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Thread: What is the one King book you'd recommend a new reader?

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    Default What is the one King book you'd recommend a new reader?

    Whenever I talk to someone about Stephen King, especially someone who never read any of his books, the one book I always recommend they try in The Green Mile. I don't know why, but it's the one I feel would most likely show a new reader King in his best light. It's not a horror novel, though grisly things happen; it's not a supernatural novel, though weird things happen. I think it's just a great novel. If in response I get "I saw the movie and it was kinda blah", I always reply that I didn't like the filmed version much at all, and that's true. I didn't feel Darabont really conveyed the feeling of the novel as I read it. It's a personal thing, I guess, but that's how I felt. I was bored by the movie, but I loved the book.

    So, what are your books that you would recommend? It has to be only one, the one you're most confident in recommending. I suppose you can't name The Stand or It, as they're probably too daunting for newbies.

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    shrewd and knavish sprite flaggwalkstheline will become famous soon enough flaggwalkstheline's Avatar

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    I'd say some of his early classics, the shining, salems lot, carrie, etc
    if the worlds gonna end then let's get it over with, i got shit to do

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    Regardless of your advice in the first post - I'd recommend "The Stand" to them. I always think if they get that then they'll go on to read a LOT of King.

    As a good alternative - "The Long Walk" !
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    I always recommend The Dark Tower. I don't know how many have actually read it because of that though.
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    Quote Originally Posted by ManOfWesternesse View Post
    Regardless of your advice in the first post - I'd recommend "The Stand" to them. I always think if they get that then they'll go on to read a LOT of King.

    As a good alternative - "The Long Walk" !
    I totally agree with you. I would recommend The Stand as well.

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    I always recommend The Stand, but I warn it's a long read.


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    It

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    The reason I said I wouldn't recommend It or The Stand is that some people who never read King have a pre-existing condition (to borrow from current parlance), considering him a "horror writer", and some have an automatic aversion to that.

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    I want to say Desperation, it was my first King experience and it will forever be one of my favorites. The book is accessible in terms of length, it has excellent pacing, an eerie-tense atmosphere, and an excellent villian / set of protagonists.

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    I would say Salem's Lot - plus it can lead into the DT series

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    Quote Originally Posted by pablo View Post
    The reason I said I wouldn't recommend It or The Stand is that some people who never read King have a pre-existing condition (to borrow from current parlance), considering him a "horror writer", and some have an automatic aversion to that.
    I think this is one of the reasons why I would recommend It. I want such people to see right from the word go that King is a great writer, that including horrors into one's novel doesn't make them any less great as literature, and that dividing books by genre makes sense only when we're talking about books that are not great literature, or not literature at all; while a good book is a good book regardless of the genre. If the people in question fail to understand it, I say to hell with them; I won't bother them with any King, horror or no horror, any longer.

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    Depends on what they're into but I'd likely recommend Salem's Lot. But I'd recommend The Stand to someone that wasn't into "horror". I don't consider The Stand a horror story.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Brice View Post
    I always recommend The Dark Tower. I don't know how many have actually read it because of that though.
    me too
    mostly because it is so different
    from what they will expect
    also, the first book is relatively short
    so it's not much of a commitment.
    i like the stand and it very much
    but honestly, trying to get someone
    to read something just 'cause you said
    it's good is hard enough
    there's no way i'm going to recommend
    massive tomes like that for a beginner and
    actually expect them to read them.
    There are other worlds than these.
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    Very good question pablo. It depends on the person I need to recommend to.
    I might recommend a short story first. They are frenetic and they hit. I may recommend That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French. It's not my forever favourite but this short story of his is so well written that it's almost beyond belief. It's perfect and professional. It shows that King was born to write.
    If I had to come up with a book I would recommend Dolores Claiborne. I know it's not a popular book but I remember how much it shook me when I read it. When I finished that book I started to wonder how so many people could misunderstand King and his work.

    Roland would have understood.

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    Quote Originally Posted by pablo View Post
    The reason I said I wouldn't recommend It or The Stand is that some people who never read King have a pre-existing condition (to borrow from current parlance), considering him a "horror writer", and some have an automatic aversion to that.
    those people are ignorant, they need to read something like It to frighten them into higher states of consciousness
    if the worlds gonna end then let's get it over with, i got shit to do

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    Sunset Alex is on a distinguished road Alex's Avatar

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    Insomnia
    "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat" -Theodore Roosevelt

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    I would probably recommend Insomnia as well. It wasn't my first King book, but the first time I read it, it blew me away more than anything else I had read by him. It's been probably 15 years since the first time I read it, but it's still my favorite "standalone" book by SK (read: my favorite non-DT series book).

    That being said, I suggested it to my wife. She did not enjoy it. She also didn't like The Gunslinger. But she loves SK. Go figure.

    I might also suggest Needful Things, although I have no real reason. And I might warn them about the strange Elvis picture lovemaking.

  18. #18
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    It depends on the person I am recommending to. If it is an otherwise avid reader, that I feel the length is not so daunting, I usually recommend IT.

    If it is sombody, like my brother, who would require 6 years to finish a book of that magnitude, I usually recommend Pet Sematary.

    But I often recommend others based on personality, and what I think they will like.
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    The first book I will recommend for people who don't like "horror stories" is Eyes of the Dragon. The first King book I'd recommend for someone wanting to start reading King is Salem's Lot.
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    Pet Sematary. It was the first one I read, and it was the one that made me decide "Hey! Guess what? I love this man, and I love the way he writes! I'm going to make it a goal in my life to read everything he's ever written!"

    Or, The Talisman. That solidified the feeling, and made me fall in love left, right, and center. One of my all time favorites.
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    I also popped my King cherry with Pet Sematary. It was also the only book (ever) that I immediately flipped back to the first page and started to reread. literally without even getting up. I have since reread it many times. Just recently infact.
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    id recommend Everything's Eventual, a very colorful collection of short stories.

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    gotta be Carrie.
    "So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another."

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    The Shining. It's a great novel, probably one of the few that I can really see being considered a literary classic in the next 50 years, and it's fairly short so the new reader wouldn't feel intimidated.
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    So, what are your books that you would recommend? It has to be only one, the one you're most confident in recommending. I suppose you can't name The Stand or It, as they're probably too daunting for newbies.
    My first King book was the Stand, and I don't think it would be to daunting for newcomers to King's style. Although I think that a good place to start would be Salem's Lot, Different Seasons, or the Green Mile. Maybe even Night Shift if the person is a big short story fan.


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