My Long Walk Through Stephen King's Lot

I came across a couple of YouTube videos where fans were making recommendations as to what would be a great first read for the King uninitiated.   That got me thinking: what would I recommend? Without confirming the precise number, Stephen King has written approximately 60 novels and something like 200 short stories.   That’s an incredible body of work, and a huge task in determining where to begin.   There are at least a few novels that I think would be a less than ideal place to start.   For me, those would be Dreamcatcher , Gerald’s Game , and Mr. Mercedes .   The first two titles are, for my money, not particularly well written books.   The third is perfectly adequate, and features some good characters, but is, on the whole, fairly “by-the-numbers” plot-wise, and therefore not a good representation of King’s writing and creativity overall.    I also think the Dark Tower books are probably not the right entry point either. ...

So, no, I'm not really referring to making my way through Stephen King's  Dark Tower series.  I've already completed that.  The title of this post is just a lame Stephen King reference, much like the name of my blog. I simply want to write something at the outset that gives a little of my history as a Stephen King fan.  I haven't read all of his work, but I am on a determined course to do so.  In the last ten or so years, I've come across more and more of King's writing that continues to persuade me that he is more gifted, and capable of deeper, more eloquent writing, than he is frequently given credit for. This post will highlight what I've read up until now, and hopefully express a little about why I value his writing so much.  I consider myself an avid fan of Stephen King’s books, but my journey began with his movies.  I was a young adolescent when I first encountered the frightful, gory, and depressing “Pet Se...