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Books Stephen King Recommends..

DiscoDan

DiscoDan

New Member
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, as a lot of the books aren't horror, but it is a list of books that Stephen King mentions as being very good, inspiring, or somethinganother. The list was taken from the back of his book "On Writing".

01. Abrahams, Peter - A Perfect Crime
02. Abrahams, Peter - Lights Out
03. Abrahams, Peter - Pressure Drop
04. Abrahams, Peter - Revolution #9
05. Agee, James - A Death in the Family
06. Bakis, Kirsten - Lives of the Monster Dogs
07. Barker, Pat - Regeneration
08. Barker, Pat - The Eye in the Door
09. Barker, Pat - The Ghost Road
10. Bausch, Richard - In the Night Season
11. Blauner, Peter - The Intruder
12. Bowles, Paul - The Sheltering Sky
13. Boyle, T. Coraghessan - The Tortilla Curtain
14. Bryson, Bill - A Walk in the Woods
15. Buckley, Chistopher - Thank You for Smoking
16. Carver, Raymond - Where I'm Calling From
17. Chabon, Michael - Werewolves in Their Youth
18. Chorlton, Windsor - Latitude Zero
19. Connelly, Michael - The Poet
20. Conrad, Joseph - Heart and Darkness
21. Constantine, K. C. - Family Values
22. Delillo, Don - Underworld
23. Demille, Nelson - Cathedral
24. Demille, Nelson - The Gold Coast
25. Dickens, Charles - Oliver Twist
26. Dobyns, Stephen - Common Carnage
27. Dobyns, Stephen - The Church of Dead Girls
28. Doyle, Roddy - The Woman Who Walked into Doors
29. Elkin, Stanley - The Dick Gibson Show
30. Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
31. Garland, Alex - The Beach
32. George, Elizabeth - Deception on His Mind
33. Gerritsen, Tess - Gravity
34. Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
35. Gray, Muriel - Furnace
36. Greene, Graham - A Gun for Sale (aka This Gun for Hire)
37. Greene, Graham - Our Man in Havana
38. Halberstam, David - The Fifties
39. Hamill, Pete - Why Sinatra Matters
40. Harris, Thomas - Hannibal
41. Haruf, Kent - Plainsong
42. Hoeg, Peter - Smilla's Sense of Snow
43. Hunter, Stephen - Dirty White Boys
44. Ignatius, David - A Firing Offense
45. Irving, John - A Widow for One Year
46. Joyce, Graham - The Tooth Fairy
47. Judd, Alan - The Devil's Own Work
48. Kahn, Roger - Good Enough to Dream
49. Kart, Mary - The Liars' Club
50. Ketchum, Jack - Right to Life
51. King, Tabitha - Survivor
52. King, Tabitha - The Sky in the Water (unpublished)
53. Kingsolver, Barbara - The Poisonwood Bible
54. Krakauer, Jon - Into Thin Air
55. Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
56. Lefkowitz, Bernard - Our Guys
57. Little, Bentley - The Ignored
58. Maclean, Norman - A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
59. Maugham, W. Somerset - The Moon and Sixpence
60. McCarthy, Cormac - Cities of the Plain
61. McCarthy, Cormac - The Crossing
62. McCourt, Frank - Angela's Ashes
63. McDermott, Alice - Charming Billy
64. McDevitt, Jack - Ancient Shores
65. McEwan, Ian - Enduring Love
66. McEwan, Ian - The Cement Garden
67. McMurtry, Larry - Dead Man's Walk
68. McMurtry, Larry - and Diana Ossana Zeke and Ned
69. Miller, Walter M. - A Canticle for Leibowitz
70. Oates, Joyce Carol - Zombie
71. O'Brien, Tim - In the Lake of the Woods
72. O'Nan, Stewart - The Speed Queen
73. Ondaatje, Michael - The English Patient
74. Patterson, Richard - North No Safe Place
75. Price, Richard - Freedomland
76. Proulx, Annie - Close Range: Wyoming Stories
77. Proulx, Annie - The Shipping News
78. Quindlen, Anna - Our True Thing
79. Rendell, Ruth - A Sight for Sore Eyes
80. Robinson, Frank M. - Waiting
81. Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
82. Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban
83. Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
84. Russo, Richard - Mohawk
85. Schwartz, John - Burnham Reservation Road
86. Seth, Vikram - A Suitable Boy
87. Shaw, Irwin - The Young Lions
88. Slotkin, Richard - The Crater
89. Smith, Dinitia - The Illusionist
90. Spencer, Scott - Men in Black
91. Stegner, Wallace - Joe Hill
92. Tartt, Donna - The Secret History
93. Tyler, Anne - A Patchwork Planet
94. Vonnegut, Kurt - Hocus Pocus
95. Waugh, Evelyn - Brideshead Revisited
96. Westlake, Donald E. - The Ax


So far I've only read 7 of the 96, but the ones I have read were indeed very good. Especially "The Ax" by Donald E. Westlake.
 
