Which SK book got you hooked?

[karend3]

For me it was IT, I read it in 1988 and was addicted ever since. Which book became your crack?

[Eleese of Gilead.]

The Gunslinger.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Night Shift on publication in 1978.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Ubasti]

'Salem's Lot:biggrin2:

[sgmonje]

Definitely Eyes of the Dragon. I know it's different than the rest of his books, but it reminds me of my grandfather reading it to me when it came out and ever since I've been hooked to reading every single one of his books.

[bopropadop]

The Stand when I read it in 1979.

[Pyro]

First one I read was IT 4 years ago. One of the best. Then Christine. Huzzah for possessed cars!

[aussiewonder]

The Stand was my first, long ago, need to reread it.

[SixPins]

I read Carrie and found it very meh. Then I read Salems Lot and was swept away. It was beautifully atmospheric, has great characters, and terrifying scenes of blunt horror. That morgue scene will always stick with me.

[pixiedaark]

The book that got me hooked was "Christine" This is because this book had been set in Pittsburgh. Just reading about places that are close by to me was very interesting. Then I got extremely hooked when "From a Buick 8" came out. This book was set in Western Pennsylvania also. That that both of these SK books were about cars doing strange things in the state of PA really got me thinking; "Did Sai Stephen ever see anything or hear of anything strange going on in the state of good old PA?"

I know I have! Reading these SK books made me think of a quote; "Life imitating Art or Art Imitating Life?"

[CalebW]

I am reading 'Misery' right now and its getting me hooked, i have also read gunslinger, but i have IT, Pet Sematary, and Salem's Lot... I am excited to read the rest!

[staropeace]

Salems Lot

[Goodlovin]

IT.

I read it when I was 10 or 11 in hardcover when it first came out after my step brother gave it to me.

[nunu_chis]

"Pet cemetery" and "Firestarter", they weren`t the first I read but when I read "Firestarter" I only read it `couse I had nothing else. When I read what it was about I didn`t like it very much, but then I really liked the book, so I realized how well written it was and I decided to keep reading his books because I was sure the most of them would be interesting even if they didn`t seem so at "first sight", and sure enough I wasn`t wrong!

[Sweet One]

The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands

[CornbreadCollins]

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, actually...
I know now that book pales in comparison to most of his others, but I noticed that there was something about the way this guy wrote was "for me".

[PSYCHOTIQUE]

Duma Key, just because it's the first book i ever read by SK, yea i know, i need to buy all of his books (I want too, but college students are poor lol)

[ConstantReader817]

Definitely Salem's Lot. Had to sleep with the lights on for a week. Ever since then, I've read every SK book written. Yep, dyed in the wool fan here.

Debbie

[JohnDalglish]

Duma Key, just because it's the first book i ever read by SK, yea i know, i need to buy all of his books (I want too, but college students are poor lol)

Hi,

Welcome to the MB, and keep posting!

And haunt the thrift and charity shops IMO.

Long days and pleasant nights

[betsymae]

I have to say The Stand. It wasnt my first King novel, but it was the one that turned me from a fan to a fanatic!!

[Ben E Gas]

The Gunslinger was the first one I read and it complelled me to read 'The drawing of the three', which is the book that hooked me to continue reading the dark tower series and then on to other King books.

[Kim L.]

The Stand. Carrie was 1st but this one got me hooked.

[O'Hara]

Mine was The Shining. My mother kept trying to make me watch the movie, but it was just so long and ridiculously drawn out I couldn't be patient long enough to finish it. So I decided just to read the book instead, and got hopelessly hooked. Though I believe The Stand was the final determining factor. I read that one second, and it was amazing. It is still my all-time favorite. The chapter where he discusses how the Superflu spread really got to me. It's very difficult to try and imagine how quickly something can spread like that.

[dragafari]

I would say all the ones that I've already read, but the first book that made me continue reading SK's books was Needful Things.

[KiddDizz]

The book that hooked me was nonfiction actually. It was Danse Macabre. Then I read "IT" and "Pet Semetary" and there was no turning back.

[Elleseyes]

eyes of the dragon. I read it when I was 12 and have been hooked ever since!

[Checkman]

It would have to be Night Shift.

[Zo Zo]

I'd say The Green Mile and Dreamcatcher as they were my first two.
I thought The Green Mile might've been a fluke, but after Dreamcatcher I knew it wasn't.

[BC Barlow]

Christine in Spring 2007. I haven't stopped since.

[LeeAlexander]

Lets see I believe the first to really do it for me and one of the first I ever read. Nightmares and Dreamscapes

[boxingwrestler]

Pet Sematary

[PSYCHOTIQUE]

Hi,

Welcome to the MB, and keep posting!

And haunt the thrift and charity shops IMO.

Long days and pleasant nights

Thanks mate! Love the welcome!

[bookworm101]

The Stand. Carrie was 1st but this one got me hooked.


me too exactly. Carrie was the first, but the Stand hooked me.

[Matthew.Degnan]

Easily The Shining, i had read a few before that (and given up on a couple) but i read The Shining from start to finish in 5 hours. I was hooked.

