Very slow-burning books, and I almost always lost interest before finishing them. I found The Dark Tower especially tedious. After I couldn’t force myself read it, I got the audiobook version a lnd tried to listen to it three times, but always fell asleep. Ironically, the books I genuinely enjoyed were some of his longest ones: It, and The Stand.

As Richard Bachman, on the other hand, he wrote loads of entertaining books. It almost seems like in that persona he didn’t give a shit what others thought of his works, and the books ended up eminently readable.

Well, I think the responses you’ve gotten show exactly how major a figure he is, and how divisive he can be.

Any author is a matter of taste. Nobody is universally loved. That’s just the way it is, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

However, some writers manage to strike magic in minds so that their work resonates across generations, lifetimes. Shakespeare is still widely read. A person may not like his poems or plays, but he’s impossible to ignore entirely.

King is no Shakespeare. But he is damn good at writing things that stick in your head. And I firmly believe he’ll still be widely read in 200 years. Likely longer.

So, even if you end up not liking him in general, he’s worth reading some of his stuff Afghan anyway

Now, I mostly like King. Dude is weird, his stories reflect that, and even his worst stuff is interesting on that level.

My picks would be Cujo, Salem’s Lot, Needful Things, Hearts in Atlantis, Delores Claiborne, and the Bachman books. You read those, you’ll have a solid feel for whether or not you’ll want to ever read the rest.

Cujo is more of a real world horror story. Nothing supernatural, just a nightmare that could happen.

Salem’s Lot is a very unique take on a horror staple. But it’s still pretty normal horror.

Needful Things, that’s one of the most unique horror stories out there, imo. But it’s weird in the way that King does well.

Hearts in Atlantis switches gears. It isn’t horror, not really. But it’s a gentle introduction into his overarching inconsistently connected metaverse of sorts.

Claiborne is my favorite of his human conflict driven writing, where it’s about people in complex situations producing conflict and pointing a light at humanity in the process. It’s not horror at all.

And, the Bachman books. The collection of them is a glimpse into his most creative side, imagining slight twists on normality, akin to Claiborne. But they’re further removed. One is most definitely not set in our world. The others could be, but there’s still a sense of the alien to them. Once he abandoned the pen name, he eventually brought that kind of thinking into the rest of his work (and the best of his work imo), but there’s a rawness and ugliness to the stuff he did as Bachman that is hard to compare to anything else.

Out of the Bachman stories, Rage and The Long Walk tend to get the most attention nowadays because of the premise of each. Running Man is the most well known outside of his fandom, what with the movie loosely based on it. But the real gem is Road Work. The glimpse inside the mind of a man that’s just hit his limit and decides to stop fucking around and fuck things up instead. Hell, if you didn’t read anything else, you should read those.

But, honestly? I’ve read everything he’s written, and none of it is bad. It’s all worth at least one read, though some can be immediately consigned to the “never again bin”. His older stuff tends to be more accessible, but it’s all decent

The Dark Tower series is pretty good for the first three or four books, the rest I couldn’t vouch for. I find a lot of his stories hit the same beats to the point that they feel formulaic, but his best-known works - the ones you’ve heard of over and over again - are all worth a read.

Also, if you’re looking for really long, really dense, really dark fantasy in a thoroughly rounded and meticulously crafted world, check out Steven Erikson’s Malazan saga. King does horror, Erikson does horripilation.

I grew up reading his early works in the 80’s and beyond. Well written, novel themes, sometimes fucked up beyond belief. It’s obvious he did lots of drugs.

Recommended.

Years ago I went through a phase of reading his books one after the other. I devoured several of them and had a great time reading. Then I kind of hit a wall with it and haven’t read him since. I still like him, and will read more at some point. But I sort of overdosed on it. I needed to branch out, read other writers, and take an extended hiatus from King. But it was fun to binge on it.

I loved the Dark Tower, but it’s a slog. And he did one thing in that series that made me roll my eyes. But overall it’s a masterpiece. I won’t spoil the one dumb thing, but anyone who’s read it probably knows what I’m talking about. (I’m not talking about the ending. Some people HATE the ending, but it made sense to me once I thought about it.)

His big hits are all big hits for a reason. Some book snobs look down on him, but if you like fantasy and horror, you can ignore the critics. He writes engaging stories in a well-honed style, not high falutin’ literature.

I find his short stories better than his novels.

“Night Shift” is my favorite of those collections.

The thing about King is, and he’ll admit this now, he used to do a bunch of drugs and hammer out several novels back to back. He’s an incredibly talented writer, but sometimes his stories are just some cool shit he thought of that doesn’t really go anywhere. Sometimes there’s deep introspection, sometimes it’s just a big scary dog that terrorizes a family.

And Cujo is great. Read it. Read all his books. Just not all at once. The Dark Tower series is another good example, because it does a lot of world building, but also sometimes the story just happens and everyone moves on to the next thing. The Stand has a similar issue. It is well written, meandering, thoughtful, and mindeless all at the same time.

There’s also a loosely connected universe between the Shining, It, The Dark Tower, The Stand, and probably a few others I’m forgetting. These are all good books/series, but my recommendation is not to read them back to back. You’ll start to see the patterns and fall backs he uses as an author when he just needs to wrap things up and publish the book.

I’ve been disappointed by the ending of every King novel I have finished.

Like any creator that has a huge body of work, there are gonna be hits and misses. I haven’t read much of his older stuff, but I’m currently reading 'Salems Lot. I wouldn’t say it’s knocked me over, but I am enjoying it.

I have also read the Shining and Dr. Sleep and I enjoyed those immensely. Of his more recent stuff, I really like the Holly Gibney character and her arc in various novels and short stories.

You can start with “If it Bleeds”, it’s an anthology of short stories, the last of which is a Holly Gibney story.

I didn’t care for “Sleeping Beauties”, which he co-authored with his son Owen.

Recommend starting off on some of his short story collections and if you like those, there’s a good chance you’ll like at least some of his novels. I’ve been reading most of his stuff for 40 years and have pretty much enjoyed all of his work. His endings can be iffy and he tends to sometimes feel a little tropey, but the writing itself is often enjoyable to read and solid. His book on writing called appropriately “On Writing” is excellent and great for understanding the writing process either as someone who wants to write or as a reader who wants to better be able to think about what they like to read and why.

Kings early books are seminal and iconic. Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Pet Semetary and Misery are all brilliant and some of the most influential books in modern fiction.

I’d start with a smaller one. His writing is very steady and consistent. Sometimes there are weird sexual undertones (weird in a bad way).

I’d recommend Terry Pratchett Discworld. I can’t get into King but Pratchett is good for my English soul.

I like the stories he tells; but I do not particularly like his style of writing. I prefer watching the movies made of his stories than reading them the way he wrote them.

Meanwhile, I don’t really like Dean Koontz’s stories; but I like the way he writes. I want him to write a Stephen King novel.

I like his earlier stuff when I’m in the mood for psychological horror. Carrie, The Shining, Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Green Mile.

The Dark Tower wasn’t for me. I agree with the other person who thought it was a slog.

Lisey’s Story is OK. I like the idea of it, but it’s taking me a while to finish it.

The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is a nice, fluffy read if you like detective stories.

Overrated.