Tier Ranking The Stephen King Books I've Read So Far
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024
- Stephen King has published over 60 books, and in this body I rank the 20ish ones i have read so far!
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I also could have made the top tier "I'm your number one fan" and the dirty bird tier could have been "take your medicine".
What are some other King inspired tier names?? I can use the ideas for my King movie ranking video 😄
On fire! Could be Firestarter or Carrie!😊
A Carrie BvsM would be great because there are some major differences in plot and structure. A great tier ranking inspired from that movie would be "They're All Gonna Laugh at You!"
The Stand should be your next King read. Also Danse Macabre for more King non-fiction.
The stand needs to be next! I need to see a review of the book vs movie/mini series
Yeah i know they made a new show for it, but i spoils probably just watch the older mini series.
@@WhytheBookWins I prefer the older one over the new one so that's a good choice
Great video!! I love your tier names. 👏🏾👏🏾🔥
Thank you! 😁
Loving your videos lately! Thank you! 👏🏻
Thank you! 🤗
I'm a recent subscriber and loving the content on your channel. The Dark Half could be your next book/movie.
Thanks! And yeah I would definitely like to do that one soon.
I really hope you read the Stand and the Dark tower series!
I definitely will! I could even do a book vs movie with the 2017 adaptation they made.
Agree with everyone saying you have to read The Stand!!! I’ve read it multiple times because I love it soooo much.
Reading it next year will be a must for me! I'm going to say right now that the first book vs movie of 2025 will be comparing the book with the mini series 😁
I was just thinking I hope you do a tier list like this for all the books that you've read this year! As I'm sure there are many!
Ooo that's a great idea! I'm in the 60s right now so it would be quote a few by the end of the year. But not so many it wouldn't be manageable 😊
Tier names are perfect! I would also recommend Under The Dome, a bit controversial amongst King readers but I loved it
Yeah I've heard mixed things about that one.
I have a whole shelf of his books that are unread that I got donated several years ago. Always fun to watch a tier list.
Sounds like you need to get to work reading those 😉 Glad you liked the video!
I was hoping Sometimes Dead is Better was the bottom rank! I love it! You nailed it!
Thanks! 😁
I noticed that many here classified The Talisman and Eyes of the Dragon as "Fairy Tales"....I think what many mean is they are Fantasy books. Here are my top 10:
1. IT
2. RH & the Shawshank Redemption
3, Misery
4. The Eyes of the Dragon
5. Pet Semetary
6. The Gunslinger
7. Cujo
8. The Talisman
9. The Body
10.The Dark Half
I’ve only read 4 of his books. Carrie, Pet Sematary, Christine and Cujo. I absolutely loved both Christine and Cujo novels and movies
Dolores Claiborne is my favorite SK book but the close second is Needful Things. That should be your next read. Also a good movie with Bonnie Bedelia, Ed Harris and Max Von Sydow (who does understated evil so well). One of the best interwoven plots ever. Almost needed a flow-chart to keep track of character motivations!
I have Needful Things on hold at the library! So many people have mentioned that one so I'm excited to read it 😁
This video goes on a "Shine On" tier ranking. "Carrie" is his first ever book to movie, which I feel is very good.
Aw thank you!! I definitely need to read Carrie.
Carrie reads like a documentary. I'm surprised that it's never been remade as a documentary style film!
I just finished reading "Christine." It's ok/ good, but the most interesting thing in regards to the book to movie aspect is the HUGE difference. Or even more so the things that were left out. I would watch the movie first. To follow up with the book was a wild ride for me.
Clever tier titles , very fitting . Agree with most of your ranking but 'Salem's Lot and IT would have made my Shine On .
Some suggestions for future reads , Bag Of Bones with a not so great movie and Needful Things with a good movie (also an extended cut movie with more characters from the book ) . Loved all of your 'Salem's Lot content , maybe check out Jerusalem's Lot and End Of The Road for a beginning & update to 'Salem's Lot . Fantastic channel and content .
A lot of people have mentioned Needful. Things do that is definitely at the top of by King tbr now
I love The Talisman written with Peter Straub. Also Eyes of the Dragon. Both are fairy story like and yet ...!!!!! Needful Things is fantastic also. And as someone pointed out, The Stand. So many amazing books. Honestly though, The Green Mile, both movie and book, would be on Shine On tier as both are so emotional. The movie is so true to the book, really made me cry more than once.
As far as child ab*se, a lot of his books are themed around it. So many in fact I sometimes wonder about his childhood......
Yeah traumatic childhoods are a frequent topic of his!
Ahh I really need to finish IT. I need to read more horror stuff in general! 👻
I’m a really big fan of Stephen King’s short stories. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is part of one of King’s great collections Different Seasons and is a great short-er work. I felt it was much richer on the page than on the screen. The movie was great. The novella is better.