Matthew.

[hcpcna04]

All of them, I am not obsessed.:eyebrow:E.

[Turd Ferguson]

The Talisman.

[Leaf/Redsox fan]

I couldn't put down 'Desperation'.

Got through it in less then a week. :love:

[ComeUntoSweetDeath]

The Shining (i think)

[Sterling]

IT!!! No Explanation Needed.

[cdonovan]

i loved Salem's Lot, I hated the first movie made with David Soul but loved the remake with Rob Lowe. I almost read the book again which I found in Hardback at a resale store but I was too scared

[jonesingforking]

The Shining. The lady in the tub.....O my god!

[brat666]

for me it was Carrie his first book was the one that got me hooked been that way ever since love him!!! :love:

[carnygal]

Mine was a short story from NightShift-I believe it was called The Boogeyman. I had to be about 12 and my neighbor read that to me...lol Needless to say, that story freaked me out, but I was hooked! Been collecting all his books since! ( Need a bigger bookcase!)

[Buffett]

The talisman made me a fan forever

[Sundrop]

I read Skeleton Crew when I was in 8th grade. After that I was a bonafide addict :)

[RandomMan]

The Dark Half

[Deavlynn]

I actually got hooked on King just because I wasn't allowed to read his books and I wanted to be rebellious or something. I didn't even like the first two that I read, but my third was The Gunslinger, and once you start on the quest for the tower, there is no turning back. I wound up reading the rest of his works while I was waiting for book 5.

[-The Road Virus-]

Without a doubt, The Shining.

[biodroid]

I got hooked with Pet Sematary in high school then it was Needful Things

[Cowboy]

NIght Shift, in the sixth grade.

[candybait]

Mine was The Gunslinger. I read the first three in 1995 and then had to wait a very long time for the 4th, so I started reading anything else King that I could get my hands on.

[rosemadder35]

It was Carrie.

[Rewot Krad]

My brother handed me a copy of IT when I was thirteen (1986).

Read Cujo next and the rest are a blur...

[nila]

IT!

Desperation

[Agincourt Concierge]

Night Shift...30 years ago...haven't looked back...

[billynolan78]

I was 9 years old, dragged to Alaska one summer by my parents. We stayed with an eccentric family that was completely self-sufficient with no plumbing, electricity or television, on some small island in middle of nowhere. It was a 9-year-old's worst nightmare, worse than a clown with a gaping mouth of razor sharp teeth. Strangely my only comfort, was reading Carrie, which I devoured by gaslight at night and sunlight by day. As a child I loved any story, movie, or comic book that dealt with psychic powers. That novel introduced me to my first taste of the anti-hero, and the delicious brain food of complex characters, as well as some serious sex scenes, hotter than anything I had snuck at peak at on late night cable when my parents were asleep. That summer I took a big leap from Roald Dahl and Judy Blume. King hooked me for life, not only to his body of work, but fiction and literature as whole. I credit him and my fifth grade teacher for lighting the fire of my literary imagination. Thanks, Dude.

[tillyn]

Talisman, It, Salem's Lot (OH YA SCAREY) and then all the rest.

[Bynum360]

IT my favorite book:biggrin2:
1138 pages!

[benbennett]

carrie in paperback,original publication.

[BTRNYC]

About exactly a year ago I picked up Different Seasons, and haven't stopped since. I think it's awesome that almost all his books have the potential to "hook" people into his universe!

[JRLauer]

For me it was The Stand. The uncut version. Read it when it came out in 1990 I think.

[johnny39]

first one i ever read...

The Stand.

[fett]

I was around twelve years old and found an old battered paperback of The Shining at a bus stop. I was going to hand to the bus driver but had started reading it before the bus came and immediately got immersed and addicted. I have re-read that story several times since.

[Jutz]

One of my firends mums gave me some books and the skeleton crew was one of them. Loved the stories so much, i went out and bought 'Salems lot' and have been buying nothing but stephen king books for several years now. Its true about second hand book shops...found most of mine in them!!

[Cognac]

when i was 11, (im 26 now) i found my dad's hardcover edition of the shining. that was it for me. addicted ever since, and lovin it!

[Barlow]

Pet Sematary. I love that story. Re-read it every Christmas. Don't know why.

[heathfodor]

Pet Sematary about eight years ago. He writes like all the dials are turned up in that book. Loved it.

[elysian]

Pet Sematary, but only because it was the first I read! That was right after the movie came out. I bought that one myself at the drugstore, read it, and then scrambled to read all the SK books from my parents' bookshelf (which was built into the headboard of their waterbed - haha!). Out of those, they told me to read The Stand first because both of them thought it was the best. They were right!

[mharrison83]

The Stand was my first, long ago, need to reread it.

The first King book I read was The Shining, in high school. That got me started, but my favorite is The Stand. I have read it three times through, usually leaving a couple years inbetween so I can forget some of the details and have it seem fresh all over again.

I just finished Duma Key and that was awesome. I read half of it in an afternoon. I couldn't put it down.

