Where to start with Stephen King

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.