An Excellent Ranking Video. My list differs from yours (based on these books), but everyone has different opinions and yours is totally valid. I loved 11/22/63, that is a big surprise for me! I still need to read both Desperation and the Regulators. Salem's Lot is my wife's favorite, love your top five. All your DNFs were low tier King for me. I am going to re-read the Dark Tower series starting hopefully December. Great video! 🎃
Cheers, Cliff! 😀Absolutely - I know we'll differ in our assessments of King's works! Salem's Lot - your wife has excellent taste! 😉I know a lot of my list will shift as I read my way through all King's novels, though I wonder how much the top five will change - I think they're all not just favourite King books for me, but some of my absolute favourites from any author. Excited to get back to reading his stuff with Carrie in December. Enjoy your dive back into the Dark Tower! 😀
Insomnia is the only King-novel I DNF´d, and one of the only books I´ve ever stopped reading. I found it so hard to get through; I think I read maybe the first third? or half? ´The Outsider´ sounds really scary, but I´m sometimes quite sensitive to violence against children, so we´ll see! Pet Sematary made me so, so sad. I think I read it when my sibling was still a relatively young kid (again, the children stuff always gets me; grief, phew. always hard. ) also pets dying is a big, big thing that can be really tough for me, I try to avoid that nowadays. The Stand is my favourite King, I think! I also enjoyed the 1994 miniseries a lot. I really liked this, you always express yourself in such a thoughtful way. :)
Thanks, Elli 😊Glad I'm not the only one who didn't enjoy Insomnia! The Outsider is definitely one to be prepared for if you're sensitive to violence against children. The opening few chapters are extremely dark in this respect. And there are some really creepy scenes in it throughout. Let me know if you decide to give it a go, and I'll be on hand if you need to chat about it! Have you already read the Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr Mercedes/Finders Keepers/End of Watch)? I can't remember if you've said before that you have or not... If not, you probably ought to tackle them before The Outsider. 👍
Oh my goodness... So many thoughts... I'm not offended by your top three but _Regulators_ is better than _Misery?_ That's a bold stand! 😅 I wish you well with your project! I did something similar in 2022, but not quite as ambitious. I went chronologically and read all the books I hadn't and re-read the ones I didn't remember well. I did skip the short story collections, though, which I had already read but chose not to re-read. Going chronologically is a good plan, it worked for me. My only exception was that I read series contiguously, based upon the publication year of the first entry. (So I read _Black House_ right after _The Talisman,_ for instance, even though they are not sequential in publication). My own 2025 Stephen King plan, (aside from a project I am announcing in a video later today,) is I want to first go through and re-read all of the short story collections and novella collections, and then I will re-read all of the books I did not include in my 2022 read-through. This, too, is a longterm project, since I have so much else going on, but I am excited for it! Let's see if we can line up!
😂Yeah, sorry (not sorry) about putting 'The Regulators' above 'Misery'! 😜To be fair, I do recognise that 'Misery' is, objectively speaking, the far superior book. I just personally really don't like 'Misery'! I know I'm probably in the minority there! I thought about doing a full chronological read of all King's works, but it felt a bit too big a thing, so I decided to concentrate on the novels for now. That's where my love of King's writing started, so I think I'll enjoy that the most. Once I'm done with the novels I'll tackle the novellas and collections. Or I'll dip into the collections randomly along the way if I feel like it! I also considered reading the series contiguously too, but I didn't want to end up with an extended period of reading just Dark Tower books for months and months! I need to spread that out for sure... I'll comment re. your new Stephen King project on your video where you talk about it, but best of luck with your re-read of the short story and novella collections, and your re-read of those books not included in your 2022 read-through! Long term projects are great, I love having something massive to get stuck into. Exciting projects for us both! If we can line up some of our reading that would be fantastic 😀
@@alex_unabridged _Misery_ was the first SK book I read, and my first "adult" book, so it has a special place in my heart. (And it's really good, too). I read _Regulators_ right after finishing _Desperation,_ and I appreciated the project of publishing the two simultaneously as funhouse mirrors of each other, just a thinny apart, maybe, but reading them that way highlighted (to me) how much weaker _Regulators_ was in relation to its twinner. Sticking to novels is a good plan, I did that for the same reason my first time around. One important difference is when I started my SK project I didnt read anything _but_ SK until I finished. I think it was about 6 or 8 weeks of nothing but King, and it was (mostly) blissful. ( "Sleeping Beauties" was a pretty chunky speed hump, by the time I got to it...). So at that point, everything was in the shadow of the Beam, so I was happy to stay with Dark Tower in order (plus I had already read the first three). My current reading habits/obligations dont really let me spend two months on nothing but King... I am trying to have a more balanced approach to lonterm projects, but its hard... It means my reading life is largely just projects... At my current rate my Robin Hobb project will last another 17 months... and I have at least a half dozen different trilogies (or larger series, like Malazan) that I want to start... Just not enough time... it is so tempting to just choose one world and live nowhere but there for a while...