There are a couple books that I never got through. Namely Insomnia, and Rose Madder. I couldn't get into Insomnia, and I got a little bored of Rose Madder in the middle. Most everything else I've read and I love.

Michael :biggrin2:

[Bynum360]

IT that is still my favorite book

[linkinjen2001]

four past midnight was the very first stephen king book i ever read when i was 15. probably not one of his best, but the stories in it were so unique that i wanted to read more of his work. ive read pretty much all of them since then and they have all been good.:biggrin2:

[Haunted]

'Salem's Lot:biggrin2:

I vote with Ubasti here. Awesome read!!


"And yet they both knew, of course. They were not alone."

[scottch egg.]

Duma Key, Duma Key, Duma Key :)
that really was amazing.
*cough* Salem's lot also *cough*

[youngfibre]

greenmile made me stop and look at the door. insomnia pulled me in.

[Tooley]

Technically... Four Past Midnight, but I'd like to think it was the novella The Langoliers.

[ellisd]

actually it was the tv movie IT that got me. prompted me to read that book asap.

[Miss_Marvelous]

I bought The Shining at a garage sale and I've been hooked ever since... I now own dozens of SK books and have loved them all

[Courtnort03]

I read "IT" years ago and was hooked. I enjoy reading a book that can take me away for a while or even spook me to the point of wanting to sleep with the lights on.

[fredo]

A long ago girlfriend handed me a paperback and asked, "Don't you like vampires?"
'Salems Lot hooked me like a shot of cold iced tea. Been a junkie ever since.

[itisthetale...]

Black House, his collaboration with Peter Straub and the sequel to The Talisman...oops, haha.

[Crazy Canuck]

Most of the Dark Tower books, But Wizard and the Glass more then any of the others. Loved learning about Rolands Past

[nmohr1]

i'c have to say IT i loved salems' lot and firestarter (two i read first) but it wasn't till two years ago i read IT and i have read nothing but SK after. After IT was Insomnia then Desperation now DT might be more inbetween there somewhere

[tigh66]

I'd bought Diifferent Seasons, read Shawshank, it wasn't my cup of tea. Few weeks later, I purchased the Shining. The first three chapters were okay, but then I reached Chapter 4: Shadowlands. In ti, young Danny Torrance is sitting outside his aprtment building, playing with a toy truck or plane, and then he begins having visions, and that was the only time in a book I've actually been terrified out of my wits. I still remember not being able to sleep for hours that night, and my obsession began.

[Jasonbobdude]

I think my first real experience with SK's work was Rose Red, I watched it on TV once and loved it. Last October I went to the thrift store and found a copy of IT, which was an AMAZING book and I've been reading his novels constantly ever since.

[MartinEden]

Needful Things. I've read many others, but none of them had me glued to the pages quite as much.

[blessed be]

My first sk book was Firestarter, when I was 11.. scared the living s*** out of me... and I loved every minute of it! I've been an addict ever since... hehe

[shawshank99]

found IT in the school libary when i was about 14 loved it not stop reading SK since now 27

[Sugar Marie]

I read Carrie when I was a little girl, and have been addicted ever since.

I'll be smacking my arm, and shooing away those pesky imaginary bugs 'til UtD comes out...I need a fix man, c'mon - just a little somethin' to tide me over... I'll aaaaanything you want!

[psj77]

There are three books that hooked me. My first book was Bag of bones. The comercal for The Stephen King Library said it was a haunted love story. Something totaly diferent from Stephen King. I must say it wasn't that diferent, and thank god for that. I lost the book though just before Mattie dies when i finaly got another copy a couple years later and finished it I was devastated. After loosing BoB I picked up Salem's Lot. The Lot is still one of only two books I've completly read more than once. The second was the third King book I read Heart In Atlantis. I wanted to read this before I saw the movie. I have never felt more at home in a story than I was in Low men in yellow coats.

[mit48]

ilove the shining

[photochik]

Junior high school...early/mid 80s...I discovered a paperback of Christine. The movie had just come out and that definitly influenced me. After that I was hooked and picked up every SK novel I could!

[Richard_B]

For me it was the Dead Zone. I have to confess to being something of a snob and thinking horror was for kids... and then I read the Dead Zone in one day and rushed straight out to find more....

[Srbo]

The Stand.

[PetroX]

Not sure about the month or the day but it was The Stand in 1991. I polished it off in 4 days only to discover my name was in it. Only a bit part (Free Zone Marshall) but still ........... How weird is that ???? :eyebrow:

[luvdthestand]

I am trying to remember...but I think it was the first one I ever read, Pet Sematary.

[Jax]

The first one I read which was The Dead Zone I was about 10 -11 something like that. But really he had me at hello. He had me at hello.:rofl:

[jesterqueen]

It was Carrie. I know that is one of King's least favorite of his own, but it remains high on my list. When I read the book, I could identify with that girl. I was a geeky-freak-teen, and what she did to those other kids felt goooooood. I loved and love the vicarious thrill of revenge. My Mom was a hippie, not a religious nut, so I had the good fortune not to be a pariah at home and in school, but the peer rejection was agonizing, and it was often based in closed-minded religious fundamentalism. I finally went to college at 16 and got past all that, but Carrie encapsulates everything I felt as a young teen, and I still love that she could do to those people the things I never could or would.

