I think it’s safe to say that King has had a vast influence on me in many ways, including in honing and shaping my writing life and writing voice.
40 years after I first discovered him (via It in a Long Island CostCo in the mid-‘80s), I thought it would be fun to run through the top 50 Stephen King books that have meant the most to my life.
#1) The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
It’s one of the best opening lines from anything, ever. Epic, mythic. It demands the reader to head out to the desert – and not just any desert, the apotheosis of all deserts, dig? – with Roland the Gunslinger to find out more.
And not just more, much more. Worlds more. The Dark Tower series – nine novels strong if you count The Wind Through the Keyhole (which I do) – has held my fascination throughout my life.
And I’m not even a huge “fantasy guy.”
#2) 11/22/63
It’s everything Stephen King does best at the very highest of levels: a killer hook related to the old game of what if you could go back in time and prevent X from happening, sharply effective horror, weirdo-great tie-ins to The Dark Tower mythos, Americana that’s clear-eyed and not gauzy, richly drawn characters that you love spending time with, and even a deeply affecting and wonderful love story.
#3) On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
The book that has had the single most influence on me as a writer and it’s also somehow a deeply comforting memoir at the same time. On Writing feels like you’re hanging out with Steve and he’s telling stories while also dropping some of the best life advice and creative advice you will ever hear. Also: plums deify!
#4) The Stand
My favorite of King’s early epics. As a teenage boy, the combination of post-apocalyptic mayhem and a massive world that you can live inside of – we’re talking roughly 1,200 pages for the “complete and uncut edition” plus a huge cast of characters that feel as real as any novel I’ve ever consumed – was absolute catnip. And when COVID hit in 2020, the first thing I thought of: Captain Trips.
#5) The Shining
The best pure horror King novel in my estimation. A haunted hotel, a descent into madness, bone chilling supernatural spookiness. Also: I’ll respectfully disagree with the author here with regard to Stanley Kubrick’s filmic adaptation: it too is a horror masterpiece.
#6) The Dead Zone
The best early King classic that most people likely aren’t aware of these days. It’s by far my favorite story involving someone who can “see the future.” Bonus I: the film adaptation from 1983, starring a pre-caricature of himself Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen, is flat-out terrific. Bonus II: the TV version from the early 2000s, starring Anthony Michael Hall, is surprisingly good. Not-so-bonus III: When the current occupant of the White House was first elected, Martin Sheen in The Dead Zone was the first thing I thought of.
#7) Bag of Bones
Haunting in the best kind of way. Deeply moving. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t read much of either gothic horror otherwise.
#8) It
Because of the way I discovered It and due to its ongoing presence and influence in pop culture (see: Pop Thruster’s piece on Welcome to Derry), it kind of feels like THE Stephen King novel in some ways, the uber-novel, rivaling The Dark Tower itself. Another way to put it: my wife, not a horror fan in the slightest, and I to this day easily layer references to Pennywise into our conversations.
#9) The Eyes of the Dragon
I realized while writing this entry that this one is sort of like if the mind of Stephen King was let loose inside a world like Game of Thrones. In any event, it’s fun and as magnetic as hell.
#10) The Long Walk
At some point during high school, I discovered and then quickly devoured the Richard Bachman novels. The Long Walk is the one that stayed with me the most – I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything that’s quite as compelling and harrowing at the same time. Maybe Cormac McCarthy’s The Road qualifies? If so, I enjoyed visiting the world of The Long Walk many more times than that.
#11) The Dark Tower: The Waste Lands
The crew now finally fully assembled, this part of the story has the best pace and velocity of the entire series, especially the end run involving the city of Lud (which I still think of whenever I approach Seattle’s skyline from the south for some reason!) and Blaine the Mono. I re-read this one a ton during the ‘90s while wildly anticipating what would happen next.
#12) Billy Summers
I’m never surprised when I love a new Stephen King novel, but I was blown away by how crackling this one is when I tore through it in 2021. Methinks King channeled Vince Gilligan and knocked this one out in some kind of fever dream.
#13) Duma Key
A ghost story for adults, set in a tropical Florida locale. A wonderful story about loss, healing, redemption, and art. I always think about this novel, and Stephen King, while visiting my mother on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
#14) The Green Mile
The Frank Darabont-directed movie starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan is one of the best ever adaptations of a King novel, and the book itself is even better.
#15) Four Past Midnight
I’ll be honest: my memory of three of the four novellas in this collection is a bit hazy, but The Langoliers is way up there in terms of one of my favorite stories that King has ever written. I think about it every time I travel by air.
#16) The Talisman
I’ll never forget how much I lit up at the wild creativity at the heart of this one, co-written with Peter Straub, when I was a kid. Parallel dimensions and things like string theory have fascinated me ever since.
#17) The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three
Eddie Dean and ‘80s NYC. Doors that are portals to different dimensions, different universes. Lobstrosities that will tear your fingers off if you’re not careful. Tasting soda and hot dogs as though you were an alien. Oh yeah, this one stayed with me.
#18) The Running Man
If you’ve seen the original movie (or, hell, the new one too I guess) but never read the book, it’s hard to describe how different the tone is – far grittier and more grounded, and nary a “who loves you and who do you love?” in sight. Both have their charms, but to paraphrase Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction: god damn I said god damn the Richard Bachman novel is so good.
