My Top 10 Favorite Stephen King Books

A friend of mine (go read their blog) asked me what my 10 favorite Stephen King books are. Now, this is a big deal, because as I may have mentioned previously I am a huge Stephen King fan and have read everything he has ever written and buy each new book the day it comes out and have an encyclopedic knowledge of King fiction in my head such as knowing Dick Halloran from The Shining was at the fire at the Black Spot with Mike Hanlon’s dad in It.

 

It’s also a big deal because I take such lists very seriously. I try my best to keep “favorite” and “best” separate. My “favorite movies” (Run Lola Run, Wall-E, Ravenous) are not the “best” movies (I do enjoy The Shawshank Redemption, one of the greatest movies ever made, but it’s not in my Top 5 favorites). I mean, one of my favorite movies is The Core, for shit’s sake. I’m well aware of how terrible that movie is.

 

Oh, and they said I had to rank them too. So here are My Top 10 Favorite Stephen King books, in order, starting with my most favorite at #1.

 

1. It

 

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before on my blog somewhere. It isn’t just my favorite Stephen King book; it’s my favorite book, period. I read it almost once a year, every August. There’s a tear in the page where Mike meets the bird at the abandoned Ironworks. I don’t know if I can say why exactly it’s my favorite. It’s just so much more than a novel. It’s an experience. I live with those kids as they are forced to grow up that terrible summer. I journey back to Derry with them as grownups. Maybe it’s because I also look back to my childhood with that sense of magic that I still try to cling to today. I even grew up in my own Derry – Roscoe, NY. In the 1% chance one of you is from there, you know what I’m talking about.  When I finish this novel, no matter how many times it’s been, I have to recover. It’s a huge, sprawling, complex, emotional journey. It is my The Stand.

 

Speaking of which, I’m going to save you some trouble: The Stand isn’t on this list. What? What? How dare a Stephen King fan do such a thing! Well, I dare and I do. I honestly wasn’t as taken with the book as many others have. Maybe it’s because I’ve read every other book he’s ever written and many of them before this one so it’s going against all the others. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mindset when I read it. Maybe it was all the hype and expectation. And maybe I just don’t like it. Like I said, the way people feel about The Stand is the way I feel about It and the Dark Tower series. I respect The Stand, definitely. I get it. And I liked it more than Sleeping Beauties and Gerald’s Game, so there’s that.

 

2. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

 

C’maaan, you knew at least one of these was going to show up. I’ve also read this entire series almost every year (back when I had the time), and I considered putting the whole thing as one entry on this list, but I figured I’d keep it technical and only put on my favorite one of the eight and a quarter (including The Wind Through the Keyhole and the short story in Everything’s Eventual). This is the ka-tet in their prime. Eddie and Susannah joined in the last one and now Jake enters the party. The first book had world-building and the second had character introduction, now we’ve got world-building AND characters to explore it. Roland becomes the leader, father, and teacher of the group. This isn’t just the ka-tet in its prime but also Mid-World in its prime. Such a fun adventure. After this it’s a long flashback (Wizard and Glass) and then the other instance of some prime fully-functioning ka-tet in Wolves of the Calla (my second favorite), and then shit gets complicated and members split off to do different things and you know how it goes. But The Waste Lands is, ironically, so full of life and lore and learning and… l’adventure.

 

3. The Tommyknockers

 

I don’t think this book gets its fair shake, even from King himself. All he’s really said about it is that it was a metaphor for cocaine and “the best one his coke-addled mind could come up with at the time” [paraphrased from memory]. Still, I always love reading this book. It’s very meticulous. You see the change/decay of the town, and every character in it, step by step. A lot of time is spent setting up the main characters and the plot and the town and woods themselves before they even start to degrade. I’m also tickled by the physical technobabble of how the electronics are MacGuyvered into other things. This isn’t just a straight sci-fi story but also something of an urban fantasy. Urban sci-fi? Bonus points for the ending being very satisfying. Yes, it suffers from the usual King issue (not necessarily a problem) of the climax coming fast and ending quick, but there is a lot of build up before that release. We get the full story of the writer, from the beginning to his bottom to his endurance climbing back up and eventual heroic sacrifice. It’s all-encompassing, and we’ll see that same journey repeated in the next entry.