[davetheenforcer]

I jumped in at the deep end with the Gunslinger. Never read any SK before that, just found the idea of a fantasy epic appealing. I wanted something bigger than LOTR, not as overwhelming as the Discworld novels. Since then I cant stop reading SK!

[Samantha_]

Christine. Reading Christine did it ... I thought if I can read a book about a car (in some ways) and feel this much that's about the writing.

I had a lot going on at the time and forgot it all while reading the book ... and recall telling friends it was one of the best books ever written. Then having to explain yes, I did know some viewed it as a horror story about a car, but really it was much more than that description.

[Wendybird]

Was The Stand. I left my ex 15 years ago and I bought the Stand in a charity shop. It was the only book I owned as I had no money. It got me through some long and depressed days and I was completely hooked.

Still think of it as my friend and I don't know how I would have coped without having something to take my mind away from the bad times I was going through.

[trhutchins3]

Blaze was the first Stephen King novel I ever read, and it got me hooked. Right now, I'm reading The Stand; so many of you guys have been praising it, and I just couldn't resist.

[Girl87]

Dolores Claiborne

[aimeeleanne]

The book that got me hooked was The Bachman Books. The first story, RAGE, was addicting, and I was in love with the main character. I think it was in the late 90's. I know I was about nine or ten. I've been in love with Stephen King ever since, but I think Rage will always be my favorite, even if it isn't the best he's ever written. It's real.

[jenboxer77]

I love reading the similarities in every post. King has a way of hooking a wide audience. I think it is human nature to want to feel alive. Being scared or feeling intense fear hits on an emotional primal level. I have heard so many say, " It scared the crap out of me, but I have been hooked ever since!" King has a gift that not many others have.

I read Carrie first, but reading The Green Mile and then The Dark Tower made me a life long fan.

[sugarcane]

Eyes of the Dragon- I'm hoping to get my son hooked with this one as well.

[fireice74]

Bag of Bones :biggrin2:

[tak113454]

Thinner!!

[Cathy]

The stand. I was 12 years old and fell in love with it. I then learned the stephen wrote carrie "i had seen the movie' and that is all there was.

[MrPhoenix]

I read The Stand in 1978, re-read it roughly 8 times before the unabridged version came out, and have read that one at least four or five times. Pretty sure that's my favourite!

[bio_chem06]

The Gunslinger....Since I finished, I have read almost every Stephen King book

[Ascared]

The Shining. I was eight years old, found it on one cold michigan morning and read it cover to cover within three days. LOVED IT! (but the book report ended up earning me a couple trips to the school counselor)

[ljmcclurg]

rose madder, its the best book ive ever read!:love:

[Annarkie]

IT. I've read it five times

[badbyron722]

The Shining

[Teddy Duchamp]

Salems Lot got me hooked at the age of 19 - but the Stand is my all time favourite!:love:

[gregkelly1122]

Nightmares and Dreamscapes - I read this when I was 14, and I had to hide it from my dad cause he wouldn't let me read King... I stayed up late at night reading it, then had nightmares (and dreamscapes, I guess you could say)...
Have been hooked (or - just short of obsessed) ever since. I hope he lives to be 100 so he'll keep producing books....

[titansfan]

Different Seasons was the first book i read, it made me more curious about SK. The next book i read was Salem's Lot and i was defiantly hooked after that, At the young age of 12 much to my mothers disapproval.

[lil lisey 1127]

Mine was The Girl Who Love Tom Gordon. I don't even remember why I picked it up I was in 5ht Grade at the time and really connected with the main character, i literally got so absorbed that i would jump anytime someone entered the room when I was reading =) . The next was It and I have been hooked ever since

peace, love, and happy reading

[Lee Y]

My very first one, and his first one....Carrie!!! I read it in '74 when it came out.

[ifsogirl88]

For me it was The Regulators (even though it is technically a Richard Bachman book :wink2:). Read it a couple years ago. I loved all the different stories about all the characters, and then the way King/Bachman wove them into one big tapestry. Very cool. Been hooked ever since.

[c13tex]

My first SK novel was "The Dead Zone" which I read in high school. I remember feeling extremely bad for Johnny Smith. That one got me hooked, and I've been happily reading SK ever since!

[Scoutabout]

For me it was well IT. I "borrowed" it off a buddy a little over 20 years ago and have never looked back. I still remember how shocked I was when I finally figured out that Mike Hanlon was black. I was petrified of clowns as a child so the fact that I stuck with IT tells you all you need to know.

[Katniss]

For me I believe it was The Shining which I got in audio book format. I've gotten a lot of his books in audio, which I love. I've also read them in print too but when he did Bag of Bones in his voice, it was amazing! My favorite in audio format is Dreamcatcher and Salem's Lot.

[Stacey B]

The Stand and is still my favourite book of all time.