Great video, Alex. I’m always amazed when I watch people’s Stephen King videos that I hear about at least one novel I’ve never heard of. Well, he has written so many. I’m sure I’ve told you that I read Carrie when it was a brand new book in 1974. Everyone was reading it among my high school friends. I re-read it this year for its 50th anniversary, and also as a banned book. I probably enjoyed it more when I was a kid. Reading it again, 50 years later, I was struck by what a powerful illustration it is of bullying and human cruelty. No one ever includes The Green Mile on any of these lists, maybe because it doesn’t really fit in with his other books. I used that book to get “reluctant “ readers in high school to read. I’m trying to read Salem’s Lot now for this spooky season, but we’ll see how far I get. 😬😱 I couldn’t finish Holly because I was so disturbed by the villains. The Shining traumatized me in high school! I’ll let you know how (or if) I get on with Salem’s Lot. I’m basically a chicken when it comes to horror! 😬😱 I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on all of these. Best of luck with the BIG project! 😊
Thanks, Pat! 😊I do wonder if I'll have as strong a reaction to Carrie when I re-read it - I must have been in my late teens when I first read it. I do remember it being really powerful back then. I'm really looking forward to The Green Mile (though it'll take me a while to get to that one on the big project, I've got 34 others to go before that!) - I loved the film version, so I know I really like the story, but King's characters are such a joy to read that I'm really excited to experience the book. The villains in Holly are indeed horrendous, King does human villains so well, I think they're so often the most disturbing elements of his work. Don't give yourself nightmares with 'Salem's Lot! I'm a complete chicken when it comes to horror in visual form - horror films are absolutely not for me! If I see something that frightens me, I can't get rid of the visuals (I don't quite have a photographic memory, but close to it!) and that's just nightmare fuel for the rest of my life! 🤣 But horror fiction often sits just in the right place for me to confront some of the things that scare me, without getting overwhelmed by them. My brain kindly 'censors' the visuals I get from descriptions so I can handle them. And I'm never afraid to DNF something if it goes over the line of what I can deal with! Fingers crossed you have a good time with 'Salem's Lot 🤞😀
@ I do know what you mean about films vs novels. I know I can’t watch most horror films-except the really old classics. So far, I’m ok with Salem’s Lot, but I’ve barely started. If it’s too much, I’ll stop. I had to stop Holly this summer. I just couldn’t deal with the villains. This is an awesome project, Alex.
@@BookChatWithPat8668 Yes, I'm really looking forward to slowly making my way through all King's books! As long as I don't treat it as something to be done 'quickly' then it should be achievable! 😂I really like some of the old classic horror films too, they're less scary and more fun, plus I love the old school effects in them. Anything from the 1920/30s is great, and the 1960s gave us some fabulous movies too, like The Birds - one of my all-time favourites. 👍
Interesting rankings. The big surprise for me was The Regulators, which would rank very close to the bottom of my own list (although, to be fair, I read it immediately after Desperation). And I would give The Tommyknockers another try someday. I think it took me a couple of tries to get into it, but I ended up liking it quite a bit. Cell would probably be readable (albeit minor) if King hadn't given up completely in the last couple of pages. Probably the most blatantly phoned-in ending he's ever written. Makes me scowl even harder than the Doctor Seuss rip-off ending of Under the Dome. Good luck on your long-range King project!
