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Did I start off with the wrong Stephen King?

JourneyYourMind

JourneyYourMind

New Member
I read my frist Stephen King novel and finished it last night, "From a Buick 8". I have to say although I enjoyed it I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. Anyone here with experience reading Stephen King who can tell how this book ranks against his others? After reading Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (which did live up to it's repuatation) I feel that perhaps I should start with another Stephen King novel.
 
I never had the oportunaty of reading that novel , but I think a good one from him is The Stand..

I only read a small novel in a story book from him .. called " night surf " ( search on web and see if you like ) , if you do .. buy The Stand ( the real book , over 1000 pages ) and give it shot..

I hope Ive at least helped ;)
 
From A Buick 8 is probably not the best place to start, yeah. It's not the worst novel he's written, but it's very far from his best either. The Stand is absolutely fantastic, but if you don't want to commit to 1100+ pages, I'd really recommend one of these:
- Pet Sematary
- The Dead Zone
- Misery
- Needful Things

Of his newer stuff, 22/11/63 is really good too.
 
Btw I have a doubt about a book from him.. what do you think of the Dark Half ??

I bought as the first full story book from him .. what do you think about it ?
 
The Dark Half isn't really one of my favourites, I'm afraid. I think King himself has said it's one of those novels where his own struggles with drugs and alcohol got into the text a little too much. Then again, I've only read it once, so I might be wrong.
 
i agree with beer good's suggestions. being a stephen king fan, it's hard to say but some of his books stand deep in the shadow of others. the stand is my favorite but it is a big book to be starting out with a new (to you) author. if you do decide you enjoy king, it is one you don't want to miss reading.
 
Now I checked the english title of the first book that I bought from him... Different Seasons

I havent read all of the four stories .. ( after concludng the first book from Sherlock Holmes I will give them a shot again ) but there is one , Shawshank prisoners That I speacially liked , ( maybe cuz it appeared one time in Family Guy xd ) ... and the movie adaptation is the first movie on imdb rank: IMDb Top 250

In the same book , the story : The Bodie , was also in a Family Guy Episode :p
 
With two endorsements in this thread, it appears as though The Stand is King's best novel to start with.
 
Im new at reading in english.. and I will order The Stand from amazon.co.uk

I will order Harry Potter for training also.. and the only thing that I had the oportunity to read in english was Sherlock Holmes .. 3 chapters of the book that Im reading..

What book from him do you think is simpler for english reading newcomers ??

(and by other authors.. any ideas ?? )

Thanks for the help :)
 
Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I will certainly check these out. My first ever gf when I was a youngster loved his books, and she recommended Pet Cemetary. But the stand really seems luring, but I may wait considering how many books I want to read.
 
I would recommend the short stories, especially for those who are dipping their toes for the first time. I recommend Different Seasons, where you get The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, along with his horror fare.
 
direstraits said:
I would recommend the short stories, especially for those who are dipping their toes for the first time. I recommend Different Seasons, where you get The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, along with his horror fare.
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I don't remember which group The Fog was located in, but it was first in the book. Almost a novella in fact. Most excellent.
 
I started stephen king with hearts of atlantis and honestly, I didn't really like it at all.

I then bought the gunslinger and gave that a shot. Gunslinger wasn't great, but for some reason I bought book 2 of the dark tower series. Book two of the dark tower series was amazing, and so were all the rest of the dark tower series.

I would recommend the dark tower series to anyone, but you might struggle through book 1 like I did. Luckily book 1 is the shortest in the series I believe.
 
pontalba said:
I don't remember which group The Fog was located in, but it was first in the book. Almost a novella in fact. Most excellent.
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That would be The Mist, which is the introductory tale to Skeleton Crew. It's still my favorite King collection :). Good pick!
 
Read The Shining. It's a masterpiece. Salem's Lot is very good too. For a class A collection of his shorts, try Night Shift which contains the short story Night Surf as mentioned earlier and loosely connected to The Stand.
 
The first one I ever read was The Long Walk...I didn't realise it was Stephen King at the time (as you may well know he published it as Richard Bachman). It may not stand up against some of his other novels but for me it was one of those 'read it all in one night' jobs
 
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