Your First SK Book

[Ruki]

i love hearing about how people got started reading stephen king.

the first book of his that i read was night shift. i bought it at a yard sale because the picture on the front gave me the creeps, it was the paperback version with a sickle and lots of little green glowing eyes in a cornfield on the cover. i read the boogeyman before any of the other stories and i was addicted before i finished that one. i think it was the first book i ever read that i refused to let go of until i was done, and it started the only childhood obsession that i grew into instead of growing out of.

[Rjeso]

My first SK book was also a collection of short stories, but mine was Skeleton Crew. I actually picked it up in a very similar way - at a garage sale, on the cheap, because the monkey on the cover was pretty damn creepy. I liked The Misy juuust fine, but for some reason, The Raft and the place crash story were the ones that really got me hooked.

[Bethany]

Pet Semetary was in a bag of books that my dad sent to me when I was 11. I may have read some SK before that since I was a very precocious reader but that's the first one I really remember.

[Matt]

I remember Carrie very early on and felt like I could identify with her in a way, there were girls like that all over the place where I grew up.

[Spencer]

The Gunslinger was the 1st one I read.

[Letti]

My first book was Carrie... yes... but it didn't touch me so much. Maybe I was too young and it wasn't so really deep. I have no idea. I think I should reread it to be able to decide it.
Anyway the very first book which rocked me was Dolores Claiborne. That book is still very close to my heart.

[Letti]

I remember Carrie very early on and felt like I could identify with her in a way, there were girls like that all over the place where I grew up.

And weren't you afraid of them after that?

[Randall Flagg]

My first King book was The Shining. Although not my all time favorite, it has left an indelible impression upon me.

[Matt]

And weren't you afraid of them after that?

No, I just meant that they were really sheltered and withdrawn. I didn't figure they could kill you with their mind.

[Brice]

No, I just meant that they were really sheltered and withdrawn. I didn't figure they could kill you with their mind.

Spoiler:

Oh, but they can.

[OchrisO]

The first Stephen King book that I tried to read was Needful Things, and I hated it. I was only 10-ish years old when i tried though. I re-read it after reading the Dark Tower and I loved it. My dad, shortly aftyer, bought me a copy of The Eyes of the Dragon, which I loved. My dad knew that I was a big fantasy nerd from the get go, and knew that i would like it.

[Patrick]

The first SK book that I read was DIFFERENT SEASONS. I just picked it up for a summer vacation read. It was excellent. I was very happy years later when the movies "Stand By Me" and then "Shawshank Redemption" came out.

The second SK book I bought was DEAD ZONE. It is still one of my favorites.

[Jean]

The second SK book I bought was DEAD ZONE. It is still one of my favorites.

It was my first; and yes, still one of the favorites.

It was still Soviet Union, and we still had socialism... and I didn't even read English at that time. Dead Zone appeared in the only magazine where foreign authors were published, called Foreign Literature. Thank God, the Great Russian Soviet school of translating hadn't yet died at that time, and the translation was brilliant. I learned English very soon after that, and never read any King in translation since, but I've leafed through a couple of translated books, and they were abominable.

[sai delgado]

for me it was pet sematary

i stole it out of my sisters room and was addicted to it. i can't remember if it scared me but i know that the film grossed me out... i was 13 when i read it

[ManOfWesternesse]

It was either Carrie or Salems Lot, can't for the life of me remember which I read first, but it's a damn long time ago.

[tamez]

my mom finished the shining and gave it to me
right after that
so that was the first one I read
then i moved on to It.
i was in like... the sixth grade

[Odetta]

Mine was Pet Sematary as well. I was hooked from then on. Next, i read Night Shift.

[sarah]

My first book was Carrie when i was like 13 or 14 or close to that. I like to start things at the beginning. I've read just about all Stephen King and most of that was in order.

Carrie is still on my top ten books of all time.

[Hannah]

I honestly cannot remember what my first King book was. I'm thinking it may have been Firestarter. I think I first picked up King when I was 14 or 15.

[Candice Dionysus]

My first SK book was Pet Sematary, and I was eight years old. After that I read The Shinning, and then The Talisman, but I didn't really get hooked until after my five year Anne Rice binge, when I read The Talisman again. XD Then I read The Gunslinger, and I haven't stopped reading King since.
So in the last four years I've read about 25 King books, 22 of which I own myself (although of my 22, I still have six or so to read) which includes my mothers collection, and my younger brothers collection (which, when put together, minus doubles, totals out to just under 40 books).
So while my first King book was Pet Sematary, the one that really hooked me, on the second read-through, was The Talisman. I've read that one five or six times since I was 16, not including the first time I read through it, plus the two times I read it when I was 15. XD

[Erin]

My first King book was Cujo. When I was 11 or so, I found a battered copy on my mom's bookshelf. I have no idea how it even got there as she doesn't like King. I read it, much to her dismay, and was immediately hooked. Next, I picked up The Stand and became a lifelong fan.

[The_Nameless]

I can remember it as if it were yesterday.

The first SK book I read was The Shining. I remember I was in about,I don't know, sixth grade, I'd say. My mom has a ton of his books, and I enjoyed some of the movies based on his work, so I decided to read one of his books. I was ready to upgrade my horror.

My mom suggested Eyes of the Dragon, but I couldn't get into it. so I picked up The Shining. I only got half way and for some reason stopped reading it.
Well, a few months down the line I decided to give it another try (Which I am glad that I did).

After that book, I was hooked. I read his short story collections afterward.

[Matt]

Eyes was the first one I suggested to my kids too. I told them it was kind of an adult fairy tale.

Not that kind Ronnie.

[ZoNeSeeK]

I read about half of Skeleton Crew first off but my first novel was alot more recent - Rose Madder. I know its not one of his best ones but I had just pegged him as mainly horror and wasn't that interested and was surprised when i discovered he is more fantasy than anything else. I think he's grossly mislabeled. The 2nd was Eyes of the Dragon, then the Gunslinger and then Desperation I think and then all of the others

[Cutter]

That's hilarious so many people started with Pet Semetary. Add another to the list. I'm not sure, but a good guess would have been it was a birthday present, and that's how I started with King. That's pretty much how I got most of my King books in the 80's every time a new one would come out I would either get it for Christmas or on my birthday (June). But Pet Semetary was the first, and as another mentioned, The Stand was around the second or third book I bought, and after that it was over, I was hooked!