I 100% agree about Dolores Claiborne. No writer can craft a great story in the first person the way Stephen King can.
I read Apt Pupil from that one and I found it so disturbing! That was a few years ago though so I need to go back and read all of them.
And yeah Dolores is fantastic.
@@WhytheBookWins The Breathing Method is the only story from that work that was not made into a movie. What a great collection!
I know it's nearly impossible, but it does bother me how influenced you are by other people's opinions. So many of his movies and books are iconic, I understand, and that it's hard to dismiss something as mediocre knowing it meant so much to others (i.e. your Shashank placement hesitation).
But still. I wish you would become more unapologetic. In due time, I guess.
I’m so happy your channel came to me. I’m waiting to hear back from the VA if they’ll let me go back to rehab (it’s been a year, long story short, I kicked myself out), and seeing/hearing your vs. series has renewed interest in all things reading. I get excited fantasizing about losing myself for hours.
But I keep trading one escape for another. My fragile mind isn’t even safe from books… sigh.
Anyways… now I need to go watch The Mist, like, right now (I actually paused your tier list). I’ve avoided that movie for far too long.
Thanks!
I hope things work out with rehab. I know that's tough and one of the many reasons I love King is for the way he writes about addiction recovery, especially in Doctor Sleep.
Thanks!
Thank you!
If you do want to get started on The Dark Tower, you mentioned reading The Stand, and that's the number 1 must read before TDT. You should also read the Talisman and Black House (fantastic reads anyway). Key character from there in the later parts of the dark tower series. Then you get to read the wind through the keyhole after. The Dark Tower series is going to frustrate you and rip your heart out. Never cried out loud from a book before, but then Wolves of the Calla happened. Outside of that, of his more recent stuff, I really enjoyed Mr. Mercedes.
Oooh good to know, thanks!
@@WhytheBookWins just found your channel. Loving the content. Thanks!
@thecloofer1255 glad you're liking it ☺️
I'm going through the Dark Tower books and I think Insomnia and 'Salem's Lot are the only ones that should be read prior because those stories are spoiled in the last 3 DT books.
In book 7 there are slight spoilers for Low Men in Yellow Coats and Everything Eventual.
The Stand and maybe The Eyes of the Dragon. You'll get a better connection to a certain character that appears in the DT series
Good to know! Thanks
Desperation actually has a movie that came out in 2006 if you would like to see it, and later compare it to the book when you've read it.
Oh wow! Even more reason for me to read asap 😁
You should read:
Cycle of the Werewolf
Skeleton Key
Thinner(Richard Bachmann)
The Stand
Carrie
Thanks! I've never heard of Cycle of the Werewolf.
@WhytheBookWins And they made it into a 1985 movie called Silver Bullet, staring Gary Busey. As far as werewolf movies go, I think it's pretty good.
You have GOT to read Carrie. Seriously.
I know, it's crazy I haven't read that yet 😦
Revival is my favourite SK book. I don't think it would make a good movie, but maybe a good miniseries?
just an fyi, there is a tv movie version of desperation with Tom Skerrit and Ron Perlman.
Yeah a couple people mentioned that, that's perfect! I will definitely cover it.
Laura, you never have to justify why you do what you do because, as you stated perfectly: your video, your rules. When you said it I laughed out loud 😂
As far as Stephen King books are concerned, through the years, with me I have developed a love-hate relationship with his writing.
I discovered him when I was in High School. I was browsing my local book store and saw the first cover of The Shining in paperback (still, one of the best book covers of all time - and, shows you I am old! 🤣), and it caught my eye enough to pick it up. Still the only book to scare me while I was reading it. From there I read all his books as they came out - in hardcover, all the way up to IT. That is where he lost me. To me he became long-winded, repetitive, charmed by new words enough to show them off in his writing vocabulary (how many times does the word 'roil' and it's various forms show up in IT, when he had never used that word in the past?) and I ended up not caring about his characters anymore. Like you said, seven characters - children no less - is a lot to ingest! He famously said that in order to be scared you need to care about the characters, and I just couldn't invest any more time in his world, when other, fresher writers were coming onto the scene, and my tastes, historic fiction, science fiction, etc. But, through the years I would pick up a recent King release as I would hear praise heaped on one of his books and say to myself that I should try it, and all the old feelings of long-windedness and characters I didn't have the time to invest time in came flooding back in as I was reading.
Bottom line, (I apologize for being long-winded) here are my top 10 Stephen King books, in order:
1. The Stand - still the first and best apocalyptic horror novel of all time
2. The Dead Zone - Johnny Smith is still, in my opinion King's greatest written character, that I cared so much about. So much so, I actually shed tears for him at the end of the book.
