I wouldn't recommend King's longer works to someone who's just starting. Probably The Shining or Firestarter (while I enjoyed Salem's Lot, I don't rank it quite as highly as some do -- but it isn't a bad choice). Though women may relate more personally to some of the themes and imagery in Carrie.

If you're going to start with The Stand, go with the edited version first.

Cujo and Pet Sematary are both nicely scary, but the machinery is just a little too obvious in both. As in, King moves the characters around a little too obviously for either novel to be wholly satisfying.

Second the recommendation for Delores Claiborne, which really should be paired with Gerald's Game.

Different Seasons is a good choice for your second King work. Though three of the novellas have been made into movies, two of them well regarded (Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me). But Apt Pupil alone is worth it.

The Dead Zone is a character study masquerading as a novel. John Smith is a great character, but King takes too long to figure out what to do with him.

Misery is an amazing accomplishment -- an entire novel with two characters. And second Amy's description.

The Colorado Kid is an interesting minor work. Skip it for now, read it down the road when you have a free hour or two.

Of the longer works, It and the unedited Stand. I don't feel I can comment on The Dark Tower as a whole until I've read it over a period of less than 10-15 years.

Oh, The Tommyknockers! Kind of like Cujo and Pet Sematary. They all feel like King had a great image and built a novel around that image. The difference is, for the latter two, the image is almost enough to carry the novel. The Tommyknockers tries to be "bigger," and it feels messier.

Or maybe that Cujo stands on its own, with no extra-normal element. Pet Sematary has an extra-normal element, but it feels relatively organic. With Tommyknockers and Dreamcatcher, the extra-normal feels less organic and more "look what I can think up."

I didn't enjoy the Tommyknockers or Gerald's Game. Found the first to be overly sprawlingboring and the second beyond my ick factor (and i have a pretty high ick factor.)

OOh : Cell. Stephen King's version of zombie fic, without "zombies"

My favorite is still Salem's Lot, followed closely by the shorter version of The Stand. King has a remarkable imagination and is one of the best writing things that are unputdownable. I will argue that he needs an editor.

I loathed Cujo because I love dogs.

your comments are definitely making me want to re-read Tommyknockers to see if i still like it.

can't deal with Cujo, the movie. so i don't think i could deal with the book.

I am too much of a chicken to read King.

On Facebook, a friend was looking at the NYT bestsellers the week she was born, and she got a Stephen King book, as did many of us. I got Cujo. Another friend got The Butter Battle Book, so I mentioned that I'd been in a comic opera based on that book with Gilbert and Sullivan songs set to new lyrics. So a friend joked about wanting a G&S comic opera about Cujo. And then the original friend declared that it must star Miss Piggy.

And so I wrote this, which I felt like sharing.

I am the very model of a modern rabid killer dog.
I just ate up Miss Piggy; she was nothing but a filler hog.
My favorite meal is bacon but I'll also eat men on a jog.
For my dessert I think I'll go chomp on the legs of Kermit Frog.
I'm frothing at the mouth just like the writer of a gender blog
Who's glad I'm not a bitch because then King would get the fem'nist flog.
If humans coming near me would bow down, I do think that'd be great.
It really makes them easier to kill and then decapitate.

I'm very good at murdering, devouring, and causing gore.
My hunger is insatiable; you always leave me wanting more.
In short, you can't escape me without jumping right into a bog.
I am the very model of a modern rabid killer dog!

I forgot about The Dead Zone and The Dark Half. I liked both. There's not a lot of King I don't like, honestly. I even read Rose Madder, way back.

the movie had such a magical negro in it, I was never tempted.

Yeah, I thought about that. I don't remember it being quite so smarmy in the book, though.

hahaha!! that was fabulous, P-C!

I got Franny and Zooey and The Making of the President 1960

I are old.