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I meant "were".

I found the better ones were the shorter, punchier ones: Carrie, Cycle Of The Werewolf, and his short stories were good - Suffer The Children is great. Also, Danse Macabre is an excellent semi-autobiography/critique of horror fiction and film.

He did tend to ramble in his novels far too much. Also quite difficult to relate to sometimes on account of him being too American. Always preferred James Herbert

and then there is a ghost

might have an army of ghostwriters

Give me Clive Barker over King any day.

I only seem to read books he recommends but I haven't ever read any of his books. I think is is because when I was young I would see the covers and be scared of his books. They also are always really big/long and I always have to finish a book once I start reading it.. Nothing worse than forcing yourself to finish a book.

four past midnight is good too though

Stopped reading around the mid 90s I guess - at least partly because the amount of novels he was releasing got frankly silly.

Of the stuff from the first half of his career, I would recommend:

Carrie - his breakthrough classic
The Shining - great so long as you are not expecting it to be like the Kubrick film
The Stand - original version; the extended version is needlessly padded
The Dead Zone - good film version too
Cujo - super sparse thriller
Christine - a slef-driving car works much better on the page than on screen
It - scared the absolute crap out of me when I was a kid. Surely crying out for someone to attempt a decent film version of
Misery - even more bleak than the excellent film version
Needful Things - clever take on materialism
Dolores Claiborne - an interestingly different style of first person/unreliable narrator

I would probably say that he is more a great storyteller rather than a great writer. That said, his part guide/part autobiog 'On Writing' is probably the most practically useful guide to writing that I've read.

and he's struggling to stay afloat. and there was a ghost. is that stephen king? made me feel ill.

A couple of months ago but gave up after about 300 pages. I couldn't face the other 1000.

I find his short stories utterly engrossing and fantastic. Skeleton Crew, Night Shift, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Everything's Eventual = all ace.

Christine and The Langoliers stand out as two of my favourites. Obviously IT as well, which I re-read at Halloween for my bookclub - still terrifying.

Agree with what pentargo said about On Writing - a brilliant guide for writing, i still think parts of it should be taught in schools.

I've got his new one about JFK to read soon.

scared me witless when i was about 13. might have to try them again.

Big fan of his short stories.

Anyone else read 'under the dome?' I got that as a free audiobook download based purely on the fact that it was so huge and would keep me going for months. REALLY good, though that could be partly down to the superb guy who does the narrating.

is still the best

The Great American kids-fighting-a-monster book, and the only thing I read in my teens which actually scared the fuck out of me. Genuinely upsetting in a few places though.

Salem's Lot and Misery are up there; although it had a hysterically awful film adaptation Dreamcatcher's also pretty good. The Dark Tower is entertaining but gets grotesquely self-absorbed and inevitably disappointing in the last quarter or so.

but Misery is my favourite of what I have.

Playing Alan Wake has made me want to read another but I'm torn between The Stand and The Shining (both unfinished on my bookshelf)