 

4. Desperation

 

This is my favorite of the two (obviously), the other being The Regulators. One by King, the other by Bachman, released together, involving the same characters. I used to think it was maybe because I read Desperation first, but now I know that they really do have different writing styles. Now don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy some of Bachman’s early work, such as the novel of which we do not speak, but I didn’t enjoy it in The Regulators. Desperation is such a more streamlined book. Polished and smooth. It has the same all-encompassing apocalyptic feel as It but all in one tiny town (a couple of buildings, really) over a much smaller condensed time. Concentrated. And once again here’s that writer past his prime who gets dragged through the shit and comes out clean on the other side, much like a convict we know, but self-sacrificed instead of cleaning a boat in Zihuatanejo. I personally will never get tired of the writer protagonist. They say write what you know, and he’s good at it.

 

5. Insomnia

 

Between It, Desperation, and Insomnia, maybe I’m a sucker for the big’uns. King has mentioned that this one is a little too plotted compared to his usual “let’s see what happens” method, but I like it. I like the scope. The size gives the plot and characters room to breathe, to settle into your mind as its own world. Plus there’s that urban fantasy element I’m such a fan of; a world just behind our own with things influencing us from higher planes that you just have to have your perception changed a little bit to see. I like the descriptions of the heightened world and the rules that govern it. Keep an eye out for a quick reference to Pet Sematary too. The Dark Tower-related bits seem a little out of place, and maybe that’s what King was referring to when he talked about being constrained by plot, but I still always have a good time reading this one.

 

6. Rose Madder

 

Again, by (fictional) Stephen King’s own admission in Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, this one doesn’t get a lot of acknowledgement, “and no movie either”. This was one of the first King books I read after becoming a fan, and I enjoyed the two stories happening simultaneously. We have the husband’s story which is partially detective, partially horror, and we have Rose’s story of freedom and finding her own life, which turns into  a fantasy when she falls into the world of the painting. Watching these stories intertwine and overlap and eventually come to a head together is exciting, following the husband’s descent into obsession and madness is captivating, and following Rose fills you with hope and makes you want her to succeed and survive . Again, there’s that idea that there is another world right next door to ours, though this one is less a mirror or higher plane and more a completely new place. And hey, Cynthia from Desperation/Regulators is in it! Always nice to see her. Don’t call her cookie, and she won’t call you cake.

 

7. Rage 

 

A.k.a the novel of which we do not speak. This is an old Bachman book that King himself has let go out of print, “and for good reason”, in his own words. It’s the one about a school shooting that has been linked to actual school shooters. However, the reason it’s here is because it’s the first Stephen King story I ever read. I read this story young, and it stayed with me, and I’ve read it a couple times since. This is the one that started me on my journey to become a Stephen King superfan, so it has to be mentioned. My history with it is one of the reasons it’s one of my favorites, the other being that it’s really well written. It has a voice that’s unlike most of his other work (because as I would learn it’s Richard Bachman’s voice), it’s enthralling, and just like the scene in Psycho where you watch Norman sink the car, it manages to make you side with the antagonist. The difference being we don’t know what Norman did yet and retroactively hits us later, and the kid in Rage kills people from the beginning and then draws you back. Fun Fact: I still have the original copy of The Bachman Books I read it in all those years ago. It’s technically my sister’s.

 

8. The Dark Half

 

This one is just… comfortable. It’s a pleasure read. You got your writer protagonist, your supernatural villain, and their stories collide in a climax of metaphysical magic. This is classic King. And the introduction of Alan Pangborn, the guy who I said I would have a beer with when a Stephen King fan page asked the question of which character you would. He’s a nice guy. Thad (the lead) is a nice guy. The good guys are good guys and the bad guy is a bad guy and the magic follows rules even if it remains unexplained. This book is the equivalent of cozying up on the couch in pajamas and a crackling fire. The following one featuring Pangborn – Needful Things – gets back into the grand scope of a town falling apart and evil infesting everyone and gets messy (though it gets bonus points for referencing the Mythos). This one is like The Dead Zone. A pleasant Sunday drive through King town.

