Stephen King is among my favorite authors ever. His insanely in-depth character work, wacky stories, and simple but super effective use of pros have made him a storytelling master the likes of which are rarely seen before.
BUT! He is also very prolific and publishes multiple books a year. This brings the problem of “Where do I even start with the works of King?”.
Start with the movie
No, I am not saying you should watch the films instead of reading his books. However, if you like a film based on his work like The Shining, The green mile, or IT, well, then I would advise you to start with those.
It takes some of the pressure off since you already know the story.
Just don’t start with The Shawshank Redemption since the book is not that great.
Recommended starting places
Here is where you should start depending on what you are looking for.
Crime
If you like crime the Bill Hodges trilogy is where it’s at. Especially the first book, Mr. Mercedes is excellent.
Classical fantasy
Eyes of the dragon is a straight-up fantasy
Untraditional fantasy
Fairy tale – it reconstructs old fairy tales while still keeping to the core of what they are all about.
No time – I want something that starts fast
Misery establishes the premise and action right at the beginning.
Death – I want to contemplate death and the bleakness of life
Pet Sematary
The Horror fan
The Shining (it’s different enough to the film)
The tearjerker
The Green Mile
I want vampires
Salmons Lot
Big apocalyptic epic
The Stand
The dog lover
Cujo
History buff
11.22.63
Nostalgia
The body
Battle Royal
Fairy tale, running man, and the long walk
Underrated – I want a book not many people have read so I can feel all hipster like
Duma Key
For the deranged – I just want a book about a crazy guy killing people…..What’s wrong with you?
Rage
Supernatural – I want to read about people with supernatural abilities
Carrie, Firestarter, and The Institute make for a nice little trilogy of superhumans.
Baseball – Something with baseball?
The girl who loved Tom Gorden
Where to NOT start
Tommyknockers are by far one of the worst places to start. The book is overly long, not particularly interesting, and a little too out there, but in a boring and less interesting way.
I would also advise against starting with his short story collections since they lack the long in-depth character-building that King excels at.
The outsider spoils stuff from The Bill Hodges trilogy, so don’t start there.
The Talisman is also a bad place to start since it is very bad.
Insomnia is a bit too bloated and has a little too many connections to the dark tower. It’s not a good place to start.
The Dark Tower
But what about the Dark Tower? Can I start with that? I hear you ask.
Well, I don’t know. I haven’t read it.
I do know the third book spoils the ending of Salem’s lot.
I also know the first book is one big prologue, and the series gets better after that one.
Do with that information what you will.
I think it is better to get a sense of his writing before starting Dark Tower, but I also know people who have only read Dark Tower and liked it.