The No Man

I haven't read any Stephen King yet. What would be the best book to start with? I'm debating between The Stand and It.

Case01

I'll probably be the only one suggesting this but I started with Misery. Quite easy to read and still enjoyable even after seeing the flick.

Quack

The first one I read and this was just a couple years ago was Carrie, which wasn't too long and a good read, but then I jumped right into It which is an awesome book.

wendersfan

Carrie, The Dead Zone, or Salem's Lot

Josh-da-man

I'd start with either 'Salem's Lot or The Shining.

brainee

I think The Stand and It would both be bad choices to start - I mean, have you checked out the length of those books? 1,000+ page monsters are not the best to see if you like the writing style.

The Shining, Carrie, 'Salems Lot, Misery ... all good suggestions. I would also suggest to try Pet Sematary.

Abob Teff

Brainee beat me to it . . . I'd recommend starting with Pet Sematary. Come to think of it, that was the first one that I read. The early works are best and are a good introduction to his style (or styles, as some would argue). Although I have cared for Carrie . . .

Maybe even beginning with some of his short stories, they could be considered a very good launching point (especially since many of them tie into other books).

When you are ready for something longer, I still wouldn't suggest The Stand, but maybe It. They are, I feel, examples of his extremes (ending-wise anyway). Needful Things is a good one to build off of.

When you are ready to delve into the dual-manic nature of his writing, I really liked The Regulators (and Desperation is a companion piece, but the weaker of the two).

And of course, the magnum opus, the creme de la creme . . . start into the Dark Tower series for a serious change of pace (and then several more changes of pace within the series as well).

Tommy Ceez

START with the short story compilations

BTW, his magnum opus is the Stand

JAA

Pet Semetary . . .

In time you will (and must) get to The Stand and It.

Ephemeral_Life

Pet Sematary to begin with. The move on to works like The Shining, Misery, The Dark Half, etc. to get his "author meets hell" type books down, which are very good and not quite as heavy on mythology as others. Also be sure to read The Green Mile, and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" in Different Seasons.

The Stand is a great book (my favorite), and along with others like Insomnia and, Desperation make for a great lead-in to the Dark Tower series and its mythology.

The No Man

Seems like a lot of people are agreeing on Pet Sematary as the best King book to start off with. I was thinking The Stand or It, but my fellow DVDTalkers have not steered me wrong yet. Thanks for the help.

ceeece

I recommend "Carrie" since that was his first novel. That's a good introduction to any writer in my opinion. I actually read "Pet Sematary" first (I didn't know about Carrie at the time).

Carrie
Salem's Lot
The Shining
Pet Sematary
The Stand
It

Those are my recommendations to start with.

Xander

I'm not a huge Pet Sematary fan, though it IS a creepy book. I would vote for Carrie, Christine (my first King book) or Salem's Lot. The Stand and IT are both very good, but very long.

OwlAtHome

I'd go with 'Salem's Lot or The Long Walk.

The No Man

Based on what a lot of you guys are saying it sounds like the best books to start with are Carrie, Pet Sematary, and Salem's Lot. Now which of those....?

Tscott

The first one I read was The Stand. Someone lent it to my dad to read while he was on vacation. I wound up being the one to read it with nothing else to do on the long car ride. Next came Misery, it happened to be on a paperback rack when I needed something else to read on another vacation. Either would be good to start with, although The Stand is a big investment.

The Stephen King book that stands out the most in my memory (and I've read them all) is Pet Sematary. That one freaked me out and has one of King's most memorable endings. I'd say go with that one.

djmont

As I was not overly enamored with The Stand (an unmercifully bloated behemoth), I'd suggest starting with something a little more manageable, like Misery.

The thing about King is that a lot of it depends on what type of book you're looking for, as he's written several different species.

brainee

Well, at a certain point you just have to make the call. All three are solid choices IMO. They're shorter (you'll admit the logic in not tackling a 1000+ monster to give an author a try, when there are shorter acclaimed books to try first). Being earlier works, they're more straight-ahead conventional horror stories. All 3 are solid from start to finish - while a number of King books are good at setting stuff up and bad at wrapping it up, that's not a problem with these 3.

Pick one and give it a go! King books, even when bad (and these aren't), are usually fast reading. The kind of books, when you get into, you could devour in a weekend.

DrRingDing

Outside of reading a book of short stories (it included "The Running Man") when I was in my mid-teens, I'd never read any SK (and still haven't) except for The Stand. I liked it a lot and I had no problem reading it as an intro to King.

I chose that because I started a thread asking for people's favorite books and that one came up often.

-ringding-

Fincher Fan

Pet Sematary was my vote coming into the thread as well.

lucasorion

How about The Talisman? I think reading that and Black House led me to reading The Stand and then the Dark Tower series.

The Bus

I'd say a collection of short stories. I wouldn't read one of his very long books until you've got a few under your belt, but then again my first Stephen King book (read back in 6th or 7th grade) was It.

fiver

I read a lot of King in my teen years 15-20 years ago and eventually got kinda bored with him...then a couple years ago, I decided to give The Gunslinger a try....It is now one of my favorite books and I've read it a couple times since. I would say there's really nothing preventing it from being a good intro to King....it's short and quick to read and just plain fantastic. I also still have fond memories of The Bachman books and not so fond memories of The Stand (unabridged version).

Michael

jmj713

ANother vote for Pet Sematary. For no reason that it was the one that I myself started reading King with.

rw2516

There are instances where a novel references a previous novel. I'd read Dead Zone before Cujo. I think the story "Sun Dog" is prequel to Needful Things. Probably all Castle Rock novels should be read before Needful Things.