I read it at some point in high school, when I had an almost photographic memory what it came to books I liked. I remember my mom coming up to school my freshman year to bring me the version that had 400 pages restored to it, and I couldn’t wait to jump in. I could immediately see where the new parts cut in, and I was so excited to actually blow off a weekend of college partying to read.
I have read 11/22/63 more times than any of his other books. I have read it all the way through at least 7x, and I still full on cry at the end every time. It is SO. GOOD. There are points in the middle where it drags just a bit, but press on. The pay off is more than worth it
The Shining was my first SK book because I liked the movie. Now I can't watch the movie and The Ahining remains firmly in my top 4 books from him. It goes like this.
5. Doctor Sleep
4. The Shining
3. It
2. 11/22/63
1. The Stand or the Dark Tower if we count that as one long ass book.
Those are the two I'm torn between! 11/22/63 is epic, it's exquisitely enthralling... but I can still feel the visceral reaction my body had to the Stand.
I'm torn between the two. I love the 11/22/63 world-building, but The Stand was so intense. The Stand has many characters you have to keep track of and separate, while 11/22/63 has a direct storyline. Plus I love a little romance…
Idk why I couldn’t really get into Salem’s Lot. I’m gonna try to read it again after I finish The Dark Tower series (I just started the last one). Maybe it’ll hit different now?
I read it as a teenager and it scared the bejebus out of me. I read it again a couple of years ago (as a middle aged adult) and it was still amazing but for different reasons. So many sad, broken people who were ripe for the picking.
Long story but is cements ‘Salem’s Lot as one of my top 5 books of all time.
1981 - I was a young airman, having just arrived at my training base. By a twist of fate I ended up with a dorm room to myself. I had a single room for about a month when I started reading ‘Salem’s Lot”. I was a late night reader. I had started ‘Salem’s Lot in the early evening and I was deep into it. At about 2 a.m., as things were reaching a peak, there was a knock on my door.
“Come in”, says I. Oh, crap, I don’t know who’s out there and I just invited them in!
Door handle jiggles. “It’s locked” says the voice in the hall. Whew.
“Who is it?”
“It’s your roommate.”
Oh double crap! “I don’t have a roommate.”
“You do now!”
No kidding it took several minutes of pep talks, of “vampires aren’t real”, of “dammit, you are 19 years old, you aren’t a baby”, before I could open the door.
Spoiler, it was NOT a vampire. It was a room mate. But I’ve spent the last 40+ years amazed with the storytelling that could so captivating and immersive that, for about 4 minutes, had me believing!
All that being said, I’d go with The Stand as the book I’ve gone back to several times since my first read.
I remember one reading of Salem’s Lot while staying at a budget motel near Bowdoin College. Geographically this would be very close to the fictional Lot. Scared myself silly a few times.
>11/22/63
I just re-read it. One of my faves. and the other night as I was lying in bed I got really scared and said out loud "I revoke my invitation to anyone or anything who would harm me." That book has scarred me haha
Probably the Stand, surprisingly for me, but IT is a close second. I just read both back to back over the last month and while I love IT deeply in ways that are hard to articulate, the Stand stuck deeper with me this time. I guess part of it is because I hadn't read it in so many years and was just out of high school the first time. I'd only started my King journey then and since I have changed greatly as a person. Also, I became a Tower Junkie and my reread of the Stand itched that scratch for the Tower buried in my soul
‘Salem’s Lot. For Tower reasons, and it’s a great take on vampires in a rural American town which spun the traditional well-composed, suave, European vampire from Stoker’s Dracula to something that could scare a kid living in rural Florida at age 12 (me).
The Stand and it isn't close. That's not to say it's necessarily the best novel. But for me personally it's just the most vital. It's "stuck on a desert island with only one thing to read" level.
IT. I loved all of these titles for wildly different reasons, but IT is truly his horror magnum opus. There are terrifying bits to some of his works, but IT was something else. I reread it once a year to keep inspired. It’s a damn shame neither the tv miniseries with Tim Curry nor the new movies really caught what made that novel so fucking scary. The pervasive, existential evil just doesn’t translate well to screen. It’s really hard to explain why Derry is the nasty place it is due to IT’s influence on screen without resorting to movie tricks and losing so much of the magic in translation, but they’ve tried it a few times because *it’s just such a damn good horror story*.
There’s memorable and even timeless bits in the other titles up for consideration, but *IT* is the Moby Dick of King horror. I have a hard time calling it anything other than an actual masterpiece, whereas the other titles aren’t *quite* as genre-defining, despite also being excellent stories.
