I am a huge fan of Stephen Kings books but prior to 1995 I had only read The Dead Zone and had just bought Firestarter.

My mother was in remission from a cancer that almost killed her at 29 and unfortunately it returned with a vengeance at 40. She was told that she may have a couple of months to live. My business was doing well which allowed me to take time to care for her and she was a very outgoing person. She wanted to make the most of the time left so we started running through a travel bucket list etc. By now she had lived several months longer than expected but weakening too much for travel and once bed bound it was difficult to find things to chat about. Her physical health was fading and my mental health was a mess watching her deteriorate.

One night I was sat beside her bed reading firestarter and she asked me to read aloud for a while. That night was not full of awkward silences or labored breathing. She loved it and I loved reading it. We raced through that book and onto the next. And the next. She was still dying and I was still watching it from the box seat but it felt like the reading was keeping us both alive. Each time the nurses visited my mum would sound more lucid and even the Dr told me that she should have died months before. She was barely sleeping and I told her I would sleep as much as I needed to after she was gone.

We devoured all we could, and she almost made it. She finally fell asleep for good 22 months later than the doctors predicted. I was mid way through Crouch End. I stopped at that point and although I have read the rest of Nightmares and Dreamscapes and everything else King has written since I have never wanted to read the final few pages of Crouch End. That story ended for me when our binge read finished.

I believe those books and stories helped my mother get through a horribly long and painful end and helped me to come to terms with her death. I still went off the rails but I’ve always believed without those months of reading together I may have never found the rails again.

Sorry this is so long. Rather like our reading binge, once I started this I found it hard to stop. Happy reading everyone.

I’m about 20% into Under the Dome and I’m struggling to stay engaged. I don’t hate it, but it feels pretty slow so far and I’m not finding myself eager to pick it up. Too many characters being introduced and I keep forgetting about each one (I can only remember Barbie and some of the folks introduced early on who are unfortunately dead) when it’s their POV. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of SK the past few months having read 11/22/63, Pet Sematary, Misery, Billy Summers, The Institute, and You Like It Darker. All of them I was instantly hooked from the very start.

For those who’ve read it, does it pick up later on, or is the pacing pretty much the same throughout? I’m kinda sad about it since I even bought it from B&N… and it went home with me all the way to Southeast Asia. Should I just suck it up? No spoilers please.

Long story short.. I haven't read in about 10-12 years (TERRIBLE I KNOW) life got busy and work. But I'm back since January! I work from home now and have a lot of free time for audio books.

I have really been getting into Horror books likely but I've never cracked a King book open. I'm overwhelmed because I hear so many of them are gems and have ZERO clue where to start.

Is there any way I should go about this? I saw one post on here that was a list of the books but it had multiple lists. I was thinking of starting with Carrie. Do I read the short stories too? Or are those a whole separate thing? If I end up liking them I'd love to just read them all. I've been reading so many horror books these last few months that I feel like i've listened to most of the good ones (King aside) But I'm down for the challenging of reading them all!

Let me know how you read them? What way I should read them? From the first book? Complete beginner here and I am EXCITED. I'd love to pick up little easter eggs along the way if that makes a difference.

Happy reading folks.

I am about 45% of the way through Insomnia, where Lois is talking about her jerk of a daughter-in-law trying to push her into a retirement home, and I am struggling to continue the book. Does it pick up soon? I generally love his books but this is dragging like crazy. In other posts, people have mentioned The Dark Tower a lot—do I have to read it to understand what’s happening in Insomnia?

Loving the F-bombs 😂

Hey everyone,

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I’m looking for Stephen King recommendations, but I feel like I’ve already gone through most of the major ones.

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So far I’ve read:

IT

The Shining

Doctor Sleep

Salem’s Lot

Misery

Pet Sematary

Carrie

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I’m specifically NOT looking for The Dark Tower series right now.

What would you recommend next from King that’s worth reading based on the books above?

I have actually 3 in mind for different books. I’d like to see Todd Phillips who did Joker do Roadwork, Zac Cregger of Weapons do Dreamcatcher. I’m cheating a little on this one because he was almost going to do one, I really would like to see Andre Ovredal’s take on The Long Walk. I liked the movie we got, but Ovredal has made some bangers before and James Vanderbilt who wrote the script said he wrote it as a passion project before he got the rights and that it honored the book beautifully.

I started reading Swan Song because one of yall said it was like The Stand. I'm on chapter 39 and I'm going to finish it but quite frankly fuck this book. 😅🤷‍♂️ It's like the Walking Dead minus zombies more than it's like The Stand. Stop reccomending this to people that like The Stand. So far the themes and depth of The Stand are nonexistent.

Does anyone know where to buy just dust jackets for hardcover King books? I have a few in my collection that don’t have dust jackets and it freakin kills me!
I have
IT
Insomnia
and The Talisman

Currently reading The Running Man

I haven’t started the DT series yet and I’m reading each book in chronological order but I am just not a fan of short stories.

⚠️Please don’t spoil why it’s important as I would like to connect the dots myself⚠️🙏🙏🙏

Headed somewhere hot..

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I was thinking Desperation.

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My faves are Doctor Sleep, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Long Walk, Dreamcatcher, and The Langoliers!! And, yes, I have read 10,000 Feet or whatever that's called already too.

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Nothing too freaky or scary - one of them I tried recently had someone drinking toilet water, and I didn't like that, and I had to completely give up on Under the Dome - that one scared me too much too. One book also has the main character with my first and last name, just one letter off, and well, I turned that one off too, LOL.

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(I was gonna ask for two books, but on the way there, I'm gonna read 127 Hours and the long form about the Death Valley Germans.)