[boogerb53]

Carrie. Skeered the crap out of me!

[Mr.Bobbo]

THE SHINING. It blew my little 13-year-old mind right apart. I went from Twain and Heinlein straight to all of the King I could find, after that.

[blunthead]

Not to be mysterious or just weird, but I think I was hooked on sK when I was a child, before anyone had heard of him, including me. In fact, before he started writing (I'm old). I got hooked on horror stories via television--the classic old movies at midnight, and Twilight Zone, etc. Ever since, I've had a hunger for mystery and suspense, especially with the supernatural a major player. I appreciate any good fiction, but I actually crave horror.

For me, sK embodies what satisfies that craving. After years of suppressing the hunger, of actually avoiding him, and reading nothing of the sort, at a time when I really needed him in a kind of personal way, he was there. My first was The Shining (I needed help figuring out what the movie was really about. Yeah, I know--good luck there), which I followed up with Misery. By then I was a goner.

[missourigirl]

My 9th grade English teacher read the short story "The Lawnmower Man" to the class and I was hooked. I had to read more so I started with "'Salem's Lot". Yikes! After that, every little sound at my bedroom window that summer scared me to death!

[babynike]

Bag of Bones.

[ladyraven]

for me it was IT...read it when i was 14 am now 34 and have read every word SK has written since

[Fj-Arfay]

Howdy pard.My first exposure to Mr.Kings work was the T.V. adaptation of Salems Lot way back in the `80's.or was it the `70's?Anywho,it scared the hell out me.Ran from the
room,so I did.I was just a child.I can still see Danny Glick hovering outside the window asking to be invited in.

[farmgirl]

The Shining. I had always liked the movie, so I read the book and I loved it

[yendor]

Pet Sematary was my first Stephen King Book, but I was hooked after The Stand.

[havealemon]

Carrie was my first.

IT got me addicted.
I remember reading it very clearly. I was about 13 years old and started reading IT just before my family started packing us up to go to an even more miserable part of the country so we could stay in a caravan for a few days. (I don't know if Americans do this. It seems to be a bizarre and awful aspect of holidaying unique to Britain.) I spent almost all of my waking hours with my nose buried in that book and I just didn't want it to end.
The way the story was weaved- the many different characters together with the past and the future - blew me away. Plus it made me look over my shoulder in broad daylight, expecting to see a physical manifestation of a childhood fear.

Good times, good times.

[Leigh]

Sorry to be a traditionalist, but it was THE SHINING that got me hooked. Scared the hell out of me!! Scariest book I've ever read.

[Dragoneyes28]

The Eyes of the Dragon, that was the first novel I picked to read on my own, and it is the first Stephen King Book I read. I have read it at least 13 times in the last 13-14 years or so and I LOVE IT!!!! I will be reading it again soon. Even though I have most of it memorized...:blush:

[Wendybird]

The Stand got me hooked like many others although I had read several Sai King books previously.

Something about the character development just drew me in and once it had me it wouldn't let go!

[finalfantasyVII]

:eek2:The Storm of the Century:oh::zip:

[Azrel]

For me it was It that made SK one of my favorite authors. I read it when I was around 13 or so and have read most of his books in the years since.

[CorbinKale]

For me it was IT, I read it in 1988 and was addicted ever since. Which book became your crack?

I stayed up reading my roommate's copy of "IT" the night before I was to fly home from Germany on Christmas leave in '87 or '88. I was hooked. I got so into the book (and JD and coke:biggrin2:) that I missed my flight home by an hour. Fortunately, Lufthansa honored my Delta ticket.

[Sawney Beane]

Pet Sematary.Each time I read it

[Darth Hidious]

The Stand. I was sixteen. It not only got me hooked on King but reading in general.

[LadyPain]

Hooked the first time: The Shining


I loved it. It scared me at the time, although it just fascinates me now. Still love it.

[Laura666]

:smile2:Carrie

[darlenej]

Pet Cemetary, back in the early 80's my mom was telling me about this scary book she was reading and started telling me about it in detail, I was in junior high and it scared me but it also excited me, so I asked her if I could read it when she was done and the rest is history!!

[ExcerptsFromATatteredMind]

I believe it was Tommyknockers. I am a big SciFi guy, so I when I saw that it was about an alien craft, I was all over it.
I had heard about Mr. King being this big "horror" writer, so I expected "Dracula" meets "War of the Worlds" with a splash of "A clockwork Orange" thrown in.
What I got was a conceptually fascinating take on the nature of creative inspiration. Vivid characterization. And no actual living aliens.
Which to my surprise and delight, did not bother me at all. Rather than feeling robbed that I didn't get my "insidious world conquerors " tale full of gore and fantastic weaponry, I was all the more impressed because it wasn't a "classic" alien story.
I loved it and have been a fan ever since.

[delores 74]

Pet Semetary. I was the tender age of 12 and it scared the crap out of me. Been in love with SK ever since.

[RachelA]

It was Night Shift...walked me in slowly...i think i was in 5th grade or so
Then I went backwards and started to read the novels...The Dead Zone, Salem's Lot (I love vampires!), Carrie and the Shining...then my mom started getting me a novel every October for my birthday

[nosila]

The book that got me hooked was the very first one I read: The Shining.

