Top 5 books by S.K ? - 1) Being the best.

Here are my top five, or at least I think they are.....so far;

1) Hearts In Atlantis
2) Dreamcatcher
3) The Stand, The Complete And Uncut Edition
4) Bag Of Bones
5) Insomnia

I'm bad at rating like that. My list is too likely to change according to how I feel at the moment.

I do feel safe listing:

1) It

Beyond that, I dunno. I really do like Hearts in Atlantis and think the pair Desperation and The Regulators are really something. And of course 'Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, The Shining, Dolores Claiborne... the list goes on and on...

At the moment:

1. It. (Okay, this one is always number one)
2. The Stand
3. The Shining
4. Dolores Claiborne
5. Bag of Bones

I gave these books five stars - one I would re-read:
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon I am also a huge Red Sox fan. That helped me enjoy this book.
Dolores Claiborne I listened to this book on tape. The person who played Cliff Clayvon's (sp?) mother on Cheers read this book. She was great!
Salem's Lot This introduced me to King. Way-back-when I watched the television miniseries then read the book. After finishing one of the Dark Tower books last year, I re-read it due to King cleverly using a Lot character in the DT book.
The Eyes of the Dragon A very entertaining book.

I gave these books four stars - page turners:
Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4) This is the first Dark Tower book I really enjoyed, but hated that I knew one thing that was going to happen at the end. The spoiler was in the very first Dark Tower book. Got to give Stephen King a break though. He wrote 'Wizard and Glass' 20 years after the first Dark Tower book.
The Green Mile : The Complete Serial Novel The movie is great too.

Hmm. Difficult.

1. The Stand
2. Salem's Lot
3. It
4. Different Seasons
5. Pet Semetary

Well, out of 4 replies to my topic, so far 3 of you have It in your top 5. I have recently finished 'It' myself (only last week), and it was a close call. I gave it a rating of 4.5 and would probably place it 6th. Am currently reading Lisey's Story and with being only a third of the way through after a weeks worth of reading, am finding it rather weak, drawn out and shallow when it comes to the characters. There are 2 reasons that I'm sticking with this book and not giving up; 1) Stephen King, 2) There has to be something enthralling at some point. Please let there be!!!

Very difficult, and it's the sort of list that is likely to change almost every time one re-reads an SK book!

At present, I think I'd go for :

1) The Stand (Complete and Uncut)
2) Needful Things
3) Insomnia
4) The Dark Tower (cheating here really as I'm using it to represent the entire saga!)
5) Under The Dome

although I do feel as though It should be up there as well, and I feel bad about omitting The Green Mile, Different Seasons, 11/22/63, The Eyes Of The Dragon, Firestarter and probably others as well that aren't coming to mind at present!

I didn't mind Lisey's Story. Not my favorite, but I didn't *hate* it. I was just...lacking in some aspects. One of the few Stephen King books it took me more than a couple days to read.

Lisey's Story requires stamina. I almost gave up, but didn't and was rewarded in the end. It isn't perfect, but it has its merits.

1. The Stand (original)
2. The Shining
3. The Green Mile
4. It
5. Carrie

But 'The Body' from Different Seasons would probably make #1 or 2 on its own for me.

1. It
2. Salem's Lot
3. Danse Macabre
4. Different Seasons
5. Skeleton Crew

Of course these are all earlier works, I haven't read too many of his later books - I tried with Gerald's Game and Needful Things but didn't enjoy either and didn't get round to anything else. Hoping to catch up with some later ones this year.

1. It
2. The Green Mile
3. The Stand
4. Bag of Bones - And as an aside "Damn You A&E"
5. The Gunslinger

With more time to think I might change my answers. Sad to say not many of his recent ones come close to the top 5, although I did like Lisey's Story. Others that are close were Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia, & Wizard & Glass. I am surprised folks liked Eyes of the Dragon I always forget King wrote that...because I want to pretend he didn't :). But to each his/her own.

Fun exercise though, thanks domlan for starting this.

hmmm...I wasn't going to play, but what the hell -

1. Needful Things for the sheer joy of treachery and destruction
2. Dolores Claiborne for the distinction of narrative and narrator
3. 'Salem's Lot for the dread, the twisting of all that is good and the dread
4. Christine for its perfection of friendship and its utter ruin
5. Duma Key for the lovely spell of warmth and safety and its utter ruin

I think I sense a theme here...

Like Bookmarque I planned on just browsing but.....

