on the sauce... carrie, pet semetary, cujo. maybe because he didn't try so hard to be deep and to SAY something, and just wrote what came into his head).

anyway, my big problem with king in always in the last 20 or so pages of just about EVERY SINGLE book he's ever written. it's like he gets lost and doesn't know how to end it, so he just slaps some crap on the page and hopes no one notices that all of his endings are lame.

So funny that this should come up in a Stephen King conversation. I, too, would never desecrate a book. As children we weren't even allow to dog-ear the pages. So when I realized (with no small embarrassment) that I had been taken in by "Diary of Ellen Rimbauer" (bought on the recommendation of someone who HADN'T read it) I gave my daughter permission to destroy it. Was she ever gleeful! Sort of made up for the tragedy. I DID have my suspicions by page 11, I would like to report.

When it comes to Stephen King there are as many different opinions as there are readers. My favourite was IT, I quite liked The Stand, The Shining and Misery and thought Bag of Bones, Salem's Lot and Carrie were waste of pages.

Erica, I would never desecrate a book either. Yesterday I saw a perfect stranger not just dog-earing a page, but literally folding the page in half to save his page. I had to bite my lip not to scream at him to treat the book properly! ;)