I've given this a lot of thought, so please hear me out. Stephen King has of course written so many books, it's hard to say which one is best. Most people would say such-and-such is "one of his best," but let's see if we can determine the best once and for all.

Like I said, I've given this a lot of thought, so a poll like this would have to be done in stages. I decided upon five-year publication cycles, as that makes the most sense to me. Then we'll take the winners of those polls and have a sort of "playoff" to see which book wins in each decade, and then those finalists battle it out for the title of Stephen King's Best Book Award. It's that simple.

This will also have an ulterior motive of allowing us afterwards to rank all the books, from best to worst. This should be fun.

There should be one poll up at a time, and it should stay open for several days (3-5), after which it's closed and the winner declared and recorded. The runner-ups all also have their tallies recorded for the later ranking. Note that no non-fiction books are included, and the early Bachman books are added separately to add number to the 1970s decade to have a more even poll. Also, the Uncut Stand is not included, nor the Revised Gunslinger.

Here's how each poll would be separated. With the '70s a pretty light decade, we'll only go two rounds of four book each, and then pit the two winners together. For all the other decades, they've been further broken down into halves, so each half will face-off against each other first.

Take a look:

Round 1 - Early 1970s:

Carrie (1974)
'Salem's Lot (1975)
Rage (1977)
The Shining (1977)

Round 2 - Late 1970s:

Night Shift (1978)
The Stand (1978)
The Dead Zone (1979)
The Long Walk (1979)

Round 3a - Early 1980s:

Firestarter (1980)
Cujo (1981)
Roadwork (1981)
Different Seasons (1982)
The Gunslinger (1982)

Round 3b - Early 1980s:

The Running Man (1982)
Christine (1983)
Cycle of the Werewolf (1983)
Pet Sematary (1983)

Round 4a - Late 1980s:

The Talisman (1984)
Thinner (1984)
Skeleton Crew (1985)
It (1986)

Round 4b - Late 1980s:

Misery (1987)
The Drawing of the Three (1987)
The Eyes of the Dragon (1987)
The Tommyknockers (1987)
The Dark Half (1989)

Round 5a - Early 1990s:

Four Past Midnight (1990)
Needful Things (1991)
The Waste Lands (1991)
Dolores Claiborne (1992)

Round 5b - Early 1990s:

Gerald's Game (1992)
Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993)
Insomnia (1994)
Rose Madder (1995)

Round 6a - Late 1990s:

Desperation (1996)
The Green Mile (1996)
The Regulators (1996)
Wizard and Glass (1997)

Round 6b - Late 1990s:

Bag of Bones (1998)
Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
Storm of the Century (1999)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999)

Round 7a - Early 2000s:

Black House (2001)
Dreamcatcher (2001)
Everything's Eventual (2002)
From a Buick 8 (2002)

Round 7b - Early 2000s:

Wolves of the Calla (2003)
Song of Susannah (2004)
The Dark Tower (2004)

Round 8a - Late 2000s:

The Colorado Kid (2005)
Cell (2006)
Lisey's Story (2006)

Round 8b - Late 2000s:

Blaze (2007)
Duma Key (2008)
Just After Sunset (2008)


I'm not sure if it's necessary to split Round 8 up, but I didn't want to have more than five books per poll.

So. Whaddayall think?