Fav Stephen King Novels?

jorvack wrote:

The thread title is novels but everyone keeps mentioning short stories novellas and movies. Strange.

A lot of greats already mentioned but I'll add The Dark Half

King's best writings are his short stories/novellas.

The Shining turned me off his novels; it turned weird and nowhere near as good as the movie. Of course it is Kubrick......so you can't go wrong. See Barry Lyndon, Eyes Wide Shut, etc.

jorvack wrote:

The thread title is novels but everyone keeps mentioning short stories novellas and movies. Strange.

A lot of greats already mentioned but I'll add The Dark Half

Novels is a made up definition.

Flash Fiction: 53 - 1,000 words

Short Stories: 3,500 - 7,500

Novellettes: 7,500 - 17,000

Novellas: 17,000 - 40,000

Novels: 40,000 + words

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is 42,000 words. The Stand is 490,000 words. Both are "technically" novels.

Short stories should be what a person can read in roughly one hour. At 300 words per minute--average adult reading speed--that is 18,000 words.

Novels should be what the average person can read in two weeks at one hour per day of reading. So, about 250,000 words.

Everything that takes longer than 2-weeks (1 hr / day) should be called a door-stopper.

Skeleton Crew wrote:

I prefer his short story collections: Night Shift & Skeleton Crew.

I wanted to get into It and The Stand but they were just too much like War and Peace for me.

The Shining was excellent and so was the movie. The Green Mile was also a great movie.

Cujo and Pet Sematary were decent.

Not to knock him, but his books are best read by an impressionable young adult. I'm too closed minded to get into them now.

Different Seasons included Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, Body, Breathing Method. Each was based on different season of year.

harry wales wrote:

The Shining turned me off his novels; it turned weird and nowhere near as good as the movie. Of course it is Kubrick......so you can't go wrong. See Barry Lyndon, Eyes Wide Shut, etc.

Wow really? I think they're both outstanding, even though King hated the movie. The movie doesn't capture some of the creepiest parts of the book though - the wasps's nest, the possessed topiaries, the voice from the gutter/drain, etc., etc. And, of course, the ending.

That said, different mediums.

Danny Torrence wrote:

harry wales wrote:

The Shining turned me off his novels; it turned weird and nowhere near as good as the movie. Of course it is Kubrick......so you can't go wrong. See Barry Lyndon, Eyes Wide Shut, etc.

Wow really? I think they're both outstanding, even though King hated the movie. The movie doesn't capture some of the creepiest parts of the book though - the wasps's nest, the possessed topiaries, the voice from the gutter/drain, etc., etc. And, of course, the ending.

That said, different mediums.

Misery.

So many good movies mentioned on this thread. Misery is so good. You have to be careful around obsessive fans.

I've never read a Stephen King novel, so I can't really weigh in on this. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. Sorry.

sorry! wrote:

I've never read a Stephen King novel, so I can't really weigh in on this. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. Sorry.

I hope someday to read the Cat in the Hat. I am slowly working my through See Spot Run which I hope to finish by Christmas.

Danny Torrence wrote:

Wow really? I think they're both outstanding, even though King hated the movie. The movie doesn't capture some of the creepiest parts of the book though - the wasps's nest, the possessed topiaries, the voice from the gutter/drain, etc., etc. And, of course, the ending.

That said, different mediums.

The book and movie were both very good - supernatural. Two of my favorites in both film and fiction genres. I just don't see the point in trying to determine which one was "better."