What is your favourite Sk Book ??

[HoopyFrood]

I think The Shining is a truly fantastic book, it's the only horror book that's managed to creep me out. Even something as trivial as a fire hose is made to sound menacing and evil.

I also really like Cell. I love zombie films, and the phone-crazies in Cell are like zombies with major attitude!


And that, friends and neighbours, was my 500th post! Woo.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

And that, friends and neighbours, was my 500th post! Woo.

Ah, ye're sech a show-off! Congratulations, Hoopy!

[HoopyFrood]

A show off? Says the man who's only three short of 2,500 posts! (yeah, all right, I suppose you don't broadcast it to everyone like I do...)

Thanks

[Spade]

My favorite is Bag of Bones, followed by The Green Mile.

[TheDeeMan]

Fave SK book is Salem's Lot. I had to go back and re-read it after that Rob Lowe TV movie re-make just to cleanse my palet.

Dee

[IrishWriter]

I really don't want people to think this is a personal attack due to past events but I couldnt stop laughing I saw Hoopy say there was a SK book he didn't like(no, I didn't actually like The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon either). And he said is water actually flowing upwards now? Well I just thought it was funny....but water does flow upwards.

[daisybee]

My fave has to be IT, followed by The Shining , and I love Skeleton Crew and Needful Things. Different Seasons and Dance Macabre are also up there with my faves.

I remember reading The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and I liked it-but I forgot I was reading a SK book, it was just an interesting story that could of been written by another writer..didn't have the wow factor some of his others have.

Didn't like Tommyknockers-loved it at first but then I just thought it was predictable and overwrought and blah. Although I still remember that tune and it creeps me out..
Late last night and the night before...

Misery was a cool idea, but to be honest I got fed up of the "other story"-although the film was great and it's been awhile since I read it. Not many I don't like to be honest, although there are a lot of "recent" ones I haven't read yet. So little time!

[Terran Nytefyer]

I rather enjoyed The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (read it in one night, all in one sitting, lol) because it WASN'T "typical" Stephen King. I adore "typical" Stephen King, don't get me wrong (since I write horror, myself), but that book once again proved that Stephen isn't MERELY JUST a horror writer.

So far, though, my favorite is Cell. Mainly because, again, you sort of forget you're reading King. It has many similarities to his other writings, but then it's also quite different. I'm going to TRY to start on Lisey's Story, again, for the third time. That book is such a difficult book to get into. I've started it twice, and keep getting sidetracked because it's honestly BORING. And a bit muddled. >.< But, since King has proven himself, time and again, to be a superb writer, I KNOW I need to stick with it. There was more than once, of the first 50 pages of Lisey's Story, that I had to keep going back and looking at the book cover to make sure I was reading King. lol

[IrishWriter]

Yeah do stick with Lisey's Story. It gets extremely good when Zack McCool comes into it. That guy seriously is challenging for the crown of most disliked King antagonist. And then when Lisey gets to see into Scott's "Boo'ya Moon" it's pretty good too. Just stick with it.This is Stephen King.

[HoopyFrood]

I felt the same, Terran, when reading Lisey's Story. I started to read it then stopped after about...well, the first 50 pages, because it wasn't holding my attention like King books usually do. I returned to it later though and once it starts building momentum, it's quite good. The "present" story with Zack McCool and Amanda is good, but the flashbacks to Lisey's and Scott's life are just as interesting. Indeed, the story is really more about the horror that plagued their marriage and, in usual King style, the family problems that also lie hidden in the past, and Zack McCool is more of a sideline horror (although he's no less evil). Stick with it -- although it's not one of his best, it certainly is a great read once you get into it.

I also agree that Cell is fantastic...definitely one of my favourite King books ( but then I think I've already said that a few times already!)

[Culhwch]

I don't know about Cell. It started well enough but for mine it started to drag. By the last two hundred pages I was just dying to get it finished and done with.

As for favourite King book... I'd have to go for Different Seasons. Not a novel, but I think Apt Pupil, The Body, and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption are King at his best.

[IrishWriter]

It's amazing how we all differ on what we think Stephen's best book is, but some of us don't even realize that King himself thinks Lisey's Story is his best book. He said it a while back(I think in November) in an interview on television while he was in London for his tour. Just wondering what any of you might think of that? Does he say he thinks it's his best book because he feels it's not an out and out horror book(and I've read roughly 20 of his books and I think I'm yet to read a true horror one), or because he truly believes it is his best book, regardless of what people's opinions are of it? Any thoughts?

[Culhwch]

Perhaps he said it because it's the latest one, the one that's on the shelves now, the one he's currently promoting and trying to sell. Not being cynical, but I find most authors will tend to say their latest book is their best, maybe because they feel that they are better writers when they wrote this one than when they wrote the last one, or the one before.

[j. d. worthington]

Those who have a pretty healthy ego (and this is not meant as criticism -- a strong ego is almost a necessity in order to have a flourishing career as a professional writer, otherwise the self-doubts tend to eat you alive) do tend to think their most recent work is their best; sometimes they're correct, sometimes not. More often it is simply that rush that comes from finishing something that's taken so much effort, and being proud of what you've accomplished -- until that rush wears off, and then you start noticing flaws, and then those feelings are transferred to the next thing you do, and so on. (This is often true even if that particular piece is among your best work....)

[IrishWriter]

Culhwch I doubt King is saying that his latest book is his best because he wants to promote the number of sales. If the number of sales were the main priority then there'd be a lot of writers who wouldn't have genuine styles; everything would be moulded so that it suits the reader.And King seems to be the last person considering opinion, or at least not with the critics anyway.It's only his reputation really that I think he cares about, not the fame. I mean the guy only reluctantly agrees to sign books. It's not global recognition he wants, it's really just happiness. He's said that in On Writing, I think.