#19) Misery
Claustrophobic and miserable, if I may use the word, in the most riveting kind of way. The 1990 movie, for which Kathy Bates deservedly won the Oscar for Best Actress, is quite close in tone and vibe to the novel, though the novel goes even more ruthlessly into main character and author Paul Sheldon’s plight at the hands of his “number one fan.” One imagines King delighted in metaphorically beating himself up in this novel.
#20) Hearts in Atlantis
In this 1990 collection, “Low Men in Yellow Coats” might be the best Dark Tower-adjacent story that doesn’t directly involve Roland and his ka-tet. And the titular novella is a compelling and memorable tale of Vietnam War-era college life that I adore.
#21) The Institute
Another “late era” King powerhouse. Beyond the wacko-cool premise, the stretch involving Luke Ellis’ attempted escape and its aftermath is one of the most compelling and exciting things I’ve ever read.
#22) Pet Sematary
Pure creepiness and dread, distilled. Not that I was going to mess around with Native American burial grounds (or any burial grounds for that matter) anyway, but I infinitely doubled down on that notion after burning through this one when I was a young lad.
#23) Joyland
There’s a sweet spot for me – stories with great characters and writing that just happen to include a supernatural element, and this novel that involves an amusement park in early ‘70s North Carolina very much falls into that category.
#24) The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass
The first time I read it in 1997, I was slightly frustrated that it serves mostly as backstory instead of pushing the plot forward after the gang deals with Blaine the Mono. But over the years, the tale of a younger, more innocent Roland, his dear friends, and a doomed romance have completely captivated me.
#25) The Colorado Kid
It’s always really fun when King stays in our real world completely sans supernatural stuff, and this pure mystery involving a dead guy and small-town journos is just that.
#26) Holly
It’s been really cool to see Holly Gibney evolve into a main character over a series of connected novels and associated stories, and Holly in of itself is a standalone banger.
27) ‘Salems Lot
This early King novel is so good and scary down to a visceral level that it’s almost hard to believe that vampire stories wound up becoming its own subgenre across books and movies and TV after this. Then again, maybe it’s the reason?
28) Insomnia
Not to be confused with the 2002 movie starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank, I got such a huge kick out of the ability to see auras of different colors floating off people in this one that conveys information about them.
29) Rage
This Richard Bachman novel did not age well, shall we say, as school shootings have become sickeningly common. Still, this is one taut and absolutely compelling story of youthful anger, if read with the right perspective.
30) Skeleton Crew
The Mist alone lands this one here, as frightening and mesmerizing as it gets.
31) Later
There are The Sixth Sense vibes here in the best kind of way.
32) The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower
I’ll never forget the culmination of Roland’s quest, his final confrontation with the thing he’s been consumed with all his life, how it ends (and how it begins again).
33) Everything’s Eventual
The title story is as nasty and fun as it gets; it hits the perfect sweet spot in short story form. And “The Little Sisters of Eluria” adds yet another layer to The Dark Tower universe.
34) Finders Keepers
This is the novel where the Bill Hodges-era takes full flight, with Bill, an increasingly important (and evolving) Holly, and Jerome Robinson all playing a role in foiling another King universe maniac superfan.
35) Carrie
The lore of Carrie is almost as fascinating as the novel itself. Either way, at core it’s a deeply relatable story for anyone who has felt like an outcast – and the natural feelings of revenge and retribution that creates.
36) Dreamcatcher
This one has a few “dings” against it, chiefly a simply not-good 2003 movie (that stars my guy Damian Lewis!). Nonetheless, this one rips (sorry not sorry), especially in its wildly imaginative back half.
37) The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
Not every story in this collection crushes, but Ur is so good and mesmerizing that I often wish it could be its own kind of Dark Tower series.
38 & 39) Desperation and The Regulators
The scope and imagination and ambition of these two “mirror” novels, released on the same day in 1996, doesn’t quite match the result in entertainment value, and yet still the result is pretty damned impressive.
40) The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
I feel a joy with this one that extends from the gift of another Dark Tower novel after the series was ostensibly “done,” to the fact that we get not one but two full-blown “stories within the story” as told by Roland Deschain himself.
41) Mr. Mercedes
The Bill Hodges trilogy kicks off with the retired cop and his newfound gang a.k.a. the Finders Keepers crew combatting one of the creepier bad guys in the King universe.
42) You Like It Darker
Each story here feels like a newfound gem, with highlights particularly pointing to the novellas. My favorites: Rattlesnakes and Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream.
43) The Plant
I could not get enough of this serial novel set in the world of 1980s publishing when it was released in installments back in 2000. The only frustrating thing is that King never completed it.
44) Rose Madder
Another novel where art with a supernatural element plays a role in the story, this time involving domestic violence and murder.
45 & 46) The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah
I think of these two long novels as the connective tissue that brings Roland’s ka-tet close to the end run of one of the great epic series of all time.
47) If It Bleeds
The Life of Chuck is one of the wildest, strangest, and most memorable things King has ever written. And if that’s not enough, we get a Holly Gibney-led sequel to The Outsider here as well in the form of If It Bleeds.
48) Dolores Claiborne
Effective psychological thriller on a tiny Maine island, with a light and perfectly applied dusting of supernatural stuff at the margins.
49) The Tommyknockers
I read this thick, unsettling sci-fi/horror novel while traveling on the auto train from Virginia to Florida when I was a kid – on what would be my final visit to see a beloved grandfather – and the memory of that trip and the novel (and listening to Rattle & Hum on repeat) has fused together for me.
50) The Outsider
Holly Gibney takes center stage in a story that deftly blends crime thriller and supernatural horror. Classic Stephen King in other words.