Stewart said:
I can't take him seriously when I see two books by his wife on the list.
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I noticed that too, but what was he supposed to do? Leave her out and hope she didn't notice? :rolleyes:
 
Nepotism is alive and well! I tried to read a book by Tabitha King many years ago (possibly named something like The Doll's House?) and I thought it was utter rubbish. I just couldn't get into it.

However, there are many books on the list that are almost universally acknowledged as being very good and/or important, e.g., The Lord of the Flies, Oliver Twist and To Kill a Mockingbird.

I was surprised that there's nothing by Shirley Jackson on the list; he's always going on about The Haunting of Hill House (think that's the title).
 
I've heard mixed reviews for Tabitha's novels. I think a lot of people enjoyed "Survivor" .. but I could be wrong. Anyway, whether it was crap or not I'm sure King was somehow touched/inspired/whatever by something his wife wrote.

Here's another list of books King gave good reviews for in his column for Entertainment Weekly:

“The Stones of Summer” – Dow Mossman
“Shadow of the Wind" - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“The Poet” – Michael Connelly
“The Narrows” – Michael Connelly
“Battle Royale” - Koushun Takami
“No Country for Old Men” - Cormac McCarthy
“Lost in the Forest” – Sue Miller
“The Breakdown Lane” - Jacquelyn Mitchard
“Hello, Darkness” – Sandra Brown
“Killing Floor” – Lee Child
“Mystery, So Long” – Stephen Dobyns (poetry)
“The Godfather Returns” – Mark Winegardner
“The Mad Cook of Pymatuning” – Christopher Lehman-Haupt
“Drama City” – George Pelecanos
“The Lincoln Lawyer” – Michael Connelly
“The Hot Kid” – Elmore Leonard
“Saturday” – Ian McEwan
“This Book will Save Your Life” – A.M. Homes
“Case Histories” – Kate Atkinson
“Harry Potter and …(all)” – J.K. Rowling
 
abecedarian said:
what was he supposed to do? Leave her out and hope she didn't notice? :rolleyes:
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If my wife wrote shit books, I'd ditch the bitch. Mr Auster, take note...
 
According to the author's notes, the books listed in the back are books he read the year he wrote On Writing.
 
sirmyk said:
According to the author's notes, the books listed in the back are books he read the year he wrote On Writing.
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Sooo, even if he didn't like his wife's book, he was kind enough to keep his mouth shut;)
 
sirmyk said:
According to the author's notes, the books listed in the back are books he read the year he wrote On Writing.
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Not exactly. I will quote word-for-word what it says in my copy of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

""These are the best books I've read over the last three or four years, the period during which I wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Hearts in Atlantis, On Writing, and the as-yet-unpublished From a Buick Eight. In some way or other, I suspect each book in the list had an influence on the books I wrote."

It's not just a list of books he read that year, it's his favorites over the course of three or four years. Stephen also says he reads anywhere from 70-80 books a year, so it is still kinda like a top ten list.. 90 out of 320 or whatever.
 
Will said:
Or you could start and/or build on the discussion here...
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It would be very time-consuming to try to list over 600 books here, however I'd be absolutely willing to be involved in a productive discussion about books King has recommended. We are currently reading and discussing Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. Anyone read this one?

Stephen King says: "It starts with the accidental killing of a Native American woman (the youngster who brains her with a skillet mistakes her for a bear). Father and son take off, pursued by the relentless Constable Carl for nearly 50 years. There’s a lot of Canada here, a lot of cookin’, and a lot of gorgeous (and cynical) Americana. Irving’s best since Garp."

What about other books King has recommended? I've read a few and don't always fully agree with his reviews (when available, I've added them to my reviews, so everyone can know what he said about the book or author), but I have enjoyed almost everything he has recommended, so far.
 
I did not mean to offend anyone! I've spent a long time working on my project and am excited about sharing it with others. And, I've posted here again in attempts to start up this thread again with some more discussion, and hopefully one in which we don't refer to author's wives with vulgar language and in an offensive manner!
 
47jacdlt57 said:
I did not mean to offend anyone! I've spent a long time working on my project and am excited about sharing it with others.
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No one's offended :) Just that given this is an active book discussion forum, there's nothing to stop you either continuing existing chat about a subject or starting a new thread about it. That way the members here don't have to leave to discuss an interesting subject.

The list at the start of this thread appears to be those books which King has recommended based on his reading over a year - maybe you've a more definitive list of books he recommends that you could post up in this, or better still, a new thread?
 
47jacdlt57 said:
I did not mean to offend anyone! I've spent a long time working on my project and am excited about sharing it with others.
Click to expand...

Think about how it looks from this side of the fence: you come to a book forum and your very first posts are plugging some book-related endeavor of yours from another book site. I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
 
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