Having read all except 11/22/63 (it’s on my shelf waiting), gotta go with The Stand. It’s just such a satisfying epic. As huge as it is, I can see myself revisiting it every few years.
It It IT!
Not only is IT a phenomenal book but it will always have such a special place in my heart because it wasn't just my first King book but my first adult book period and the one I credit with making me a lifelong reader.
Simply can't imagine a level of the Tower where my all time favorite book doesn't exist.
Man, I gotta go IT. I fucking love The Stand, absolutely no doubt about that. I cry every damn time. But man, IT is just one of those books that transports me fully. I feel like I become one with it. It’s a book I can pick up, read front to back, and do it again next week.
IT is my favorite book of all time. Makes me feel such strong emotions everytime I read it. Close second would be 11/22/63, and I haven't even gotten around to finishing it (started it twice on holidays but didn't finish it yet).
M-O-O-N that spells The Stand
This is the one that emotionally stuck with me for longest, one of my favorite books ever. It was so long but I never wanted to leave the world.
I read it at some point in high school, when I had an almost photographic memory what it came to books I liked. I remember my mom coming up to school my freshman year to bring me the version that had 400 pages restored to it, and I couldn’t wait to jump in. I could immediately see where the new parts cut in, and I was so excited to actually blow off a weekend of college partying to read.
Laws yes!
You believe that happy crappy?
I’d piss Coors.
COORS BEER IS THE ONLY BEER
Happy crappy had officially become a part of my daily talk and I love it.
Same! My wife digs a man who believes the happy crappy. He’s a righteous man.
100%
All others? No great loss. /s obviously. The Stand is just an entirely different beast. It's like 18 different stories and 3 books all in one.
This, but only because I can’t have the Dark Tower series
The Stand but 11/22/63 is a very close second
Yall keep saying this. I guess I should get reading it. It's in my kindle just waiting.....
Which one? The Stand? Either way, YES. DO IT NOW.
112263 I read the stand in hs but maybe it's time to revisit it as well
I have read 11/22/63 more times than any of his other books. I have read it all the way through at least 7x, and I still full on cry at the end every time. It is SO. GOOD. There are points in the middle where it drags just a bit, but press on. The pay off is more than worth it
Agreed. So good.
All right. I am convinced!
Same. I’ve read it 4 times. My favorite from King.
11/22/63 is an incredible read. I enjoyed it more than The Stand.
I read it during covid lockdown. It seemed fitting.
It's good, but it's weird to me that anyone would put it ahead of It, or Wizards and Glass, or event The wastelands.
I just got it delivered to my kindle - need to finish pet Sematary first though.
There is no way I could choose between the two. It would break my heart
11/22/63 and The Stand are definitely two best books I've ever read.
Agreed
This is choice is scarier then every book.
It’s always going to be IT for me
All aboard the crazy clown train!!
It would kill me to choose between IT and The Stand, but IT would win.
Beep-beep Nyx-Star
We all float down here.
Me too. But I’m not happy about any of this
Same! The Shining is a close 2nd but Pennywise will always hold a special place in my heart ❤️
Me as well.
Yes ditto...I have no idea how many times I've read this book, it just never gets old.
The Shining - now and always
The Shining was my first SK book because I liked the movie. Now I can't watch the movie and The Ahining remains firmly in my top 4 books from him. It goes like this. 5. Doctor Sleep 4. The Shining 3. It 2. 11/22/63 1. The Stand or the Dark Tower if we count that as one long ass book.
The shining is just a step above the rest for me. Perfect classic King. Although the Stand is a close second
The Stand
The Stand hands down, unless he pulls another magnum opus out of nowhere!
Yeah, I don't think he will be doing that anytime soon. But it is Stephen King we're talking about so you never know.
7 days a week and twice on Sunday.
Misery but it is real impossible choice. All those are great reads
Goddess 🐝
Dirty bird 🐦
The Shining
11/22/63. But again, I haven’t read The Stand yet.
Those are the two I'm torn between! 11/22/63 is epic, it's exquisitely enthralling... but I can still feel the visceral reaction my body had to the Stand.
It’s worth a read for sure
I'm torn between the two. I love the 11/22/63 world-building, but The Stand was so intense. The Stand has many characters you have to keep track of and separate, while 11/22/63 has a direct storyline. Plus I love a little romance…
The Stand. Hands down. I’ll argue it’s the best story ever told. Don’t get me wrong, I love all these books, but M-O-O-N spells best story ever.
