Books Stephen King Recommends discussion

I was just wondering, how did you start reading King? Was it a happy accident, did someone recommended or just simple coincidence??

For me, it was really simple, mostly all of the books on my parents shelfs were by King or Asimov. So, when I started reading (really reading, not kid reading), these were the books I obviously pick up. Since my parents books were in spanish, later I started buying and reading them in english.

Just to add, my parents came visiting this past week, and one of my scheduled activities was taking them to a library, a really big one, we don't really got much of those around here, and if you do get to find King books on a smaller one, they are always the same (The Shinning, Dark Tower...). I always feel guilty when they ask me for a book and I only have it in english :(

So, what's your story???

The stand was the first adult fiction I read, my mother had brought me to the bookstore and I picked the biggest novel I could find to make it last longer. Before that I was reading hardy boys.

I don't remember the exact moment, but I DO know it was mother who bought me my first King book and it was right when he started hitting the best-seller lists. She read the best-seller lists and bought many of the books off that list, so I know that's how she found out about King. I'm soooooo glad she did!

I think my first book was The Stand as well, many years ago, I put it down 3 times before I could read it all the way thru - after that, I was hooked!!!!!

My best friend recommended "The long walk" when I was in middle school and I remember taking it for a walk and actually reading while walking. Surreal experience!

After that there were so many other titles... :)

Had to be Mom. I was hooked from the start. Felt like I belonged to a secret club. When I carried one of his books around with me, total strangers would approach me..."Where did you get that book? I didn't know he had a new one out! I just love him, don't you?" Guy/babe magnet. ☺

THEN Mom gave me a Bachman book. "Read this and tell me what you think?" Well, how did King think he would get away with that? Such a distinctive style. His fans outed him immediately.

Almeta wrote: "Had to be Mom. I was hooked from the start. Felt like I belonged to a secret club. When I carried one of his books around with me, total strangers would approach me..."Where did you get that boo..."

Yeah, I remember that about the Bachman Books. Talk about being part of a secret club! Mom was grinning from ear to ear when I figured that one out!

My mom had a few of his books when I was a kid and she used to like watching his movies (like IT and Pet Semetary and Misery), and it was just sort of natural that I would gravitate toward her books when I wanted something new to read. When I was in 3rd grade I wanted to try one, but the cover illustrations on her copies of IT and Pet Semetary scared me. She bought me one of my own, Cujo (which I picked out solely because it was about a dog, lol little did I know), and after I devoured it, I got Eyes of the Dragon... I was hooked ever after!

My first book was not actually by King, it was The Long Walk (La Larga March). After I finished it I just couldn't stop thinking about it. For the next couple of weeks, every time I had to take a long walk to any place, I just kept wondering what would it feel if I couldn't stop, that stopping was equal death. It was intense.

My introduction to King was also through the film and mini-series adaptations, but the one that resonated the most was IT. For reasons unknown forever, I was allowed to watch IT on television when I was five years old, and even now, two decades later, I still have nightmares about that crazy cat Pennywise. His ability to appear as familiar faces scared me the most – often hesitant to trust Granny's embrace in fear that she would bare fangs and ask me in that gravelly voice if I wanted a balloon. As an adult, I first got my taste of King reading Insomnia, but I've since collected nearly all of his works and made a significant dent in my goal to read them all. After a while the imagery painted within the texts seems to breath around you, and that is great fun when it happens. Few authors have been able to completely blind me from the outside world and suck me into another.

Scarlet86 wrote: "My first book was not actually by King, it was The Long Walk (La Larga March). After I finished it I just couldn't stop thinking about it. For the next couple of weeks, every time I had to take a l..."

For those of you who don't know, or remember, The Long Walk was written by King under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. You can read it and 3 other novellas in The Bachman Books.

Brandon wrote: "My introduction to King was also through the film and mini-series adaptations, but the one that resonated the most was IT. For reasons unknown forever, I was allowed to watch IT on television when ..."

5 years old! Wow! I was prone to nightmares! You must have had some real doozies after that!

Kit★ wrote: "My mom had a few of his books when I was a kid and she used to like watching his movies (like IT and Pet Semetary and Misery), and it was just sort of natural that I would gravitate toward her book..."

I just can't imagine reading one of King's books in the 3rd grade. Things sure have changed since I was in the 3rd grade! lol

Amber wrote: "As I was the first avid reader in my family, my infatuation with The Man came as a happy accident when I stumbled upon his books somewhere, possibly at the library, as a young teen. The first book..."