3. The Shining - still scary, after all these years
4. Salem's Lot - after Dracula, the best vampire novel ever.
5. Christine - I named my car Christine after I read this
6. Night Shift (classic short stories)
7. Different Seasons - as a whole, which included - ranked in my order of enjoyment: 1. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, 2. The Body (which was the basis for the movie Stand By Me), Apt Pupil and The Breathing Method
8. Cujo - great for the claustrophobia it gave me, he wrote this so well
9. Misery - everything you said, and more
10. The Green Mile - the one book that charmed me after I had let him go after I left him, after IT, and why I keep giving him chances
The books through the years I read to try and gain back my long lost love of Stephen King, that I ended up being disappointed yet again - in order and the years that I read them: The Tommyknockers ( 1988), The Dark Half (1991), Cell (2006), Doctor Sleep (2013 - I was so excited for this book, since I loved The Shining so much, but again, came away so utterly disappointed), and finally, The Institute (2020).
As always, I end up too long-winded so, if you only read my rankings and not the rest, I would still be flattered and impressed that you take the time to read the comments. That shows your commitment to your art, to where you are probably my favorite channel.
So I have to say to you, Bravo!
Haha thanks for sharing! It seems a lot of King readers have a love/hate relationship with him 😆
@@WhytheBookWins whew! I thought it was just me, and I would get crucified by the overwhelming millions of King fans...😁
Did you read “Fairy Tale”? Reading it now and it’s great
I haven't. From what I've heard of sounds fun though.
Omg you should read Carrie and then compare it with the 1976 movie
I really should!
Totally agree with Dolores Claiborne and gerald game
My favorites are
The dead zone
Billy summers
The girl who loved tom Gordon is one of my least favorite
Since its fall you should read christine next it's really great plus there's already a movie on that one
Also, had anyone read Joe Hill? His son? He's AMAZING!!! Done some amazing novels, and a couple of short story collections. ALL of his books would be too tier!!!!! He wrote Nos4R2 just in case anyone saw the series, though that did get away from the book eventually.
I read The Heart Shaped Box but that was in high school so it has been a while. Horns could be an interesting book vs movie though.
@@WhytheBookWins Definitely. I loved the movie, book was better. You literally must read The Fireman BTW!!!!!
There's a TV movie for Desperation, but the book is definitely better. One of my favourite books by him is Bag of Bones, though.
Great! I'll need to cover Desperation soon. I think in November my book vs movie poll will be King themed!
I'm guessing you haven't read Dark Tower yet?
Not yet!
Three books not on your list which I would recommend are Christine, Later and Joyland. All three were relatively short, but nice, fun stories, well paced and they flowed well. the other books I read not on the list were Finders Keepers, Bag of Bones and Needful Things. Bag of Bones was decent. Finders Keepers got off to a good start, but tailed off in the second half. Needful Things was a good concept, but was paced poorly and dragged. I didn't like "It" at all and I don't think Dr. Sleep impacted me the way it did you, but it was okay. My favorite is 11/22/63, and I also liked the Shining.
Thanks for sharing! So many people suggested Needful Things so that will be one I read soon. I'll have a King poll go up on November and Christine will definitely be one of the options to vote on!
I havent seen it but there is a made for tv movie of Desperation that came out in 2006
Awesome! I'll have to cover it soonish.
I just love to hear you speak, such a soothing voice. And I’m a gay boy, don’t worry lol not an incel!
Thanks! 😆
hmmmm... I read Different Seasons that had shawshank, apt pupil, and stand by me in it in one weekend. I read The Mist as part of either Night Shift or the other (one of his earliest 2 short story collections). Didn't know they released them as their own thing. One interesting change in the Mist Movie is that the crazy religious woman....everything she says actually happens. When his boy is killed the monsters go away.
Yeah that aspect of the mist is so interesting! And the novellas weren't released on their own necessarily, I just separated them out for this video.
Shawshank the book is okay,the movie is great.
I love King Books but most of them fizzle out and belong in SSDD 😂
Lol the only ending i have been super disappointed by was probably Gerald's Game.
I have IT on my bookshelf but I’m intimidated by it to read cause how long it is 😭😭
Yeah it's chunky! I think it took me like 10 days to finish it and I would switch between the audible and reading it.
IT was great until the ending, which was apparently written after the author did a lot of mushrooms.
@VogonPoet67 lol it does get pretty wild that's for sure.