[Cerralin]

I think Christine was the book that I read first, I wouldn't say I was hooked then but after I read Carrie and Cujo (which I just re-read in 25hrs!) I think I was well on the way to be addicted :D

I just noticed they all began with a 'c' :eek2:

[Anton177]

I'm young so I read Dreamcatcher first even though I'm quite sure I had other SK books in my possession. I liked it but it didn't get me hooked. When I read Cujo, I was away, never looked back. I adored that book and still do. It's due for a re-read when I get home at the end of summer.

[hysteria_625]

It's a toss up between Pet Semetary and The Tommyknockers. I was 11 when I first read both those books - and both originally belonged to a sibling.
Pet Semetary still scares the beejeezus out of me!

[Frizz]

The first SK book I ever read was The Shining. It terrified me and began my love of everything SK. It was such an intense book to read at such a young age, and it made a big impact. It was all over from there.

[karend3]

I was the same way, hooked on Edgar Allen Poe before I heard of Stephen King

[cfin5256]

Got a box of books at a garage sale when I was a teenager; it contained It, Pet Semetary, and 'Salems Lot. Been an SK junkie ever since.

[alxx11uml]

The Stand (unabridged) got me hooked, then Misery, then IT

[Damaris]

About exactly a year ago I picked up Different Seasons, and haven't stopped since. I think it's awesome that almost all his books have the potential to "hook" people into his universe!

Cujo was my first (circa 1994) and set some pretty deep hooks in me but it was Different Seasons, my second, that sealed the deal. Shawshank completely stole my heart. :grinning:

[Cowboy]

Night Shift, I was in the sixth grade.

[moonhoney2]

The Stand. I think I read some of his other books prior...Carrie, Cujo, Christine...but The Stand was what really grabbed me.

[Carri]

I read Carrie first, then The Shining, and enjoyed them both very much. I thought they were great books. Then I read The Stand and fell deeply in love such that I could not breathe.

[BobM]

Christine...read it in 1983!

[devilboy666]

i think for me it was either firestarter or christine not sure which its hard to remember that far back lol

[King Jacob]

In 2005, I picked up The Shining from the school library. I've been hooked since. SK has practically seen me through high school.

[candybait]

Reading Different Seasons made me want to read another of his books. But my second book, The Gunslinger really hooked me in!

[Roseasharn]

The Gunslinger.

[Bryan James]

My buddy Babatola Oguntoyinbo threw (that word looks wierd comparatively, after his name) "The Stand" at me. He hit me. It left a bruise. I stuck it in my highschool locker. I started reading it later.

We were slightly misfitical, the two of us. We met when we were six. Karate back before it was cool. Ebony and Ivory back when people REALLY gave a damn in the South. We didn't. We've proceeded to mildly smack each other around for 30 years (in the early days there were some mild beatings, and his younger brother came at us both with a Nine-Iron--which he stuck in Tola's bedroom door, missing one of us by inches).

We have not met in about a year. ****, maybe it's three. I'm a great acquaintance, but a horrible friend.

Tola was/is? a great artist in his own right, and I have securely tucked away my favorite painting he did.

Wow. Just writing this brought up so many memories and story ideas.

Tola also gave me a copy of "American Psycho," and for that I will never forgive him.

That's more information than solicited,
BJS

[irisahart]

don't get me wrong i have always loved stephen king books but the one i could not wait for the next chapter to come out was the green mile! i cant remember when it came out but i was young and read it as it came out one chapter at a time!

[Nelsonette]

For me, it was The Langoliers. We have this hugebutt paperback book which has several of King's stories in it, I think it's called Four Past Midnight (not sure, lost the book a few years ago when we moved cross country).

It was one of the first stories that really sucked me in (the other was the Hobbit). I read that and just got lost in it (in a good way), and then FireStarter, then Insomnia, and the list just goes on and on from there.

[davidbo32]

The Tommyknockers. I read it while I was on holiday in England in 1988, and I was more interested in reading it than in going on sightseeing and stuff like that:biggrin2: I still consider it one of his best

[cnic419]

The Talisman. Was going on a long car trip and my mom gave it to me to read. Hooked since then.

[Elijah Baley]

First came It, but immediately after I read The Stand and was hooked from there.

[ShadowtheDragon]

For me I would say Skeleton Crew, more specifically Survivor Type and The Jaunt.

[shangirl]

Skeleton Crew got me hooked, My first full length novel was Desperation and that just confirmed the addiction.

[The-Leading-Man]

The revised version of The Gunslinger was what got me. I finished the book rather quickly and went to buy Drawing of The Three as soon as I finished book one.

[Rabid Assassin]

the first book I read that got me hooked to SK was Cell!

[marew1]

:smile2: I started with The Shining but couldn't get through it. I then read Carrie and I was hooked. After Carrie I went back to The Shining and many other SK books!