Ah... poor Church. He did turn out to be a creepy cat. But it wasn't his fault! (This coming from an avid cat lover! lol)

Debra wrote: "Brandon wrote: "My introduction to King was also through the film and mini-series adaptations, but the one that resonated the most was IT. For reasons unknown forever, I was allowed to watch IT on ..."

Oh Debra, I still have nightmares about Pennywise from time to time. Some things just have their way of coming back to haunt you!

Brandon wrote: "Debra wrote: "Brandon wrote: "My introduction to King was also through the film and mini-series adaptations, but the one that resonated the most was IT. For reasons unknown forever, I was allowed t..."

He's one creepy dude! I feel for you!

Lol, I always was an "advanced" reader. When I was in kindergarten when the others had nap time, the teacher took me over to the 2nd grade reading/English class and I would read with them. Then from 1st grade on I was always placed in the accelerated reader groups, I would get in trouble for finishing the books too fast :)

I was 14 years old and got hold of a copy of Cujo from my high-school library. Being an obsessed horror fan, I had already seen the movie when I was 6 or 7 (kids weren't sheltered back then), it wasn't much of a stretch. I was instantly hooked and the rest is history.

And another Constant Reader was born!

Debra wrote: "And another Constant Reader was born!"

My memory is awful, but that experience is as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.

Carrie was first published in 1974 when I was in my late teens. I don't exactly remember the details, but I likely started reading him as his books came out, and I'm pretty sure Carrie was the first one I read followed by The Shining.

My mom is a huge King fan, so I grew up seeing his books on my mom's bookshelves. I was never too interested because I was young and they were really long LOL, but then lately my friend was talking about him and it peaked my interest and the rest is history.

I owe my love of King to my mom, too. And she bought me his books whenever they came out for birthdays and Christmas.

I'm pretty sure my first King book was Salem's Lot found on my mother's floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall book shelf in the early eighties.
Of course I went back to read the remainder of those shelved.

I didn't get how tuned-in that I was to his style until Mom handed over a Richard Backman book, asking me to read it and to tell her what I thought of it. Well when I returned it, she was grinning from ear to ear when I said, "This guy writes like Stephen King". (No one writes like Stephen King.)

In the early days, I felt like a member of a special club; to be the "first on my block" to read Stephen King. People would stop me in airports and express their envy that I had the most recent book, when they didn't even know it was released yet.

As Debra has said, Mom always gave us books as birthday and Christmas gifts...but there came a time when we could not/would not wait until Christmas for a new King book.

When we three: mother, sister and I combined our libraries, our books reflected varied tastes in reading. When it came to Stephen King we had three sets of everything.

Debra is now the custodian of the family Stephen King library. I "borrow" the books from her after she has read them. I am a kindred fan, she is a rabid avid fan!

ETA
I just noticed that this isn't a new thred, and that I've already answered this question here once before, just not as verbosely! 'cuse me!

Mine was actually after watching Pet Cemetery in high school. My folks weren't big readers, but I always loved to read. In middle school it was Fear Street books so it just made since to progress in high school! When I read the Shining my senior year, I tried to get in bed with mom and dad I was so scared! LOL

I slept with my light on for several nights after reading IT.

I was a young teenager when I first picked up a Stephen King book and it definitely wasn't from my parent's book shelf (my mom's selection would have included romances and Danielle Steele books and my dad didn't read many novels)! I got it from the local libary and the first one might have been Salem's Lot. I was hooked after that and after reading all the SK material our little library had, I started buying his books.

Great to hear, Josee. Another fan was born!

Debra wrote: "I slept with my light on for several nights after reading IT."

Out of all the many scares King has provided, this scene in particular stands out to me for some odd reason, almost 20 years after first reading it. [SPOILER] In The Dead Zone when the police go to Frank Dodd's mother's house to question him about the murders is Castle Rock. They enter his upstairs bedroom and find that it is still decorated like the room of a small child. As if Dodd were living in some sort of stunted, psychopathic, suspended animation. It really illustrated how far gone he was. Beyond creepy and disturbing.

I have been a fan of scary movies and books for as long as I can remember. When I was in second grade I was addicted to things like Goosebumps. As I got a little older, about fourth grade, my mom introduced me to some of Stephen King's movies. I was a huge fan of the movies while I was growing up then in high school I decided to read the books. I picked up The Shining and he has been my favorite author ever since!

The Dead Zone definitely had some creepy moments, Duane.

I think it's awesome we've got another SK fan here, Regina.