 

9. Skeleton Crew

 

I had to have a short story collection on here somewhere, and this is one of the best. This is the one that has “The Mist”, “The Jaunt”, “The Raft”, and “Survivor Type” in it. I almost went with Nightmares and Dreamscapes instead – that’s the one with “Dolan’s Cadillac”, “The Moving Finger”, “Chattery Teeth”, and “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” in it – but in the end I had to side with the one that has a place in every Stephen King fan’s heart. The first one. Skeleton Crew’s highs are higher than Dreamscapes’. And “The Jaunt” is fucking great.

 

10. On Writing

 

Surprise! Well, not really. Regardless of whether you remember I have an English degree or not, you know I’m a writer. Hi! I’m a blog. I’ve used some of King’s teachings from this very book when writing my own stories. He knows what he’s doing and he shares the lessons in a fun, easy-to-digest way. Plus the first chunk of the book is his autobiography, which is very enjoyable to any King fan. I highly recommend this one if you haven’t read it.

 

Honorable Mentions: 11/22/63 and Revival

 

These two books are fantastic. I have no doubt that Revival will eventually boot either The Dark Half or Skeleton Crew from this list and settle in. However, they’re both (relatively) new, and I’ve only read them once. I don’t have the same history with them that I do with the ten on the list. Those have the virtue of me having grown up with them. Returning to them like old friends when I want to escape the world for a while. I’m sure Revival will get there, because I already want to read it again. It’s awesome. 

 

So there you have it, person who made me do it. And there you have it, Constant Reader. No… that’s his thing. I can’t overstep my boundaries. There you have it… One of the 50 or so Blog-Following Reader (nailed it). The Top 10 Favorite Stephen King Books by a guy who considers Stephen King to be his favorite author.  I think it may be time to revisit a few of them.

The Horrific Detail the Pet Sematary Trailer Got Right

I’m a big Stephen King fan. I have at least one copy of everything he has ever written (some paperback and hardcover copies of the same book, plus I think I have three different Gunslingers). I read It roughly once a year. There’s a rip in the page where Mike meets the bird in the ruins of the Kitchener Ironworks.

I defend King when people dismissively describe him as a just a “horror” author. Tommyknockers is Sci-Fi, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is Young Adult, Delores Claiborne is Drama, etc. He’s written a variety of genres. I also never considered any of his books to be “horror”. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them any less; I just didn’t know how anyone could ever be afraid of a book in general. None of his were very scary to me, anyway.

Except one.

Pet Sematary is the only book that has ever unsettled me to the point where I felt afraid. That’s when I learned that horror doesn’t necessarily mean being startled by a paragraph and dropping the book*. It means reading something horrific and living with that beyond the pages and in your mind.

There are two scenes in particular. One is when the father is walking through the swamp from the main sematary[sic] to the other one, in the dark. He sees ghostly lights, faces hovering in the air, the glowing eyes overhead of something very, very large and unseen passing by (which gets me right in my “avoiding the regard of something impossibly huge” nightmares). It’s a creepy set piece.

The other is a very small detail that snagged in my brain like a rusty fishhook and has never let go. Spoilers, there’s a dead cat named Church who doesn’t stay dead. Don’t worry, that’s only the preamble to what the book is really about. Once Church comes back, something isn’t right about him. He’s not evil, per se, just… off. Unpleasant to the touch. Lacking in feline grace. Wrong.

