I have been planning to read Stephen King for awhile now, and his books definitely seem like something I would be into.
However, I don’t know where I should start.
(By the way: I am very much a fantasy reader, and have been trying to expand my horizons.)
by NotAlepou
5 Comments
11/22/63 is the first and only novel of his I have read. I just read it like a month ago and loved it.
11/23/63 is usually the answer people give to this question, haven’t read it yet tho . Personally I’d recommend The stand if you don’t mind big books
There isn’t really “a correct place to start” with King. His bibliography is very broad and, often-times, mildly interconnected. Good places to start based on the fact that they are generally agreed to be some of his best:
It
Salem’s Lot
The Stand
Pet Sematary
Misery
11/22/63
The Shining
Night Shift or Skeleton Crew – these are both short story collections. Don’t sleep on his short stories! He’s arguably at his very best in the short story format and these are some of my absolute favorites!
As a fantasy reader, you could also start with The Dark Tower series but is many long books and you may want a taste of the wider variety of his work before you dive into that. My first foray into King was actually the entire Dark Tower series though, so there’s no issue starting there either!
The Institute was really good
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is my favorite by him
I also love his short story collections Just After Sunset and Everything’s Eventual
Richard Bachmann is a pen name he uses and the books written under it are great, especially Blaze
The Stand is fantastic, but it’s a big book