I personally would pass. The first book is painful and hard to get into. Then following the horrible beginning book there are a couple good ones, then in gets so bad. It’s the only series I’ve ever started but didn’t finish.
What are your genre preferences?
Paramedic229635 on
The Dark Tower references The Stand a lot, so I would recommend reading that first. It’s a good book anyway.
Walkn-Talkn-Hawking on
The Dark Tower sucked. Probably not a universally accepted opinion but it was just bad writing from an otherwise excellent author.
BeeB0pB00p on
The Stand, get the uncut edition. It’s an epic book and kicks off at an unusually fast pace for King. The main inciting events give it a lot of early momentum. Been years since I’ve read it, but it’s one of those books that really cemented King as an author I enjoy reading.
After that Talisman and Black House in that order, then The Dark Tower.
The Dark Tower is very different, still great, but it might help to have read some of the others first.
Talisman and Black House are stand alone (co-written by Straub), but there are references to The Dark Tower and some overlap.
As a teacher you might like his book on creative writing “On Writing”, a kind of semi-autobiography about writing. I knew an English Lit major in college who hated King’s writing, but grudgingly admitted his “On Writing” was excellent. It’s a better read after reading some of his short story collections because you can see how where he grew up influenced some of them and his books.
1stBornAngst on
I’d read The Stand first. It’s part of the Dark Tower universe, and there’s plenty of tie-ins once you get into the Dark Tower series.
The Gunslinger’s tone/voice is different from King’s normal stuff.
Enjoy!
DiabolicalFrolic on
Do you want to read 1 great book or 8 great books?
6 Comments
I personally would pass. The first book is painful and hard to get into. Then following the horrible beginning book there are a couple good ones, then in gets so bad. It’s the only series I’ve ever started but didn’t finish.
What are your genre preferences?
The Dark Tower references The Stand a lot, so I would recommend reading that first. It’s a good book anyway.
The Dark Tower sucked. Probably not a universally accepted opinion but it was just bad writing from an otherwise excellent author.
The Stand, get the uncut edition. It’s an epic book and kicks off at an unusually fast pace for King. The main inciting events give it a lot of early momentum. Been years since I’ve read it, but it’s one of those books that really cemented King as an author I enjoy reading.
After that Talisman and Black House in that order, then The Dark Tower.
The Dark Tower is very different, still great, but it might help to have read some of the others first.
Talisman and Black House are stand alone (co-written by Straub), but there are references to The Dark Tower and some overlap.
As a teacher you might like his book on creative writing “On Writing”, a kind of semi-autobiography about writing. I knew an English Lit major in college who hated King’s writing, but grudgingly admitted his “On Writing” was excellent. It’s a better read after reading some of his short story collections because you can see how where he grew up influenced some of them and his books.
I’d read The Stand first. It’s part of the Dark Tower universe, and there’s plenty of tie-ins once you get into the Dark Tower series.
The Gunslinger’s tone/voice is different from King’s normal stuff.
Enjoy!
Do you want to read 1 great book or 8 great books?