/lit/ - Literature

You can read them in any order

We don't know what you have altogether. I hope you have his Bachman books. The Long Walk is one of my favourite stories

Holy fuck, word for word, you could probably read three quarters of the western canon instead of that pop fiction garbage.

>>2904226
I'm with this guy.

Kingfags always profess to his "great storytelling" abilities, but they don't realise that part of great storytelling is being a master of language and phrase. King's prose is flat-out inept.

Look at any line in >>2904224's favourite book. It's shoddy hackwork, from the first line: "An old blue Ford pulled into the guarded parking lot that morning, looking like a small, tired dog after a hard run." to the end, "He somehow, found the strength to run."

These are sentences like those of ambitious high schoolers.

>>2904226
>>2904241
Oh well that wasn't OP's aim anyway. Once you have the books, why NOT read them? I often find a stash of very random or obscure books, and it's a real pleasure to graze through them in no particular order.
(My last find was a box full of French novels from the 1920s. It had classics (Zola), abridged versions, and some popular fiction. It reminded me of a treasure chest, because it was mainly its discovery and the mixed content that made it interesting.)

>>2904174
Since King is such a prolific writer, I imagine that restricting oneself to a decade might be handy. This way, you'll have less trouble with discrepancies in setting (most of his stories have contemporary settings).

He was inspired by B horror stories, and he pretty much writes in that vein.
Not going to defend his prose, because he has serious problems, but several of his novels are fun.
Most important thing to remember with Stephen King is his biggest weakness is endings. He builds up tension and then it either results in a weak ending or a horrible ending.
Some of the good ones are, The Shining, The Stand (weak ending), IT, Lisey's Story, The Dark Tower's 1-5, The Talisman and Black House, Misery, Firestarter, and Needful Things

>>2904226
>implying that western canon isn't pretentious garbage

i must say i too am currently reading Stephen Kings book and i find nothing overtly spectacular about them. i started reading maybe last month and so far have covered The Mist, From a Buick 8 and halfway through Pet Sematery. Boring boring style of writing with endless useless descriptions and what >>2904241 has already mentioned.

>>2904269

>effectively every important work ever written
>pretentious garbage

He's not a good writer, he's a pulp writer, some people have fun reading him, if you don't, stop reading him. If OP wants to read them, he'll more than likely find a lot in there that's enjoyable.
There's nothing wrong with reading bad writing, Stephen King himself said that what he writes is the literary equivalent of junk food.
It'd be different if it was being passed off as literature, like freaking Twilight and Grades of Shay.

>>2904307
Stephen King >> Twilight or Harry Potter.

Read his early works first, they're by far the most creative and better written. Salem's Lot and the Shining are a good starting point, then read The Green Mile.

>>2904328
What I mean to say, is it's not pretentious. There are aspects of writing he doesn't know how to do, and he doesn't pretend that he does.
You know who said "Stephen King is bad at endings." He did.
He doesn't pretend to know writing, even his book on writing is less about giving advice and more about the attitude of writing. The "Why" behind it, and showing how he does it.
What he knows is horror. You don't go to him for the endings, you go for the buildup, the way he writes tension. If OP is willing to tolerate the way his books can fade off at the end, than he's in for a lot of fun.