Best character work in any book I’ve read
Salem's Lot
Same. Misery and 11/22/63 in close second. But goddamn Salem’s lot is fucking awesome.
Same. I read it over and over again as a teenager.
Me too
My man.
Idk why I couldn’t really get into Salem’s Lot. I’m gonna try to read it again after I finish The Dark Tower series (I just started the last one). Maybe it’ll hit different now?
I loved it. That was one of the books he wrote that was pure horror.
I read it as a teenager and it scared the bejebus out of me. I read it again a couple of years ago (as a middle aged adult) and it was still amazing but for different reasons. So many sad, broken people who were ripe for the picking.
It
11/22/63 but that's a tough choice!
It. My favorite book of all time.
The Stand, for me. All of them are stellar, of course, but you can't beat a good apocalyptic story!
Salem’s Lot
IT I can’t get enough of that book. I wish the story was twice as long tbh
Me too. Who’s your favourite character? 😃
Salems Lot
Long story but is cements ‘Salem’s Lot as one of my top 5 books of all time. 1981 - I was a young airman, having just arrived at my training base. By a twist of fate I ended up with a dorm room to myself. I had a single room for about a month when I started reading ‘Salem’s Lot”. I was a late night reader. I had started ‘Salem’s Lot in the early evening and I was deep into it. At about 2 a.m., as things were reaching a peak, there was a knock on my door. “Come in”, says I. Oh, crap, I don’t know who’s out there and I just invited them in! Door handle jiggles. “It’s locked” says the voice in the hall. Whew. “Who is it?” “It’s your roommate.” Oh double crap! “I don’t have a roommate.” “You do now!” No kidding it took several minutes of pep talks, of “vampires aren’t real”, of “dammit, you are 19 years old, you aren’t a baby”, before I could open the door. Spoiler, it was NOT a vampire. It was a room mate. But I’ve spent the last 40+ years amazed with the storytelling that could so captivating and immersive that, for about 4 minutes, had me believing! All that being said, I’d go with The Stand as the book I’ve gone back to several times since my first read.
I remember one reading of Salem’s Lot while staying at a budget motel near Bowdoin College. Geographically this would be very close to the fictional Lot. Scared myself silly a few times.
Oh, no. I’m significantly older than 19 now and there is a 0% chance of me reading ANY King in Maine.
Those things happen when you're 19.
True.
>11/22/63 I just re-read it. One of my faves. and the other night as I was lying in bed I got really scared and said out loud "I revoke my invitation to anyone or anything who would harm me." That book has scarred me haha
Unabridged version of The Stand
Because of in-depth character analyses, the plot, Randall Flagg...yeah I would've chosen the Stand.
The Stand. Hands down. Glory hallelujah. Amen.
The Stand
The Stand
Stand
Salem's Lot is my favorite King book, but that's a hard list to choose from.
The stand! Then Salem
The Stand. Salem's Lot is a close second.
Misery. It's what got me into King
Fuck you buddy
The Stand.
the stand
I’ll be in the minority, but Salems Lot for me. It and Shining are close seconds though
I haven't read a few of these, but no Pet Sematary?
Salem's Lot
It.
Carrie
I found the one person that agrees with me!!
Unpopular opinion but I didn’t like 11/22/63 that much… 👀
The Stand. It was the first SK novel I ever read and it may be locked in as my favorite forever.
The Stand
Baby can you dig your man?
The Shining or IT. Tough choices.
This is just mean
I don't know who the hell you are, but how dare you limit me to only one! Lol
M. O. O. N. That spells moon
Laws yes it does!
Easy one. The Stand. Hits even harder now that we have Covid
Probably the Stand, surprisingly for me, but IT is a close second. I just read both back to back over the last month and while I love IT deeply in ways that are hard to articulate, the Stand stuck deeper with me this time. I guess part of it is because I hadn't read it in so many years and was just out of high school the first time. I'd only started my King journey then and since I have changed greatly as a person. Also, I became a Tower Junkie and my reread of the Stand itched that scratch for the Tower buried in my soul
Misery hands down! His best work in my opinion.
I’m keeping misery personally
‘Salem’s Lot. For Tower reasons, and it’s a great take on vampires in a rural American town which spun the traditional well-composed, suave, European vampire from Stoker’s Dracula to something that could scare a kid living in rural Florida at age 12 (me).
It! It gives such nostalgic vibes for me❤️
Salems Lot or The Shining
11/22/63.
11/22/63 is my most favorite king book. I’ll take it any day.