I was about thirteen, I think. I read Carrie and remember it really resonating for two reasons, one because teenagers can be so cruel. I'd never been bullied, I think only because I was a very tall, serious-looking girl and a bit imposing - but I was definitely an outsider. I'd seen people bullied for being different, or for their weight or even their names (we had one poor fellow who actually got phone calls in the middle of the night merely because his last name was 'Wolf' - ridiculous). The other reason I identified with the story was because I'd encountered a religious fanatic who terrified me.
However, the clearest memory I have of reading King was from the summer I read 'Salem's Lot. I'd stayed up most of the night, just devouring the book. I was sitting on a mattress on the floor with a bare window, no dressings, at my back. Imagine reading about Danny Glick scratching at the window when you were fifteen, the house silent and dark, and a bare window within touching distance!

Oh how creepy, Theda! I read many a King book where I had to sleep with my bed-side lamp on all night for several nights in a row!

Debra wrote: "Oh how creepy, Theda! I read many a King book where I had to sleep with my bed-side lamp on all night for several nights in a row!"

And somehow we LOVE SK for it!

I stumbled across King backwards.

As I completed the purchase of the Ender's Game audiobook, Amazon, like they always do, listed other books that I might like. In this list was The Gunslinger.

I read the first line of The Gunslinger and I was hooked.

Oh yeah, we sure do!

That's wonderful, Rodney. I LOVE the Dark Tower series. He outdid himself with that one.

I starting reading SK when I was in middle school. My parents aren't readers but my Aunt is and she supplied me with all her books. She loved horror and I believe the first SK book she gave me was Carrie. From then on I had to read every SK book that came out. My Mother never checked the books I read or I think she would have had a few things to say about them!

Yes, I bet Mom would have been a bit shocked to see what you were reading. My Mom didn't hold me back much from reading what I wanted, but I progressed at a more acceptable level of what was appropriate for my age. Although, I loved horror stories. The one book my Mom told me I wasn't ready to read was The Exorcist. When I did finally read it, it scared the bejaysus out of me, as did the movie.

My first SK book was Salem's Lot when I was in middle school. I read others in the school library's in both middle and high school often amazed that my small Texas town school libraries had them in the shelves - and thankful that they did. I remember reading Pet Cemetery while in defensive driving summer school: so engaged I could only skim the pages to quickly find out what happened next. I later had to reread several of those chapters to absorb the full flavor of King since I was scarfing him down in that first reading between lectures and lessons.

I think that is what brought me back to reading him. I have Maine relatives and spent summers there. There's something familiar in his language that sucks me in beyond the small Maine towns to those dark places. I've missed him and feel like I've reunited with an old friend. Glad to have found this board, too.

I like how you feel about King and his stories that are often set in Maine. That's pretty cool. Glad you found you way back to reading King, and found your way here. Welcome!

My dad had Carrie on DVD. I think that was my first introduction to King. I'm the type of person that ALWAYS wants to read the book behind any movie or TV show. I don't remember which King book was my first but I know I fell in love with his work after reading the first book.

Yeah, I was in love with SK the moment I read my first book. That had to be sometime in the 70s. Believe it or not, my mother introduced my sister and I to him. And every year for birthdays and Christmas she would buy us the newest ones.

I'm trying to remember my first SK book but honestly I've read him for most of my life and can't pinpoint where it began. I'm guessing maybe Salems Lot. I was hooked from day one. I still think It is one of the scariest books I've ever read.

Missy - I agree. I think Salem's Lot was one of the scariest, too. Even now, some 30+ years later, I still think of Danny Glick when its windy outside and I hear something tap my windows. At least, I always blame the wind. Well done, SK, well done.

My introduction was after watching "Children of the Corn" with my cousin when I was only 10 years old. I had terrible nightmares and it stayed with me for several years. As I grew into my teens and spent time at sleepovers, we always wanted something scary to watch and King's movies were just a go-to! My first book was Pet Cemetery. But I truly feel in love when I discovered that horror isn't the end all with King. I have laughed, cried and been moved to so many other emotions when reading his amazing work.

'Salem's Lot was certainly one of the first I read from King and it really creeped me out. It held it's own in a later reread. I think people today would still enjoy it even though it was written so long ago.

Tara, I didn't see any of King's movies before I read his books. Some of the earlier stuff was, unfortunately, crap. But the more recent movies have been excellent.

I agree so much with horror not being King's only forte. His writing has moved me in so many ways.

I think when my middle sister got Carrie and from then on I was hooked.

I started with 11/22/63. From there, I read Under the Dome, Salem's Lot, Carrie, The Shining and its sequel, and The Stand. From there I went back to the beginning and read in order of their release. Still working on that process.

Great, Tim! A new convert!