Which Stephen King book should I read first quiz

Q: What is considered to be Stephen Kings best book?

It should hardly be a surprise that Stephen Kings most popular book is also his first-ever bestseller: The Shining, a classic 1977 horror novel, spurred a cult-favorite movie and a sequel.

Q: What is Stephen Kings number one selling book?

The Shining is Stephen Kings top-selling book, and it is also his top-rated book on Goodreads. Therefore, it is a strong contender for the Stephen King book you should read first. The Shining was first published in 1977, with its sequel, Dr Sleep, published in 2013.

I like quizzes, especially if I happen to have an opinion about the topic, so this one caught my eye: WHICH STEPHEN KING BOOK SHOULD YOU READ FIRST? TAKE THE QUIZ!

Table of Contents Show

Which Stephen King book should I start with?
In what order should I read Stephen King's books?
What is considered to be Stephen King's best book?
What is Stephen King's number one selling book?

1. Pick a Hallowe’en costume: choices a, b, c, d, e

2. What are you most afraid of?

3. How do you deal with adversity?

4. What’s your favorite genre?

5. How familiar are you with Stephen King’s work?

(I will add that I am apparently never going to be familiar enough with Stephen King to remember how he spells his name without looking. But that’s just me.)

6. How do you feel about 1000-age books?

Here is what the quiz recommended for me:

Go for one of King’s newer works. 11/22/63 is an alternate history sci-fi time travel novel about a man trying to go back in time to prevent JFK’s assassination.

My response: Amazingly enough, I have never heard of that book. Here it is on Amazon.

Here is what Amazon says about it:

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force.

As it happens, I don’t much care for time travel as a plot element. In general my kneejerk reaction is to look away from a book in which time travel is a thing. Then sometimes I overcome that reaction and read the book and like it a lot, or at least pretty well. That’s just my first reaction.

On top of not really liking time travel very much, I am specifically not interested in the JFK assassination thing. So, nope, this quiz was a failure for me.

As it happens, I liked some of King’s classics best, including It despite a very weak ending. I mostly dislike his more recent work, in which he seems to invariably insert a likable female character for the purpose of jerking the reader’s tears by killing her, no matter how he has to contort the plot to insert that death.

I liked Rose Maddar. That may be the most recent of King’s books I actually liked. That one first came out back in 1995. Let me look at his bibliography — oh, I forgot about The Green Mile. I liked that one a lot. It was published nearly at the same time — 1996.

I read Duma Key. Dead female character, contorted plot to make that happen. I haven’t read anything by King since.

Looking at that bibliography, though, there sure are a lot of his books I haven’t read. Wow.

My least favorite was Cujo. I wonder if you could take that quiz in such a way as to kick that up as a recommendation? Or maybe everyone dislikes it, including the people who wrote the quiz. For me, it’s not that the antagonist is a rabid dog, though naturally that is not my favorite idea ever. It’s that the protagonist is such a dimwitted, ineffectual lightweight twit. I could perfectly well kill a rabid St Bernard, and I am neither young nor big. I kept thinking of ways she could do it, and she kept not doing it.

The cover of the first edition of "Rage" shows a young man indifferently hovering over a woman's body on the floor.

"Misery"

"Rose Madder"

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What was the first novel that King published using the pseudonym Richard Bachman?

"Rage"

He started the pen name when he wrote "Rage" to prevent the public from burning out on the King name.

"Under the Dome"

"Different Seasons"

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The character Roland Deschain is the protagonist in which story?

"The Regulators"

"The Dark Tower"

King has called "The Dark Tower" series his magnum opus.

"Joyland"

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Which book was made into a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger?

"Revival"

"Pet Sematary"

"The Running Man"

Schwarzenegger runs for his life trying to evade so-called "hunters" in "The Running Man."

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Which book did King say is a story about what small towns are like?

"The Dark Half"

"Salem's Lot"

"Salem's Lot" was so popular that the book has been adapted for TV two times.

"Black House"

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What was the last novel King published as Richard Bachman before it came to light that Bachman was King's pen name?

"Thinner"

He didn't use the name Bachman again until 1996, 12 years after "Thinner" was published.

