A Stephen King Reader's Guide | Advice from a Lifelong Constant Reader

I have been a constant reader of Stephen Kings for almost 40 years and in that time well before I had a YouTube channel I often had people ask me two questions about Stephen King's books number one where do I start and number two I've read this book this book this book what should I read next well I'm going to attempt to answer those questions next [Music] so with Stephen King where do I start and where do I go next are two of the toughest questions that you could ask for a couple reasons first of all his output is so huge you can't even see two more shelves that I have of my Stephen King collection about 80 volumes of work so that's a lot to choose from if I'm going to give you one recommendation or one recommendation of where to go next additionally King doesn't just write in one style he doesn't just write horror even though he's the king of horror he writes in a lot of different veins so because of that I put together this video in an attempt to answer those questions a little bit more clearly what I've done in this video is I've separated King's Works into five categories horror fantasy and magical realism crime fiction short fiction and non-fiction and in those five categories I'm going to give you a broad overview of everything within that category and then I'm going to give you a short list of four or five titles within that category that would answer the question hopefully for a lot of you where do I go next additionally I'm going to give you one selection I think is a good entry point for King in that different category so I've kind of waffled a little bit with these two questions where do I start where do I go next because I'm going to give you five answers one for each of these categories of the two questions additionally I will talk at the very end about the Dark Tower and I'll give you some reading advice for that that's a little bit beyond the seven books now based on this video what you see this is not for my constant readers but my constant readers I'd really like you to stick around the target audience for this video is people who are just starting their King Journey or they've just started they're not sure where to go next so that's where you can come in and you can comment below you can answer these questions in the five categories in the comments below so of these categories answer where you think a great entry point would be as well as what your short list that would be great representation of that specific category for a reader now I have just one minor disclaimer here a lot of King's books cross genres in fact you could pick A Book Like The Outsider and you could say that it's horror you could say that it's crime fiction or you could even say that it's fantasy or magical realism I didn't want to put a lot of these genre bending books into multiple categories so I just picked one and stuck it there generally speaking I pulled it away from the horror category because it was so many books in that category and I put it into crime fiction or I put into fantasy and magical realism just to bolster those categories a little bit more so if you're wondering where your favorite horror novel is and it's not on that horror list I didn't forget it I just put it in one of the other categories so let's go ahead and get started and we're going to start with since he's the king of horror let's start with the horror genre here's an overview of all of Stephen King's novels including the ones he wrote as Richard Bachmann The Shining carrye Salem's Lot Fire Starter Kujo pet cemetery Christine thinner it Misery the Tommy knockers The Dark Half Needful Things Gerald's Game Dolores Clayborn Rose matter desperation The Regulators insomnia dreamcatcher from ABA gate Ley story Duma Kei revive and Sleeping Beauties co-written with his son Owen King for the short list I've chosen five examples The Shining a story of a haunted hotel in Colorado Salem's Lots perhaps one of the greatest vampire stories ever told pet cemetery a cemetery where the pets come to life but a story that's much more than that it a story of ancient evil told over multiple Generations Needful Things a wild card pick but one of my favorites perhaps the hardest choice I had to make on this video is one entry point into the horror genre I chose The Shining I think The Shining is a mostly universally loved book of Kings I think it showcases so much of what he does well he has a young protagonist King is a master of writing young protagonist in writing children it's scary as can be perfect horror genre entry and the atmosphere that he Paints in this book is just incredible even if you've seen the excellent film by kubri you can read the book because there are significant differences between the two I think this is a great entry point into the horror genre we move next to Fantasy and magical realism in overview The Long Walk written as Richard Bachmann The Stand The Dead Zone The Running Man written by Richard Bachmann the talisman co-written with Peter strob the eyes of the Dragon The Green Mile Blackhouse written with Peter strob Under the Dome 112263 Dr sleep gwendy's button box co-written with Richard chismar The Outsider elevation gwendy's final task co-written with Richard chismar and fairy tale the five sele ction for the short list include the long walk a precursor to the Hunger Games The Stand considered by many King's greatest work is magnum opus with some of the most memorable characters you will ever meet in a dystopian landscape The Dead Zone main character has some very very interesting capabilities The Green Mile has a great adaptation and it's a story about a prisoner on death row with some magical powers 112263 my personal favorite novel by Stephen King deals with time travel as a man goes back in time to try to prevent the assassination of President John F Kennedy for Magical realism I think a great entry point is The Green Mile and The Green Mile works really well because it's not as big as some of the other ones that were in that short list but it's written in way that even a new reader of King can kind of ease their way into reading Stephen King this was originally serialized in six different parts and they're very very small smaller than a Nolla each so this is a great one to enter and there's so much that's rooted in real world but just the Magical elements I think is a great way to just dip the toe in the water with Stephen King's output in the fantasy and magical realism category on to Crime fiction and thrillers next an overview rage a novel by Richard Bachman roadwork another one of the Bachman novels the Colorado kid Blaze another Bachman novel Joyland Mr Mercedes Finders Keepers End of Watch later Billy Summers and Holly on the short list Joyland the three books in the bill Hodges Trilogy Mr Mercedes Finders Keepers End of Watch and later for Crime fiction my choice is Joyland I think this is a great one this is one of the genre Benders there's a lot of horror elements it is crime fiction and if you're fighting back that it's not a crime fiction novel The Publisher is the hard case crimes publication so the publisher thinks it fits what they sell so uh this works for me too but this is a great one it's a little pulpy which king does that very well and a lot of people consider this one of King's best works in the last 20 years or so this is one that I think a lot of people talk about that have read it and the people that haven't read it probably need to read it so I think crime fiction a way to enter and read King's Works in this vein is Joyland on to short fiction many readers consider King's short fiction the best of what he does although he's primarily a novelist his short fiction is some of the most fantastic works you will read he has several short story Collections and novellas now for the scope of this video I'm not examining anything that