The Regulators - lol, I don't remember it being bad at all. Not great by any means, but a fun time. It was probably about 25 years ago that I read it though, and when I re-read it I'll be reading it with Desperation this time, so I may change my tune! I think a fair few things might change as I read my way through the long list of his novels. Looking forward to trying The Tommyknockers again - I think I might just have not been in the right mood for that when I tried it the first time. Was during a period of time at university when I struggled to find any fiction that I could properly sink my teeth into, even King's work!
I need to read more King. I think I’ve only read Carrie. Great video. This may well influence my King reading. Although I can’t buy any new books so I will have to read what I own to start with 😊
@@RaynorReadsStuff If you've not read the Bill Hodges trilogy, I'd consider saving The Outsider for when you have. Knowing Holly Gibney's character, along with certain plot points from End of Watch (Book 3 in the trilogy) will make for a better reading experience, in my opinion. Having said that, if you did want to dive in to it, I don't think there's anything in there that will make absolutely no sense if you haven't read the Bill Hodges books. And it's a cracker of a creepy story 😀I don't know the book of The Green Mile, but it's one I'm really looking forward to reading when I get to it on the list. I absolutely love the film adaptation.
Interesting list! I always say, there are no right or wrongs when it comes to a personal ranking. I would probably most differ with you when it comes to his true crime/Bill Hodges books. Not bad by any means, but they don't feel like King to me (the King I grew up with). I have read all of your DNF list & I kind of liked Tommyknockers, but it was not top level for me either. 🙂. Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely agree re. the Bill Hodges books - they're really different to his earlier stuff, and his horror in general. For me it was a pleasant surprise to find a series of crime thrillers that I really got into - I don't dislike crime fiction, but it's never been a genre I've been massively drawn to, so it was fab to find some that I really liked. I think my opinion on some of those books I dislike or DNF'd might change as I re-read/re-attempt them during my new King reading project - I'm a very different reader now to how I approached things 20 years ago or more! Will go into all of them with an open mind 😀Thanks for watching!
An Excellent Ranking Video. My list differs from yours (based on these books), but everyone has different opinions and yours is totally valid. I loved 11/22/63, that is a big surprise for me! I still need to read both Desperation and the Regulators. Salem's Lot is my wife's favorite, love your top five. All your DNFs were low tier King for me. I am going to re-read the Dark Tower series starting hopefully December. Great video! 🎃
Cheers, Cliff! 😀Absolutely - I know we'll differ in our assessments of King's works! Salem's Lot - your wife has excellent taste! 😉I know a lot of my list will shift as I read my way through all King's novels, though I wonder how much the top five will change - I think they're all not just favourite King books for me, but some of my absolute favourites from any author. Excited to get back to reading his stuff with Carrie in December. Enjoy your dive back into the Dark Tower! 😀
Insomnia is the only King-novel I DNF´d, and one of the only books I´ve ever stopped reading. I found it so hard to get through; I think I read maybe the first third? or half?
´The Outsider´ sounds really scary, but I´m sometimes quite sensitive to violence against children, so we´ll see!
Pet Sematary made me so, so sad. I think I read it when my sibling was still a relatively young kid (again, the children stuff always gets me; grief, phew. always hard. ) also pets dying is a big, big thing that can be really tough for me, I try to avoid that nowadays.
The Stand is my favourite King, I think! I also enjoyed the 1994 miniseries a lot.
I really liked this, you always express yourself in such a thoughtful way. :)
Thanks, Elli 😊Glad I'm not the only one who didn't enjoy Insomnia! The Outsider is definitely one to be prepared for if you're sensitive to violence against children. The opening few chapters are extremely dark in this respect. And there are some really creepy scenes in it throughout. Let me know if you decide to give it a go, and I'll be on hand if you need to chat about it! Have you already read the Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr Mercedes/Finders Keepers/End of Watch)? I can't remember if you've said before that you have or not... If not, you probably ought to tackle them before The Outsider. 👍
Oh my goodness... So many thoughts... I'm not offended by your top three but _Regulators_ is better than _Misery?_ That's a bold stand! 😅 I wish you well with your project!