"Roadwork"

"The Regulators"

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Which book won the 2006 Bram Stoker Award?

"Black House"

"Lisey's Story"

"Lisey's Story" was also nominated for two other major awards.

"From a Buick 8"

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Which novel has a pop-up book adaptation?

"Needful Things"

"Misery"

"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon"

The pop-up book for "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" features monsters with scary teeth, making it rather unsuitable for small children.

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"Doctor Sleep" is the sequel to which novel?

"Duma Key"

"The Shining"

Released in 2013, "Doctor Sleep" came decades after "The Shining" (1977).

"Dreamcatcher"

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Which book features an apocalypse brought about by digital technology?

"Christine"

"Cell"

In "Cell," a cellular network wreaks havoc on humankind.

"Cujo"

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Which novel is the first to feature Bill Hodges, a retired police detective?

"Finders Keepers"

"Mr. Mercedes"

"Mr. Mercedes" is the first in a trilogy of Hodges books.

"End of Watch"

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Which book was adapted into a CBS TV series in 2013?

"Under the Dome"

In the story, an invisible dome descends on the helpless residents of a small town.

"The Stand"

"Storm of the Century"

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Which novel was released as a series of six paperback books from March to August 1996?

"The Green Mile"

The second book in "The Green Mile" series is titled "The Mouse on the Mile."

"Needful Things"

"Bag of Bones"

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In which book do a group of teenage boys participate in a grisly contest of willpower?

"Roadwork"

"The Running Man"

"The Long Walk"

The last one walking wins a prize; everyone else dies.

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Which novel was turned into a feature-length film starring Kathy Bates?

"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon"

"Dolores Claiborne"

Bates' intense performance in "Dolores Claiborne" won her critical accolades.

"Rose Madder"

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Which 1987 novel is closer to science fiction than horror?

"The Talisman"

"Gerald's Game"

"The Tommyknockers"

King regretted "The Tommyknockers" later, calling it an "awful" book.

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In which book does "Captain Trips" devastate the population?

"Desperation"

"The Dark Tower"

"The Stand"

"The Stand" is the novel that unleashes Randall Flagg upon King's fictional universe.

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In which book does the mangled word "redrum" play a significant part of the plotline?

"The Shining"

Redrum is the word "murder" backward, and it's repeated many times in "The Shining."

"It"

"Pet Sematary"

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Which novel did King say he can hardly even remember writing?

"Rage"

"Cujo"

His substance abuse hit a low point during the time he wrote "Cujo."

"Christine"

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Which novel was published as a "mirror" version of "Desperation," in which many characters and places are similar to those in the other book?

"The Regulators"

Graphic elements on the cover of "The Regulators" offers clues to the parallel universes.

"Dreamcatcher"

"Blaze"

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Which book was originally going to be titled "The Napkins"?

"Thinner"

"The Eyes of the Dragon"

"The Eyes of the Dragon" is a classically written fantasy story.

"The Talisman"

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Which book is about an author who experiences writer's block and delusions at a lake house in the years following his wife's death?

Which Stephen King book should I start with?

The following novels occupy a shared universe and are pretty hefty reads for King beginners: Hearts in Atlantis, Desperation, It, Dreamcatcher, Duma Key, The Stand, The Tommyknockers, Rose Madder, Insomnia, and The Dark Tower series.

In what order should I read Stephen King's books?

In chronological order.

Carrie (1974).

'Salem's Lot (1975).

The Shining (1977).

Rage (1977).

The Stand (1978).

Night Shift (1978).

The Long Walk (1979).

The Dead Zone (1979).

What is considered to be Stephen King's best book?

It should hardly be a surprise that Stephen King's most popular book is also his first-ever bestseller: "The Shining," a classic 1977 horror novel, spurred a cult-favorite movie and a sequel.

What is Stephen King's number one selling book?

The Shining is Stephen King's top-selling book, and it is also his top-rated book on Goodreads. Therefore, it is a strong contender for the Stephen King book you should read first. The Shining was first published in 1977, with its sequel, Dr Sleep, published in 2013.