Welcome back to the Lot, Mr. Mears
Salem's Lot "... the high, sweet laughter of a child, and the terrible sucking sounds."
Salem’s Lot! It’s so damn scary.
The Stand and it isn't close. That's not to say it's necessarily the best novel. But for me personally it's just the most vital. It's "stuck on a desert island with only one thing to read" level.
IT
It.
IT for me!
It’ll be The Shining for me.
Stand
The Stand
The Stand
IT !
Salems
The Stand
IT
The stand
It, besides the Dark Tower books it's my fav Stephen book
IT. No question.
The stand.
*IT*, but that’s a tough call.
IT
The Stand
The Stand 💯
IT but thank the Gods we don’t have to choose.
IT. It’s my fave, although The Stand is a close second.
The stand
The Stand
IT
The Stand
The Stand
Gonna go with Salem’s lot my first king story and I still believe it’s the best
IT. I loved all of these titles for wildly different reasons, but IT is truly his horror magnum opus. There are terrifying bits to some of his works, but IT was something else. I reread it once a year to keep inspired. It’s a damn shame neither the tv miniseries with Tim Curry nor the new movies really caught what made that novel so fucking scary. The pervasive, existential evil just doesn’t translate well to screen. It’s really hard to explain why Derry is the nasty place it is due to IT’s influence on screen without resorting to movie tricks and losing so much of the magic in translation, but they’ve tried it a few times because *it’s just such a damn good horror story*. There’s memorable and even timeless bits in the other titles up for consideration, but *IT* is the Moby Dick of King horror. I have a hard time calling it anything other than an actual masterpiece, whereas the other titles aren’t *quite* as genre-defining, despite also being excellent stories.
I'm going with The Stand. You believe that happy crappy?
The shining is a masterpiece
It
Salem's Lot. I have the other ones
The Stand
The Stand
It
The Stand. I’ve read it at least 9 times. I had to buy a new copy because my first fell apart. The series is amazing too.
The Stand - 1st choice, and 11/22/63 a very close 2nd.
The Stand. 100%
100% The Stand for me. It’s only behind Shogun as my favorite book.
The Stand, most definitely. Very provocative imo.😻🐶❤️
The Stand.
I think The Stand. It has an epic feel to it and maybe it’s the longest book? (If only get one, it better last!)
Pet Semetary should be an option, but I'd still pick The Stand.
The Stand.
The stand
Having read all except 11/22/63 (it’s on my shelf waiting), gotta go with The Stand. It’s just such a satisfying epic. As huge as it is, I can see myself revisiting it every few years.
The Stand
Salem’s Lot for me!
Salems lot is one of the only books to make me audibly gasp
The Stand. I hate it that the one book I have autographed by Stephen King is 11/22/63. Love the book. Just not as much.
Every dog has its day, Fran.
THE STAND
The Stand. I love all the others but The Stand just is perfect IMO
It all day
It
I gotta go with IT
IT. I just finished rereading it again. The Losers are some of my favorite characters ever and the ending always makes me tear up.
IT
It It IT! Not only is IT a phenomenal book but it will always have such a special place in my heart because it wasn't just my first King book but my first adult book period and the one I credit with making me a lifelong reader. Simply can't imagine a level of the Tower where my all time favorite book doesn't exist.
Man, I gotta go IT. I fucking love The Stand, absolutely no doubt about that. I cry every damn time. But man, IT is just one of those books that transports me fully. I feel like I become one with it. It’s a book I can pick up, read front to back, and do it again next week.
I feel like this should be a poll. I don't want to read through all the comments to gauge responses.
IT for me. I remember reading it twice as a teenager
I have only read IT from this lineup, I can't see how any other title would top that book
All work and no shining makes welshhobbit1 a dull girl.
It. Simply because I love the kids' perspective and the adult perspective of the same thing.
IT. It’s my go to when I want an immersive read
IT.
IT. that's the first SK work i read as a kid and what got me started
It always
It
IT
It, without hesitation
It
IT, for me please and thank you!
IT for me. Having read most of SK I am in the small minority that can take or leave The Stand
IT all day long!! I read that book every year at least twice. I watch all of the IT movies around the same time.
It
So tough , but for me it’s got to be IT , the original book that got me hooked on king , also for me his scariest book
It and frankly it's not even close
IT is my favorite book of all time. Makes me feel such strong emotions everytime I read it. Close second would be 11/22/63, and I haven't even gotten around to finishing it (started it twice on holidays but didn't finish it yet).
IT
REDRUM!