[Lauren]

sooooo many!! but definitely IT or 'The Shining'

[EmilyT]

Duma Key

:smile2:

[starshine]

I like all of his books, but the Dark Tower books were the best.:biggrin2:

[steve7485]

'Salem's Lot got me hooked, but what got me hooked on 'Salem's Lot was an apparent printing error -- the paperback that grabbed my eye had the face of one of the child vampires embossed on the cover and it was completely black, no color, no printing, just jet black. I had to read that!

[TowerGirl]

I can't remember ever NOT be "hooked. I've been reading SK for as long as I can remember... But my all time favorite is Insomnia. After that I read Dark Tower. Now I am finding myself going back and re-reading everything that is tower related.....

[HELLTEXter]

Well, I first started reading King uncounsciously when I was in my "Arnie time", back in 1988. After having read the tie-ins to "Predator" and "Red Heat," the next was "The Running Man," which I began reading without really thinking about the differences between a book based on a movie and a movie based on a book. The result was a revelation.
I have since read many King novels which I liked a dozen times better I guess, but I will never forget that first time a book has really "hooked" me.

Dirk.

[PSGifford]

For me it was Night Shift.

[PSGifford]

For me it would have to be Night Shift.

[Fantasy_Freak_92]

I actually started with the movies (Carrie first) then a friend of mine offered to lend me all of her SK books, so I actually read Carrie and started reading The Dark Tower Series. I am actually doing a project on one of his short stories and was wondering if anyone could answer some questions for me.

[Luis]

I was waiting to fly out from BWI and Cell call my eye....instantly hooked....DT was my second hooked and took over from Cell; now the Stand new version is quickly gaining momentum....:wow:

[Christi]

Salems Lot for sure, and Duma Key. I'm al most half way through Salem's Lot, then I'll pick back up on Duma Key. Next will be Carrie.

[Carrie Anne]

Dead Zone. Never thought much about Stephen King before reading it, but it instantly became one of my favorite books.

[JUSTINHOKETT]

For me it was the shining. I read it when i was 16, before that i would of never believed i could be so frightened by words. I was forced to put the book down several times when danny was playing in the snow banks in from of the overlook

[Angel'sGirl]

The Dead Zone,

Bought it in 1980 and still have the copy!! It's a bit worse for wear!! i love that book to death!! Can't say it's my favourite, because i read another one and that's THE one....... I have over 20 Stephen King books in my library! And I want to read the ALL at the same time!!!:love:

[michal]

Really, I had no idea that I was hooked for awhile. I read Pet Sematary in 1993, I was 12, and later came It and Needful Things and The Stand and all this time I was saying to myself: Really, he's just another author, one of many that I like. And then, I believe it was in 2001, I was lying on the beach in Thailand reading my 2oth or 30th book of Mr. King and I read his "Constant Reader" dedication what all of a sudden it hit me - I AM A CONSTANT READER. That's me he's talking to!
That was some shock I tell you.
So, I guess you could say it was all his books that got me hooked, I simply can't tell you which one got me hooked for good.

[TwiStedxMind]

believe it or not it was Cell

[Gillie]

believe it or not it was Cell


Well, you have found a true treasure trove.

Mine was Night Shift. I loved that book & Salems Lot.

[Emdee]

Hmm. After I read a shortened version of The girl who loved Tom Gordon a friend borrowed me The Dark half..then I just kept reading Stephen Kingbooks. I have never read any SK book in English though..thats on my to-do list! :)

[Gunther Otherwise]

It would have to be The Stand. It was, and is, classic King. I recently read a novel titled Devilution by Mark Childs. He seems to have a little "King" in his blood. The bugger left me hanging and it turns out its a trilogy but his style is somewhat similar to Mr. Kings. Sorry for the plug but when you mentioned, "hooked", I can't wait for the sequel to Devilution.

[AlvinS]

The first one I read:

On my 9th birthday, we were in a Safeway when I came across a cardboard end display of Stephen King's "The Bachman Books." I talked my mother into purchasing it for me for my birthday. Ever since, I have been hooked on King.

[AlvinS]

There are a couple books that I never got through. Namely Insomnia, and Rose Madder. I couldn't get into Insomnia, and I got a little bored of Rose Madder in the middle. Most everything else I've read and I love.

Don't give up on Insomnia. It was really hard to keep reading for the first 3rd of the book, then suddenly it takes off and pulls you in. Lucky for me I was Ill the week that Insomnia came out, so I lay on the couch all day for three days straight and read the whole thing - in the end it was well worth trudging through the slow moving parts.

[natalia101]

it was insomnia for me, was about 11 at the time and hadn't read anything like it before being the 1st king book i'd read and have been hooked ever since!

[bholtzman24]

IT was great. Pennywise got me hooked. What's better than an evil clown thirsting for children?

[Bluey Lunger]

i'm not hooked, not yet anyway, doesn't feel like i'm hooked anyway. could be wrong on that score, could be running with the line in my mouth, you know, tire em out and then start reelin em in sorta thing

[kelly 88]

eyes of the dragon and cujo were the first 2 i ever read but i think the one that really got me going was the stand

[rok]

i read the stand in 2nd grade and have been hooked on everything king since

[ally88]

IT in 1990 as a sweet 10year old girl...boy did I get my eyes opened:eek2:.
That story will always be my favourite. There have been a lot of contenders over the years but nothing has quite surpassed the brilliance of that story for me.