has not been published in a collection by Stephen King so any short fiction that's in other collections will not be included here the short fiction collections of Stephen King include night shift different seasons Skeleton Crew Four Past Midnight nightmares and Dreamscapes hearts in Atlantis everything's eventual just after Sunset full dark no stars bizarre of bad dreams if it bleeds and you like it darker for the short list I've chosen two short story Collections and two Novella collections in one other the short story collections are night shift King's first short Story collection shows what a brave author he was in his Youth and everything's eventual 14 dark tales one of these ties into the Dark Tower and these 14 Tales are fantastic for the Nolla collections I've chosen different seasons which has four novellas as well as four past midnight which also has four novellas and I've also included on this list hearts in Atlantis which is five short stories that are interwoven and in my opinion is one of King's most underrated works for short fiction I think the best entry point is different seasons four novellas since King has written so many novels I think it's better to start with a Noll collection than a short story collection because it's more representative of what he does the four novelas couldn't be different it paints a picture of so much that King does very well we have a young protagonist in one we have magical realism in one we have Horror in one I mean it's just a fantastic collection and if I had to just pick one random King book for anybody to read if I had to answer that question I asked at the beginning of this video and not do the categories this is usually the one that I cite as a great entry point and perhaps the best entry point to reading Stephen King on to non-fiction there are only four selections on this list so we're starting with the short list King's nonfiction work includes on writing A Memoir of The Craft Secret Windows essays and fiction on the craft of writing this is rare and hard to find this was a supplement to the book of the month club and I actually had to take a picture of my own copy because I couldn't find one online Stephen King's dance maob his history of the horror genre and then the only book here I have not read in this entire video is a book he wrote with steuart Onan called faithful two diard Boston Red Sox fans Chronicle the historic 2004 season my single recommendation for non-fiction is on writing in fact I wanted to recommend this book so badly that's really the biggest reason I included a non-fiction category even though he only wrote four works of non-fiction this has it all I mean this is a portrait of an artist and his craft he even takes one of his short stories where he shows you what he originally did and how he revised it it's about writing so any budding writer could read this and I think get a lot out of it but I think anybody that's just interested in kind of The Craft and the process of an artist this is a perfect snapshot of that additionally it tells you a little bit about King and how he writes and how he perceives his writing so I think if maybe you're a non-fiction reader and you want to dabble into Stephen King this might be a great entry point but if not I think everybody should read on writing by Stephen King so let's talk about the Dark Tower now you can read the seven books of The Dark Tower and you are fine book one's the Gunslinger book two is the drawing of the three book three is the Wasteland book four is Wizard and Glass book five Wolves of the kala book six is song of Susanna and book Seven is called The Dark Tower you can read these seven and you are fine you do not need to add more but Stephen King has a Multiverse and in that Multiverse there's a lot of connections that lead to the Dark Tower so I have three extended orders here and the first one is kind of simple it's just adding an eighth book here and that eighth book is Salem's Lot which I would recommend reading between Wizard and glass and Wolves of the kala the reason is there's a character in Salem's Lot that appears in Wolves of the kala that tells the story of Salem lot so it would ruin the book for you and Salem's lot's amazing I want you to read it so if you do extended order number one you will read Salem's Lot between books four and five now extended order number two we're going to add two more books and a short story we're going to add the win Through the Keyhole which we're going to insert after Wizard and glass he wrote this after the series was done and he calls it 4.5 so Dark Tower 4.5 went through the keyhole should be after Wizard and glass and before Salem's Lot additionally insomnia feels like a Dark Tower book there's a character that appears at the end of the series that's in insomnia but this is one that you don't necessarily have to read at any given point so I would recommend either reading it before you read the series to kind of get the flavor of what this series is all about or if you want to read it amongst these these books that you're going to read between books four and five you can read it there when King wrote the series he finished Wizard and glass and then did not come back to book five until about 20 years later so inserting some books between there you might get a more authentic reading experience like those of us that were waiting for the fifth book additionally there's a great short story in everything's eventual that is a Prelude a prequel if you will about Roland the Gunslinger but I wouldn't read it early because I think it hits a little better if you've read it after you know the character a little bit so maybe in insert all of this instead in order number two all of these books between books four and five and kind of have a first half of the series second half of the series and some of these extended books in between now extended order number three I'm going to throw it all up on the screen at once there it is so the white line all of those on the top you could read as Prelude material eyes of the Dragon it the stand we've already talked about insomnia hearts and Atlantis has a tie-in and the two books that he wrote with Peter strob the Talisman in Blackhouse you could read all of those as Prelude material or you could work them in just about anywhere I've already talked about the books at the bottom this is just kind of a third extended order if you want to reread all of this if you're curious my current reread that's taking a few years cuz I'm taking my time with this includes all of these and I'm basically doing what I said putting went through the keyhole Salem's Lot in between Wolves of the call and everything else before I read the seven books or nine books as it will but this is extended order number three okay well that's my reader guide I hope that this was helpful for all of you I hope my constant readers will help me out and put some comments below again I'm just one of you I know that a lot of you probably have some great ideas that maybe I didn't think of for your short list or your entry point that I'm sure a lot of people would love to see in the comment section below and new king readers I would love if you take one of these recommend recommendations and it really works for you come back and let me know it really makes my day it truly does make my day anytime I see a comment that somebody took a recommendation that I made on one of these videos and they love the book and I hope that all of you new readers or somewhat new readers turn into lifelong constant readers like me if you like this video please like And subscribe you can also find me on Twitter Goodreads and the Fireside Discord I'd love to interact with you there as always thank you for watching till next time goodbye

Channel: Red Fury Books

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Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 02 2024