With two major movie adaptations of his work hitting cinema screens this year, Stephen King is a hot property once again. Not that he ever stopped being a hot property, of course. He’s one of the bestselling authors of all time. Odds are good that you’ve probably read some of his novels or novellas or short stories at some point in your life. What are your favorites?
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I arrived at the Stephen King party pretty late. I think I was out of college before I read one of his novels. Therefore, I’ve never gone back and read some of his classics, like ‘The Shining’ or ‘The Stand’ or any of the ‘Dark Tower’ books. Most of my reading has come from releases he’s made in the past decade. Of those, my favorite by far is ‘11\/22\/63<\/strong>‘, in which a high school teacher goes back in time to try to stop the Kennedy assassination. <\/p>\n I was drawn to the book because of my love of both history and time travel, but the big surprise here is that King has used the premise to write a love story – and a pretty moving one. The book is huge and might take you the rest of the summer (if not the year) to get through, but I highly recommend it for those who haven’t yet picked it up. J.J. Abrams produced a pretty decent adaptation (starring James Franco) for Hulu that’s also worth checking out, but since big chunks of the book are condensed, I advise reading the novel first then checking out the miniseries.<\/p>\n This is a pretty difficult topic for me because I’ve been a Stephen King fan since childhood. His books were some of the first I read when I arrived in the U.S. and was learning English. After some thought, I’ve decided that ‘Night Shift<\/strong>‘ is probably my favorite book because it’s a collection of what I consider some of his best short stories. <\/p>\n Aside from ‘Different Seasons’, this is the book with the most stories that have been adapted for movies. ‘The Mangler’, ‘The Boogeyman’ and ‘The Lawnmower Man’ are still among some of my favorites because they’re pretty damn creepy and twisted. I also love ‘One for the Road’, which is a loose sequel to ‘Salem’s Lot’. ‘Grey Matter’ is a dark, bizarre cautionary tale against alcoholism. In addition to the creepy stories, the book also has a couple of sad, poignant tales about living with the pain of remorse and lamenting one’s past actions, such as ‘The Last Rung on the Ladder’ and ‘The Woman in the Room’. It’s a great collection of some of King’s best.<\/p>\n I was 10-years-old when Rob Reiner’s adaptation of ‘Misery<\/strong>‘ debuted in theaters. I wanted to see it so bad, but because of the R rating, my parents wouldn’t let me. Not wanting to wait until an edited version of it aired a few years later, I talked my parents into gifting me the novel. I was 11 when I finally got my hands on a paperback edition (which I still own), but I read it cover-to-cover in no time. I recall it being the first book that made me tense up as if I was watching a scary movie. What a great reading experience. It was nice seeing the movie on television a couple years later and not being disappointed with it.<\/p>\nM. Enois Duarte<\/span><\/h3>\n
Luke Hickman<\/span><\/h3>\n
Brian Hoss<\/span><\/h3>\n