I did something similar in 2022, but not quite as ambitious. I went chronologically and read all the books I hadn't and re-read the ones I didn't remember well. I did skip the short story collections, though, which I had already read but chose not to re-read. Going chronologically is a good plan, it worked for me. My only exception was that I read series contiguously, based upon the publication year of the first entry. (So I read _Black House_ right after _The Talisman,_ for instance, even though they are not sequential in publication).
My own 2025 Stephen King plan, (aside from a project I am announcing in a video later today,) is I want to first go through and re-read all of the short story collections and novella collections, and then I will re-read all of the books I did not include in my 2022 read-through. This, too, is a longterm project, since I have so much else going on, but I am excited for it! Let's see if we can line up!
😂Yeah, sorry (not sorry) about putting 'The Regulators' above 'Misery'! 😜To be fair, I do recognise that 'Misery' is, objectively speaking, the far superior book. I just personally really don't like 'Misery'! I know I'm probably in the minority there!
I thought about doing a full chronological read of all King's works, but it felt a bit too big a thing, so I decided to concentrate on the novels for now. That's where my love of King's writing started, so I think I'll enjoy that the most. Once I'm done with the novels I'll tackle the novellas and collections. Or I'll dip into the collections randomly along the way if I feel like it! I also considered reading the series contiguously too, but I didn't want to end up with an extended period of reading just Dark Tower books for months and months! I need to spread that out for sure...
I'll comment re. your new Stephen King project on your video where you talk about it, but best of luck with your re-read of the short story and novella collections, and your re-read of those books not included in your 2022 read-through! Long term projects are great, I love having something massive to get stuck into. Exciting projects for us both! If we can line up some of our reading that would be fantastic 😀
@@alex_unabridged _Misery_ was the first SK book I read, and my first "adult" book, so it has a special place in my heart. (And it's really good, too). I read _Regulators_ right after finishing _Desperation,_ and I appreciated the project of publishing the two simultaneously as funhouse mirrors of each other, just a thinny apart, maybe, but reading them that way highlighted (to me) how much weaker _Regulators_ was in relation to its twinner.
Sticking to novels is a good plan, I did that for the same reason my first time around. One important difference is when I started my SK project I didnt read anything _but_ SK until I finished. I think it was about 6 or 8 weeks of nothing but King, and it was (mostly) blissful. ( "Sleeping Beauties" was a pretty chunky speed hump, by the time I got to it...). So at that point, everything was in the shadow of the Beam, so I was happy to stay with Dark Tower in order (plus I had already read the first three).
My current reading habits/obligations dont really let me spend two months on nothing but King... I am trying to have a more balanced approach to lonterm projects, but its hard... It means my reading life is largely just projects... At my current rate my Robin Hobb project will last another 17 months... and I have at least a half dozen different trilogies (or larger series, like Malazan) that I want to start... Just not enough time... it is so tempting to just choose one world and live nowhere but there for a while...
Great video, Alex. I’m always amazed when I watch people’s Stephen King videos that I hear about at least one novel I’ve never heard of. Well, he has written so many. I’m sure I’ve told you that I read Carrie when it was a brand new book in 1974. Everyone was reading it among my high school friends. I re-read it this year for its 50th anniversary, and also as a banned book. I probably enjoyed it more when I was a kid. Reading it again, 50 years later, I was struck by what a powerful illustration it is of bullying and human cruelty. No one ever includes The Green Mile on any of these lists, maybe because it doesn’t really fit in with his other books. I used that book to get “reluctant “ readers in high school to read. I’m trying to read Salem’s Lot now for this spooky season, but we’ll see how far I get. 😬😱 I couldn’t finish Holly because I was so disturbed by the villains. The Shining traumatized me in high school! I’ll let you know how (or if) I get on with Salem’s Lot. I’m basically a chicken when it comes to horror! 😬😱 I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on all of these. Best of luck with the BIG project! 😊
Thanks, Pat! 😊I do wonder if I'll have as strong a reaction to Carrie when I re-read it - I must have been in my late teens when I first read it. I do remember it being really powerful back then. I'm really looking forward to The Green Mile (though it'll take me a while to get to that one on the big project, I've got 34 others to go before that!) - I loved the film version, so I know I really like the story, but King's characters are such a joy to read that I'm really excited to experience the book. The villains in Holly are indeed horrendous, King does human villains so well, I think they're so often the most disturbing elements of his work.
