What is your favorite Stephen King book or short story... and if you have a minute, tell us why.

I don't know if I could pick just one favourite. I really like "It" and "The Stand". I like books with lots of characters. I really like "It" because of the kids' characters. And the reader gets to know what happened to them when they grew up. I also really like the novellas, "The Body" and "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption".

My favourite is the first one of his books that I ever read-Salem's Lot. It scared the living daylights out of me.
I've read it three times and watched the mini-series twice.

'Christine' was always my favourite although I'm not entirely sure why. Probabaly because I was a teenager when I read it and the main characters were also. I also really enjoyed 'The Body' too.

HAs anyone read 'The Long Walk'?? Did the main character, McGarrety (I think) actually win the race or not? It talks about the shadow ... i"m sure I'm missing something but can't work out if the shadow is metaphorical or there is another walker left.

I liked the Stand best, the characters were great, the story was great and it was a very exciting story. But It was more scary, and I read that one in one day, 9 hours, and I was 13...It's difficult to choose!!!

I'm with Bridie, "Salem's Lot". The movie, particularly, is absolutely gripping and had me sitting with my back against the wall at night for about 3 weeks! I saw the movie "Rose Red" a few months ago, but I was not too terribly impressed by it. The first installment was very good, but by the end I felt it was way too long and I was losing interest.

"It"...scared the..ummm..well...granola outta me!

I think I've only read two Stephen King books. "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" and "Salem's Lot" I tried reading "Carrie" but it gave me nightmares! And I've already seen the movie!! You know a book's scary when it gives you nightmares even though you've seen the movie. I tried reading "The Shining" and "Pet Sematary" but I couldn't get into it since I knew what happen with those too. At least they didn't give me nightmares!!!

SillyLily? I wasn't sure about the "Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon"... My daughter gave it to me as a gift and I read it all. It's different! And Mr. King still has talent. It's just that I came to expect something different from him , that's all! Everytime he diverted from the overtly spooky stuff, he lost me! I respect his talent and know the other works are equally good. It's just that I want a good SCARE like I did when I first became a fan!

My favorite King book is 'Cujo'. I first read it in 1982, when I was 11, and I was so scared and I came to hate the dog.

Since that time, I've re-read it over and over, and now that I am older, I've come to feel sorry for the dog and hate the Cambers.

'Cujo' tells how a dog suffers from rabies. Everytime I read it, I start to cry when I come to the parts about how Cujo is feeling because of the disease.

I also like 'The Stand', it was very scary.

My favorite King books have to bet 'Salems' Lot' and 'It' - both had the scaries scenes in them. Especially 'Salems' Lot'. It was the first King book I read, and I was only 13 or so! I made a cross out of two popsicles and a rubber band and kept it beside my bed, after 'blessing' it in my own kiddie way. Doubt if it would have worked against vampires.

His Bachman works are a little different, and I enjoyed them all immensely. 'The Running Man' was NOTHING like the movie, I'll never forget some of the graphic scenes in that. I thought the kid from Maine won The Long Walk, which was another unique story. It's been a while...

I'm with B ridie. It's got to be Salem's Lot. It was my first Stephen King book and I thought it was fantastic. When I first saw the mini series I wa about 12 and thought it was the most frightening thing I'd ever seen. Recently they really cut the mini series timewise and it lost all it's impact. My brother has since found the original long version and we watched it and were still frightened.

He's great with the prison dramas too. Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are 2 of my all time favourite films.

''The Body'', "The Stand'' and ''The Shining''

I think the one I actually ENJOYED reading the most was The Green Mile, because it was originally published in 6 installments, and you had to wait in between each one (they should do more books like this, every time a new Michael Connolly or James Patterson comes out, I always finish them in 3 or 4 hours, then have to wait a year for a new one !!)

My first, "The Dead Zone" will always have a special place for me, and I think most of his short stories are absolutely fantastic. All the "Different Seasons" stories were superb, and I'm still appalled at what Hollywood did with "The Running Man", which would have made a FANTASTIC film with the story just how it was - someone should re-make it someday (without Arnie !!)

MY FAVORITE WOULD BE HARD TO PICK I GUESS IT WOULD BE BETWEEN THE STAND AND THE GREEN MILE. THE STAND IS THE ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONS DREAM. TO HAVE 99.4 % OF THE POPULATION GONE. CAN I MAKE A LIST OR WHAT? THE GREEN MILE IS HARDER TO EXPLAIN I JUST LIKE IT.

I've just thought of another King novel that I REALLY enjoyed but no-one has mentioned it yet - "Eyes of the Dragon". For those of you who haven't read it, it's a fairy story, written for his daughter Naomi who (like Lupetta) "doesn't like all the horror stuff" !

Of course, being King, it also has a dark side, but it is a fantastic story, from the master storyteller. If you remain unconvinced - Flagg from The Stand is also a major character in it :-)

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I thought 'Rose Madder' was a great book. It just seems very psychologically interesting and the storyline is quite exciting I thought. I guess I liked the main character alot. It is not all that scary, but pretty interesting.

I think The Stand is my All-time favorite. It really takes an exceptional story for me to become so engrossed I forget time and what's going on around me, but The Stand did. From the first, it was just like I was there. His dialogue between characters is wonderful. I loved it. My next favorite is 'Salem's Lot--my husband was working Nights when I read it--and living back in the woods never bothered me until that night. I heard every creak in and around the place! Great fun to read!

For me, it has to be Salem's Lot. This is a horror story at its best written by an author at the top of his form. The movie gave "creepy" a new dimension (I mean that in a complimentary way).
When the two delivery men were moving the large wooden boxes into the basement of that old mansion, and had to get it done and out of there by sundown, I grew a few more gray hairs agonizing if they were going to make it. Superb suspense.

I would say in this order:
- The Stand...it's huge, it's well-written,it's his best (?)
- Needful Things
- It

Started Rose Madder. It's quite insteresting but I haven't read any further for a while now.

I think that my favorite Stephen King story was the one about the tiger in the bathroom and the kid that was in class and had to go really bad. A teacher that I had in high school read that one to us because we didn't have anything else to do so every time I think about that story I remember him sitting on his stool and reading Stephen King to his class. He was a pretty cool teacher and he didn't even teach English!

My favorite Stephen King book is and will forever be "IT". It wasn't the first one I read - I started out with "Carrie" when I was thirteen, followed (in this order) by "Firestarter", "Pet Sematary", and "Langoliers". Then I watched the movie "It", and I wanted to read the book, too. I was simply swept away... this book just contains EVERYTHING: suspense and horror, but also a lot of heart and fun. Simply perfect...
Other favorites include, of course, "The Stand", "Rose Madder", and the Dark Tower Series (but to be honest: I just finished "The Drawing of the Three", so I can't say if I love the whole series...). But in general, I love each and every King book I read, because each one is so different from all the others.
He's really the king!

I've read just about everything that Stephen King has written. For me, his scariest books were The Shining and It. (The Shining has to be read before seeing the movie, however.)Other books of his that I enjoyed but were not mentioned here are The Tommyknockers, Insomnia, and the Regulators (as Richard Bachman). My favorite short story is The Mist, which is about a group of people trapped in a grocery store because there's a strange mist outside filled with giant killer insects.

Carrie
The Tommyknockers
The Langoliers (short story)

p.s. whoever made the movies of the latter 2 shoud be shot. Then shot some more.

The Langoliers, definitely a favourite. Don't you just love the idea of giant mouths feasting on the past.
I agree the tv adaptation was pretty dire tho.