[Raistlin]

The Shining did it for me. redrum, redrum :suspect:

[Sarahlou]

Not to be mysterious or just weird, but I think I was hooked on sK when I was a child, before anyone had heard of him, including me. In fact, before he started writing (I'm old). I got hooked on horror stories via television--the classic old movies at midnight, and Twilight Zone, etc. Ever since, I've had a hunger for mystery and suspense, especially with the supernatural a major player. I appreciate any good fiction, but I actually crave horror.

For me, sK embodies what satisfies that craving. After years of suppressing the hunger, of actually avoiding him, and reading nothing of the sort, at a time when I really needed him in a kind of personal way, he was there. My first was The Shining (I needed help figuring out what the movie was really about. Yeah, I know--good luck there), which I followed up with Misery. By then I was a goner.

Totally know where you're coming from, I loved horror from a scarily young age (lucky my mum is an aging hippy who doesn't believe in censorship, so let me watch all the films other parents wouldn't allow) I came across SKs Nightmares & Dreamscapes and the short stories were the perfect intro, i've gone on to read everything else by him i can get my hands on, and love it all. I also went on to read a whole lot more and friends consider me a total book geek! Hey there are worse addictions right??

[Aarny]

Hard to say. The first book I read by him was The Gunslinger, but it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be (I had high expectations). The third book I read by him (Rose Madder) was what really showed me he was a good writer.

[Renzo]

Carrie, the first book I read by him.

[TheHelgo]

Eyes of the Dragon - suprisingly enough. Was the first SK book I read as a child.

[scarywriter]

I got Different Seasons as a present for my 12th birthday. I LOVED it and began to read everything I could find by him. Still do.

[The Outsider]

I feel like such a young'un around you guys, but I have a histroy with Sai King myself. First off, I grew up hearing about the "Master of the macabre" himself a lot, with the movies, novels, and mainly It. And when I was very young my mom read Cujo, however she was quite frightened by it and I don't think she's read much of king since. Then, in 8th grade I read some short story by King, which I can't remember any details about except it was very gruesome and scary (great description, I know). And then, in 9th grade, I read Skeleton Crew, and the story "The Raft" and also "Survivor Type" both got me hooked, and led me to read Duma Key, which had just come out. and then I went from there...

Well, that's my story.

[JackTheRipper]

The book that got me hooked was Salem's Lot, but before that, I had tried Cujo and Christine and gave up after seeing too many curse words. Now, I'm fine with the profanity in his books

[Joiey]

The year was 1973, spring semester of my senior high school year and a friend had a copy of the paperback novel Carrie lying on her desk. I asked if she'd read it. She said she had so I asked if I could borrow the book. It was read in less than 24 hours. I couldn't put it down and I was hooked.

I credit Stephen King now, with my exploration of a writing career. The first portion of my apprenticeship was spent reading anything and everything I could get my hands on and in a pinch, I've even been known to start reading the telephone yellow pages for a fix.

I've been writing for 20 years now and pursued it mainly as a hobby until fairly recently.

J

[JRM]

Bag of Bones -- hands-down. 2008 (I think)

Not only did I discover Stephen King because of it, but I discovered my love for reading because of it. I've always been just a simple casual reader, but after reading "Bag of Bones", I realized I want MORE of that. I was blown away by what a reading experience could do. So now I'm absolutely addicted to reading.

[junai]

"The Stand"

[nicklove09]

Stephen King's IT. It's very dear to my heart :) haha!

[tak113454]

Speaking of It.... I just read it for the first time and finished it recently.
It wasn't what I expected at all but... some parts of it really shocked and disturbed me !!
Has there ever been a discussion on the SKMB of feelings about the whole, ummm, weird sexual stuff !!!!! in It??

[zJacob]

Rose Madder was my first, but it wasn't till Misery (which I got out from the library straight after :L) till I was hooked.

Reading these really opened my eyes to all the books out there, not just SK but lots of other authors too.

[aliphil]

my mium had IT and i sneeked it and read it and loved it. but i remember reading a book full of his shork stories and the mist was in it and another story that i cant remember the name of but the plot was that a surgeon was shipwrecked and ended up eating himself. i was only 14 and and i never liked reading cos i am dyslexic and found reading hard so my mum was shocked that i was reading and bought home loads from the library and have been hooked ever since

[Charms7]

On Writing.

[netta]

The Stand, 1979 in Barstow, Florida.

The Dead Zone came after that, then 'Salem's Lot.

Hook, line, and sinker - game over, zip up your fly.

[aliphil]

On Writing.

oh i am reading that but i cant find it since we moved. was enjoying it:biggrin2:

[doowopgirl]

For me it was The Stand. I started readinf when I got home from work didn't stop until it was too dark to read the page and had dreams about leading people out of danger