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

[Girlystevedave]

Desperation

[Jean]

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 wife's romance with King started with It... that was the first real book she read in English, too...

[John Blaze]

i don't think they'd be daunting for avid readers, but people who read but not too much might be scared off. That's why I always start people with Carrie.

[Jean]

i don't think they'd be daunting for avid readers, but people who read but not too much might be scared off. That's why I always start people with Carrie.

I start my students with Carrie, or Shawshank.

[John Blaze]

nice. i knew you were smart.

[Myste]

Something from the early years... Carrie or Salem's Lot

[Brice]

I'm not too particular. I just chain them in the basement and don't let them out till they've read ALL of SK's books.

[alinda]

I had occasion to reccomend a new SK reader to The Talisman the other day
followed by of course Black House. They had amazingly enough seen the site up on my monitor, and we started talking TDT, which they had just finished...What a happy day
for me to meet someone at hospital to talk tower with!

[TheCrisisKing]

Start with "It", some of the earlier works, then The Stand and finish with his my most recent favorite Under the Dome

[cody44]

I gave my girlfriend a copy of the Green Mile while she was away in Germany, and just recently I gave her a copy of the Gunslinger.

[John Blaze]

Start with "It", some of the earlier works, then The Stand and finish with his my most recent favorite Under the Dome

has it earned the appellative "favorite"? it just came out yesterday.

[Ruthful]

gotta be Carrie.

Yep.

I would also suggest they try one of his shorter collections, e.g. Night Shift. That, along with Carrie and The Stand, was one of the first King books I read.

[Bloodsoup]

Whilst I am a new comer here I am well acquainted with sai King's work, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned From a Buick 8 or Rose Madder. Both are excellent and also not what most people who don't know King's work would expect. Not to mention they are not too long and both tie-in to the Dark Tower (however slightly). The Regulators is also great but you'd probably want to read Desperation first.

Of those that others have mentioned already I'd agree with 'Salem's Lot (for a horror fan) and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (for those otherwise inclined).

[John Blaze]

Night Shift is ok, but my favorite short story collection is Different Seasons. I don't know if that counts, seeing as how it's 4 novellas, not really short stories. I guess Everything's Eventual.

[mystima]

i would start with eyes of the dragon, the girl who loved tom gordon, or the colorodo kid

[pathoftheturtle]

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.

People who were not old enough at the time that It was published may not be aware of what a huge popular success it was; a publishing phenomena, and a household word to some generations.

Different Seasons, yes, would be a good choice for a first SK book, for the obvious reason that three out of four have hit films adapted from them. Also, it has such distinctive style and appealling essence.

I might also suggest Danse Macabre as intro for a certain audience. Or maybe to read second, third.. somewhen early on. Y'all can call me crazy, but I do think that it can be great in getting to know Uncle Steve.

i would start with eyes of the dragon, the girl who loved tom gordon, or the colorodo kid

Yar... those are some other good thoughts. I did read EotD to my kids.
And Colorado Kid might sway your stiffer intellectual crowd.

[Ben Mears]

'Salem's Lot for horror
Dead Zone for non-horror
Different Seasons for stories

[Jean]

Dead Zone for non-horrors

That was the first King book I read... love it.

[TheCrisisKing]

Start with "It", some of the earlier works, then The Stand and finish with his my most recent favorite Under the Dome

has it earned the appellative "favorite"? it just came out yesterday.

Ive had advanced copy before that

[John Blaze]

Cool beans! I wish I had one, I've been too busy to go buy one yet.

still though, not sure I'd call it a favorite.

[stone, rose, unfound door]

I'd choose Salem's Lot or The Long Walk.

[Heather19]

It depends on the person that I'm recommending it to. Just recently I recommended It to a friend as his first King book, and he flew through it. I've also recommended Different Seasons to a few other friends that I know wouldn't be able to handle horror stories as their first King experience. So it really depends on the person, and the type of story they might like. But those would be my two picks.

[pathoftheturtle]

It depends on the person that I'm recommending it to. Just recently I recommended It to a friend as his first King book, and he flew through it. I've also recommended Different Seasons to a few other friends that I know wouldn't be able to handle horror stories as their first King experience. So it really depends on the person, and the type of story they might like. But those would be my two picks.

Precisely, right on.

[Coldalarm]

Eyes of the Dragon or Carrie.

[Merlin1958]

You know, as someone who read him as a a sort of contemporary, I would actually probably reccomend "Carrie". I remember that as a kid reading SK's original "off the beaten track" (at least at the time remember Blatty and such were out around then) approach to the Horror or scary story was a major turnabout from the traditional horror stuff. Psychic angle was kinda new and un-tested in this genre (at least as I recall for mainstream) and he kinda followed up that theme for the next few books (remember the Psychic residue of the Marsten house) At the time it was kinda "funky fresh" (pardon my old-time vocabulary) and really got me interested, along with his ability to develop characters in a unique way.

I know that later he sort of abandoned that theme and then sort of picked it up again on a regular basis in DT but, it was his fresh approach and character driven writing I think that first hooked me. Now he could just about write a "bathroom Book" and I would probably read it and most likely (given his craft and devotion) Love it!!!!
For what its worth, I personally recall a certain call it "DT connectivity" throughout his first 4 or 5 books with that "Pyschic/Paranormal" theme throughout that was kinda cool and fresh (Carrie, Shining, Dead Zone, Christine, Firestarter and even Salem's Lot and The Stand.) It was Different at the time, sort of like how we viewed "Halloween" when it first came out as compared to now. Different conventions, thought processes and morals were in play back then.

Anyone out there know what I mean sort of?

Also, "Carrie" was a relatively short book as opposed to "The Stand", (which I would rather reccomend first) which is a much more daunting task. Carrie kinda lets a folken get an "appetizer so to speak rather than asking to eat the "entree" (How's that for a metaphor?) and then progress as if the reader were discovering SK along the original timeline and thought progression. Make sense?
Just some, how you guys say? "Old School" thoughts to marinate!