Favorite Books - Stephen King

For each of my favorite authors listed in the previous post, I will talk about my favorite books, and any recommendations.

Stephen King has been a favorite author of mine since I was a teenager and my brother first introduced me to his work.  I think my first Stephen King novel was Carrie.  I loved this book, even as a teenager, and was eager to read another one.  Over the years, I have read many of his books.  My absolute favorites are his older stuff like IT, Pet Semetary, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Eyes of the Dragon, Christine, and Needful Things.  I still think that Pet Semetary has one of the two best endings I've ever read in a book (my other fav will be discussed later when I talk about John Saul).

After he was seriously injured in an accident (hit by a car) in 1999, I think his writing style changed, and not for the better.  Several books he wrote soon after that were terrible in my opinion.  The worst by far being Lisey's Story.  I couldn't even finish that one.  There were a few others, After the Sunset and Cell that I also didn't care for.  So, much as I hated to do this, I stopped reading his stuff until just a couple of months ago when I tried one last time with Under the Dome.  I had read some online reviews of the book where people had said it was like the "old" Stephen King was back, and that the book was great.  Of course this made me really happy as I had missed reading his stuff greatly.

I have to agree with most of the reviewers, Under the Dome was a great book.  I loved every minute of the book with the exception of the last few chapters.  The way the book wrapped up with the revealing of what was truly causing the Dome over the town of Chester's Mill was a bit disappointing.  So, I couldn't give the book a 5 out of 5 star rating due to that, but overall the book was great, and I felt a glimmer of hope that "my" Stephen King was back.

Immediately after finishing the 1,072-page behemoth that is Under the Dome, I started reading 11/22/63, and as of right now I am a little more than halfway through.  I have to say it's definitely the BEST book he's written since his golden days of IT, The Dead Zone, etc.  I haven't finished it yet so I'm hoping he doesn't do to me what he did with Dome, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

I also found out he's getting ready to publish a sequel to The Shining soon.  Not sure how I feel about that one, but of course I will check it out.  If his previous two novels are a true representation of his being back to his old self then it truly will be worth the wait.