Where to start with Stephen King?

[Will]

I think I love King's work as he writes about 'humans', groups, communities, small societies, hell, even large ones, so very, very well. I do find that his descriptive details can be tiresome at times, but generally add to things. This varies lots between works. When I think to a novel of his, lets say The Gunslinger, his descriptions are far tighter, far more effective, than in say Bag of Bones where they can become a burden to the general flow of the prose.

 

[BeerWench13]

Funny. I loved Bag of Bones, but The Gunslinger was not one of my favorites. Blasphemy for a King fan, I know. I felt the same about The Stand. I had to try to read it three times before I could get all the way through it. It was just too much. Of course, the first two times I was a teenager and my reading was interrupted by school, sports and boys. Reading it later in my twenties, I had more time to focus on it and take large chunks at a time instead of a chapter here and there. I still plan on giving it a re-read soon. In fact, I'm thinking of starting my own quest to read all of King's works in order. I think that would take forever, but I know that I would love that journey.

 

[D.L. Severn]

Funny. I loved Bag of Bones, but The Gunslinger was not one of my favorites. Blasphemy for a King fan, I know. I felt the same about The Stand. I had to try to read it three times before I could get all the way through it. It was just too much. Of course, the first two times I was a teenager and my reading was interrupted by school, sports and boys. Reading it later in my twenties, I had more time to focus on it and take large chunks at a time instead of a chapter here and there. I still plan on giving it a re-read soon. In fact, I'm thinking of starting my own quest to read all of King's works in order. I think that would take forever, but I know that I would love that journey.

Sounds like a good idea, don't think I could, I have too many books to read as it is.

 

[Matthew]

Short story? At 170+ pages it's a novel in its own right.

A novella or short novel.