@@WhytheBookWins I've been gradually reading all of his books and short stories in chronological order. I am skipping the Dark Tower volumes for now, but at some point I will read that series consecutively. I've made it to Christine thus far. My personal favorites are the short stories "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" and "The Body" from Different Seasons and the novel Salem's Lot. In your Dead is Better category, I'd put the short stories "I Am the Doorway", "Trucks", and "Apt Pupil" and the novels The Long Walk and Roadwork. As for the most over-rated King book, my opinion irritates most King fans, but I read the expanded edition of The Stand, with the 400 pages King put back in, and I think it's way over-rated. The first couple of hundred pages dealing with the outbreak of the superflu is good and the last couple of hundred pages were okay, but that leaves about 800-900 pages in the middle that really dragged. King said he was inspired by Tolkien, but Tolkien realized that in a tale with this much walking you need adventures along the way. You need to have something happen every once in a while. Most of the Stand reads like an extended travel journal. I kept hoping that one of the groups in Maine would wander into Salem’s Lot and find out if vampires can catch the superflu. I know there’s at least one film version, but I have no interest in seeing it after reading the book.
I am just guessing but does SSDD stand for, "Same S**t (Stuff) Different Day."
Yup! It's from Dreamcatcher.
The Stand is amazing. It's had two miniseries adaptations -- one from the 90's with Gary Sinease, Rob Lowe, and Molly Ringwold, and the other from a couple years ago. The Gary Sinease one was fantastic, but with cheesy VFX. The recent one was a big disappointment.
I've decided The Stand will be my first book vs 'movie' video of 2025! I'll probably just watch the mini series and skip the newer show.
I haven't read too many Stephen King books but Misery and Pet Sematary would be at the top. Needful Things and The Dark Half on the other hand I found kind of average
Misery and Pet Sematary are so good!!
What? You haven't read The Stand? Do you have a problem reading books that are 15,000+ pages long? Lazy! 🤨 . . . 😂 Just kidding, of course! I haven't read it either. Although, the 1994 miniseries is awesome! I actually haven't read much Stephen King. I think just Misery, The Dark Half and Duma Key, which I read when it first came out. And I kept picturing Ed Harris as the main character. He is, after all, one of my go-to literary leading men. 🤷♀️ You should read The Dark Half, though, so you can watch the movie. It has Timothy Hutton in it at his peak of good-lookingness. 😍 Okay, I'm done. Again, forgive my rambling.
I love Timothy Hutton and want to cover The Dark Half at some point! And yeah, The Stand is a daunting one lol, I actually got about 200ish pages in last year but then set it aside and never returned to it 🫢 But I will for sure read it in the near future.
Bag of bones and needful things were good…. I agree with you about IT, Beverly scene totally unnecessary and ruined book for me
Carrie
That will be an option on my November book vs movie poll!
How is IT not higher? all due respect ma’am but I cannot disagree more. And while I enjoy DOCTOR SLEEP very much it does not overtake SHAWSHANK unless you’re reasoning is it’s truly from a collection of short stories. That must be the defining factor for you in your distinction, I get the ranking of some but EYES OF THE DRAGON should be higher too (polite sarcasm I assure you. since it’s not referenced here) it’s probably the best modern day fairy tale very Aesop fables. set in medieval times. Very recommended ma’am. Favorite without question is THE GUNSLINGER + THE DRAWING OF THE THREE. The series as a whole is awesome but those are excellent. THE STAND is one of his best although very wordy, you will enjoy it. The descriptions of ancillaries like “ o the iridescent window let off flakes of yellow and white shimmers like sparkles of snowflakes highlighting the back drop of the azure sunset filled with a glow of orange and pink” yada yada. Easy; it’s sunset. Just say it concisely like throw mama from the train simplistic notions a la “the night was humid”. Get the idea across w/o fuss. THE STAND could easily be five hundred pages less w/o loosing anything too crucial to the overarching story beats.
Oo I'll need to check out Eyes of the Dragon! And yeah, Shawshank just didn't resonate with me quite as much. But it's still a great King story.
@@WhytheBookWins I get that the movie will always be superior ironically.
14:36 U were scared of the kid? I found him more of a tragic figure needing someone to not be scared of him and his power to guide him. Of course u might be mixing the TV episode with the movie. The tv episode yeah the kid was straight up evil but the movie made him more of a tragic victim then a straight up villain.
The kid himself wasn't scary but his house and the situations be puts his "family" in were scary. And the girl with no mouth freaked me out. And I was like 10 when I saw it.
@@WhytheBookWins fe
Please read the Night Shift short story collection!! The short prequel to Salem’s Lot called Jerusalem’s Lot is amazing.
Yeah i definitely need to at least read Jerusalem's Lot!
I love The Talisman written with Peter Straub. Also Eyes of the Dragon. Both are fairy story like and yet ...!!!!! Needful Things is fantastic also. And as someone pointed out, The Stand. So many amazing books. Honestly though, The Green Mile, both movie and book, would be on Shine On tier as both are so emotional. The movie is so true to the book, really made me cry more than once.
As far as child ab*se, a lot of his books are themed around it. So many in fact I sometimes wonder about his childhood......