Don't give yourself nightmares with 'Salem's Lot! I'm a complete chicken when it comes to horror in visual form - horror films are absolutely not for me! If I see something that frightens me, I can't get rid of the visuals (I don't quite have a photographic memory, but close to it!) and that's just nightmare fuel for the rest of my life! 🤣 But horror fiction often sits just in the right place for me to confront some of the things that scare me, without getting overwhelmed by them. My brain kindly 'censors' the visuals I get from descriptions so I can handle them. And I'm never afraid to DNF something if it goes over the line of what I can deal with! Fingers crossed you have a good time with 'Salem's Lot 🤞😀
@ I do know what you mean about films vs novels. I know I can’t watch most horror films-except the really old classics. So far, I’m ok with Salem’s Lot, but I’ve barely started. If it’s too much, I’ll stop. I had to stop Holly this summer. I just couldn’t deal with the villains. This is an awesome project, Alex.
@@BookChatWithPat8668 Yes, I'm really looking forward to slowly making my way through all King's books! As long as I don't treat it as something to be done 'quickly' then it should be achievable! 😂I really like some of the old classic horror films too, they're less scary and more fun, plus I love the old school effects in them. Anything from the 1920/30s is great, and the 1960s gave us some fabulous movies too, like The Birds - one of my all-time favourites. 👍
@@alex_unabridged oh The Birds! That is brilliant! Yes, definitely take your time with this project so that it’s fun and not stressful.
Interesting rankings. The big surprise for me was The Regulators, which would rank very close to the bottom of my own list (although, to be fair, I read it immediately after Desperation). And I would give The Tommyknockers another try someday. I think it took me a couple of tries to get into it, but I ended up liking it quite a bit. Cell would probably be readable (albeit minor) if King hadn't given up completely in the last couple of pages. Probably the most blatantly phoned-in ending he's ever written. Makes me scowl even harder than the Doctor Seuss rip-off ending of Under the Dome. Good luck on your long-range King project!
The Regulators - lol, I don't remember it being bad at all. Not great by any means, but a fun time. It was probably about 25 years ago that I read it though, and when I re-read it I'll be reading it with Desperation this time, so I may change my tune! I think a fair few things might change as I read my way through the long list of his novels. Looking forward to trying The Tommyknockers again - I think I might just have not been in the right mood for that when I tried it the first time. Was during a period of time at university when I struggled to find any fiction that I could properly sink my teeth into, even King's work!
I need to read more King. I think I’ve only read Carrie. Great video. This may well influence my King reading. Although I can’t buy any new books so I will have to read what I own to start with 😊
Fabulous - do you have any King novels lurking in the book-shack that you can dive into for the Read What You Own challenge?
@ yes I do. I have The Green Mile and I have Outsider. I shall be giving at least one of those a go 😁
@@RaynorReadsStuff If you've not read the Bill Hodges trilogy, I'd consider saving The Outsider for when you have. Knowing Holly Gibney's character, along with certain plot points from End of Watch (Book 3 in the trilogy) will make for a better reading experience, in my opinion. Having said that, if you did want to dive in to it, I don't think there's anything in there that will make absolutely no sense if you haven't read the Bill Hodges books. And it's a cracker of a creepy story 😀I don't know the book of The Green Mile, but it's one I'm really looking forward to reading when I get to it on the list. I absolutely love the film adaptation.
Interesting list! I always say, there are no right or wrongs when it comes to a personal ranking. I would probably most differ with you when it comes to his true crime/Bill Hodges books. Not bad by any means, but they don't feel like King to me (the King I grew up with). I have read all of your DNF list & I kind of liked Tommyknockers, but it was not top level for me either. 🙂. Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely agree re. the Bill Hodges books - they're really different to his earlier stuff, and his horror in general. For me it was a pleasant surprise to find a series of crime thrillers that I really got into - I don't dislike crime fiction, but it's never been a genre I've been massively drawn to, so it was fab to find some that I really liked. I think my opinion on some of those books I dislike or DNF'd might change as I re-read/re-attempt them during my new King reading project - I'm a very different reader now to how I approached things 20 years ago or more! Will go into all of them with an open mind 😀Thanks for watching!