There’s a specific scene when the dad, who is the only one besides Church who knows that he’s (un)dead, looks over at the cat who is sitting unsteadily, staring into space, and wavering back and forth on his haunches. That’s the image that thoroughly unsettled me to the point of being horrified. Not the cat attacking someone or even particularly doing anything at all. Just sitting alone with whatever unknown cat thoughts returned from the other side. Stuck somewhere between life and death without the ability to articulate. Without a soul or something in place of one. Sitting unsteadily, looking at nothing. Wavering.

Cut to the trailer for the Pet Sematary remake that just came out. There’s a shot in that trailer, a very quick one, of Church. Looking… wrong. With a lazy eyelid and a very subtle waver.

They did it. They nailed it. That’s the very same look that horrified me, made real on screen. In that half-second shot of the cat you can tell that it has come back from the dead and now possesses some rudimentary knowledge that no living thing was ever meant to have. It knows it was dead. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

Between this and It, Castle Rock on Hulu, and Doctor Sleep coming out soon, we seem to be in a golden age of (good) Stephen King adaptations. Finally. But I almost have some trepidation about seeing this version of Pet Sematary in theaters. You just know that half-second shot in the trailer lasts a lot longer in the movie. Holding and slowly pushing in on this poor cat that has suffered and died and literally been through Hell and only barely knows it; just knowing that it is wrong to exist and yet continues to anyway. Maybe even dimly remembering being run over and mutilated. Barely holding itself together from forces beyond its understanding or control. Not entirely working. Not entirely empty.

Wavering.

 

* House of Leaves made me do that but it was from shock and flabbergastation.

If the Book-It Program Could See Me Now

I’m back at work. I’ll go into what was happening to me in tomorrow’s entry, but for now, I wanted to share an achievement I unlocked last week: I completed the 2015 Reading Challenge!

What the 2015 Reading Challenge, you ask? It’s a list of 50 categories of books to read in one year. I originally saw it in this Imgur post last December: http://imgur.com/qRilfmS

And as of late last week, I finished the last category’s book. I’m rather proud of myself; I set out to do a thing, and I did it. Possibly quicker than anyone else did, since I have the unfair advantage of spending four hours a day on a train to work and back.

Here’s the full list of all 52 books I read with what category they were for:

1. Over 500 Pages: “Kraken”, China Miéville
2. Classic Romance: “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Became a Movie: “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, Jon Ronson
4. Published This Year: “Silver Screen Fiend”, Patton Oswalt
5. Number in Title: “Station Eleven”, Emily St. John Mandel
6. Author Under 30: “Swamplandia!”, Karen Russell
7. Nonhuman Characters: “Holy Cow”, David Duchovney
8. Funny Book: “Hyperbole and a Half”, Allie Brosh
9. Female Author: “Maplecroft”, Cherie Priest
10. Mystery/Thriller: “The Abominable”, Dan Simmons
11. One-Word Title: “Room”, Emma Donoghue
12. Collection of Short Stories: “Cthulhu’s Reign”, various, ed. Darrell Schweitzer
13. Set in Different Country: “All You Need is Kill”, Hiroshi Sakurazaka
14. Nonfiction: “Beyond the Deep”, William Stone, Barbara am Ende
15. Popular Author’s First Book: “Practical Demonkeeping”, Christopher Moore
16. Book by an Author You Love but Haven’t Read Yet: “Helen & Troy’s Epic Road Trip”, A. Lee Martinez
17. Friend Recommended: “Sixty-One Nails”, Mike Shevdon
18. Pulitzer Prize Winner: “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay”, Michael Chabon
19. Based on True Story: “Alive”, Piers Paul Read
20. On Bottom of Your To-Read List: “The Bedwetter”, Sarah Silverman
21. Book Your Mom Loves: “Mists of Avalon”, Marion Zimmer Bradley
22. Book That Scares You: “Pet Sematary”, Stephen King
23. Published Over 100 Years Ago: “The Invisible Man”, H. G. Wells
24. Based on it’s Cover: “The Dragon and the Unicorn”, Lynne Cherry
25. Supposed to Read in High School but Didn’t: “Lord of the Flies”, William Golding
26. Memoir: “As You Wish”, Cary Elwes
27. Finished in a Day: “The Fifty Year Sword”, Mark Z. Danielewsky
28. Antonyms in Title: “My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me”, various, ed. Kate Bernheimer
29. Place You Want to Visit: “The Highlanders”, Gerry Davis (Scotland)
30. Published the Year You Were Born: “The Tao of Pooh”, Benjamin Hoff
31. Book With Bad Reviews: “The Birthing House”, Christopher Ransom
32. Trilogy: “Ashes”, Ilsa Bick
33. Trilogy: “Shadows”, Ilsa Bick
34. Trilogy: “Monsters”, Ilsa Bick
35. From Your Childhood: “A Wrinkle in Time”, Madeline L’Engle
36. Love Triangle: “City of Savages”, Lee Kelly
37. Set in the Future: “Rx: A Tale of Electronegativity”, Robert Brockway
38. Set in High School: “Love Letters to the Dead”, Ava Dellaira
39. Color in Title: “Wolf in White Van”, John Darnielle
40. Made You Cry: “Beautiful Chaos”, Gary Russell
41. Book About Magic: “Practical Magic”, Alice Hoffman
42. Graphic Novel: “The Dark Knight Returns”, Mark Millar
43. Author You’ve Never Read: “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”, Salman Rushdie
44. Book You Own But Never Read: “The Eight Doctors”, Terrance Dicks
45. Set in Your Hometown: “Opening Day”, Joe Perrone Jr.
46. Originally in a Different Language: “Battle Royale”, Koushun Takami
47. Set at Christmas: “Krampus the Yule Lord”, Brom
48. Author With Your Initials: “Catcher in the Rye”, J. D. Salinger
49. A Play: “The Book of Mormon”, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Robert Lopez
50. Banned Book: “Lolita”, Vladamir Nabakov
51. Based on TV Show: “The Roundheads”, Mark Gatiss
52. Started but Never Finished: “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”, Neil Gaiman

Heh, I managed to fit three Doctor Who books into the challenge. Anyway, I’d say the MVPs of this list were “Battle Royale” (one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I’ve ever had), “Maplecroft” (it’s Lizzie Borden fighting Lovecraftian monsters; what’s not to love?), “Station Eleven” (a new take on post-apocalyptic fiction), “Krampus” (the best Christmas story ever), “Mists of Avalon” (a true epic; also Guinevere is the WORST), “Holy Cow” (a really fun read), and “The Eight Doctors” (a must-read for any Classic Who fan). And “Beyond the Deep”, of course, but I’ve recently been obsessed with caving.

That’s what was awesome about the challenge. I got introduced to a lot of new great authors to follow and books I probably never would have read otherwise. For instance, I’ve added a bunch of Cherie Priest books to my “Books I Want” list on my phone. Turns out she’s got a whole steampunk series I’m looking forward to checking out.

At the other end are a few real shitshows I had to slog through: “Lord of the Flies”, “Catcher in the Rye”, and “The Great Gatsby” were nowhere near as good as I thought they would be. They definitely didn’t live up to the hype. I know that’s probably blasphemy, but whatever. Maybe so many years of getting an English degree burned me out on capital L Literature that needs to be unpacked to be appreciated. Likewise, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” was too far up its own ass to be enjoyed. Just page after page of Neil Gaiman (whom I have never had a problem with) screaming LOOK HOW CLEVER I AM! I TURN PHRASES LIKE I’M SCRATCHING A RECORD! DJ MELONCHOLY DROPS THE FEELS! And the less said about “The Birthing House” the better.

Anyhoo, that’s one eight-month project done. I think I may take a break and play a DS game on my commute before getting back into reading. Not too much of a break, mind you. Doing this challenge has caused the aforementioned”Books I Want” list to explode and I’m way behind. That being said, I highly recommend you do a similar challenge next year. I had a lot of fun. But you don’t have to take MY word for it.

[Reading Rainbow “duh-da-danh” noise here]