1. It Really just such a great picture of friendship and horror.
2. Salem's Lot Because I don't think vampires are that scary and this book scared the crap out of me.
3. The Stand I love post appocalyptic, and this one made me think.
4. The Dead Zone What would you do if you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby?
5. Wizard and Glass Tapped into all the Louis L'Amour books I read as a kid. And I think the high point of The Dark Tower books.

Very close runner up is The Shining. I should also mention that the climax of Needful Things was outstanding.

Again, another bit of list fun:

http://www.librarything.com/list/285/all/Top-5-Books-by-Stephen-King

WOW, really didn't think that my thread would take off the way it has; so, many thanks to all of the above SK fans who have undoubtedly racked their brains and memories in making the very difficult and near impossible decision on their top 5 books.
May I also add that not long after I posted #6 about, moaning about Lisey's story the book started to unravel, leaking excitement and tension, imagination and both warmth and terror mixed together at the same time. Still reading it at the moment, but at least I'm finally in the tight grip that most SK books have upon their readers (just a shame I don't have a lot of time for reading at the moment). I would certainly agree that this book needs stamina, and if you have it (as it seems I have), then you seem to get a tsunami of everything that was missing originally. It's almost a book of two halves!

So many yet to try! I wouldn't put The Dome in the top five that I have read but I thank you all for telling me what to try next. Christine sounds just up my street and then,perhaps, Salem's Lot. I would rate Needful Things and Duma Key in my top five so far, for being memorable in different ways.When I get fed up with poorly written boks I always come back to King.

King has stated that Christine was his favorite book to write.

Tugar - Really? That's good to know. I never would have read Christine had it not been for this group's monthly read-along, as I have absolutely no interest in cars, but I'm so glad I did. Only lost a star because of the car theme, personally I gave it a 4.

Yeah. I saw a youtube video where he took questions that were emailed. He said he couldn't pick a favorite of his "children" but that he had the most fun writing Christine. The movie wasn't so good but I really enjoyed the book.

I'm a big fan of King's earlier works. But except for Under the Dome, which was more like the old SK, and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which wasn't scary at all, but just a great story about getting lost in the woods, I haven't enjoyed anything he's written since the mid-90s.

Ok, top 5 Stephen King, in my opinion:

1. The Stand
2. It
3. The Shining
4. Cujo
5. Night Shift

If we were listing top 10:

6. Pet Sematary
7. The Dead Zone
8. Misery
9. Different Seasons
10. Salem's Lot

Liseys Story.....Stick with it! Its not his usual scare-fest but it gets better. I think it was one of those "makes you think" types....it gets to you..
My favs..
1. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (to me..someone who got lost in the woods as a kid...). Pure terror.
2. Duma Key.
3. Cujo (my first SK book...still scares the crap outa me!)
4. The Stand
5. Dreamcatcher

1. The Shining
2. The Stand (1978)
3. Cujo
4. It
5. Lisey's Story
6. The Drawing of the Three
7. Chistine
8. Salem's Lot
9. Pet Semetary
10. From a Buick 8

1. The Shining
2. The Stand
3. The Talisman
4. Duma Key
5. The Drawing of the Three

(This is a super hard list! Like choosing a favorite child!)

1) It
2) Dreamcatcher
3) The Shining

>25 TheBecks:

finally, someone included the talisman!!

i'm doing a reread of stephen king's old stuff so i don't know if i can accurately do this but...

the stand
the talisman
it
the shining
christine

but man i loved needful things, even though he destroys my favorite made up town. and the green mile is amazing. and misery, my first sk in 7th grade, will always hold a special place in my heart. also carrie is great and his collections, oh, and cujo and pet sematary and... (and i haven't even read anything yet that he's written in the last 10 years or so and can't wait to read the dark tower series now that he's done...)

1. The Long Walk
2. Thinner
3. The Green Mile
4. Insomnia
5. Salem's Lot

I suspect that my list has a lot to do with when I read certain books than anything else. And if I need to continue this list, the pair of The Regulators/Desperation should be added (did not want to take 2 spaces of my list or cheat by getting just one...

Not sure of the order, but my top 5 would be

1. 11/22/63
2. The Stand
3. The Shining
4. Misery
5. Thinner

I am doing a re read of SK books, and these are ones I have read again in the last year that I really enjoyed (except 11/22/63 which is a new book)

oooh another Thinner fan. It's not in my top 5, but I do really like it. Richie "the hammer" Ginelli is one of my favorite characters.