I know I can go for weeks without considering the second R here at The Two R's, but every once in a while I find something about the subject of writing that's just too good to pass up...like Vulture.com's ranking of every Stephen King book!
Now, even if you're not a Stephen King fan, it's impossible to be unaware of his work. I mean, even if you don't read his stuff, there isn't a single person on the planet that hasn't seen Shawshank Redemption by this point, right? They show it four times a week on TBS, for Gob's sake!
Personally, I had a point in my life, early to mid 20's maybe, where I had read every single thing King had ever written. I can't say that any longer - the past ten years have been very hit and miss - but I've still probably read about 80% of his novels. I still pull The Stand off the shelf every year or two and reread it. I even found a paperback copy of It at one of the rental houses we stayed in last year in Hawaii - read the whole thing in the week we were there (Payton tried to read it as well, but got a little freaked out during the first few chapters and decided to put it down - yeah, it's still a scary read).
In other words, I have my own opinion of King's novels, so when I saw this list (I love ranked lists!) of every King novel, I just had to share it with you.
Now, I'm not going to spoil the fun for you, as seeing how the list unfolds, and agreeing or disagreeing with it, is the whole point. But I do have to make just a few observations...I have to!
-I've got to disagree with throwing in the non-fiction books in with the fiction. How do you compare a book about the art of writing with the Shining? They're not even from the same universe! They really should have narrowed it down to the fiction books - you only would have had to toss the writing books and the baseball books...maybe four books total? You just can't compare the writing and tone of those with the fiction. Well, I can't.
-I have no problems with the very bottom of the list. Many of those books are so-so, and a few came out during the "drug years," where King himself has said he was always doped up out of his mind and wasn't writing worth a damn.
-Firestarter is too low...way too low. I also have a soft spot for The Long Walk, but I realize that one shows it's age - and King's age when he wrote it. Still love it.
-Why is Thinner way down there?!? That is just a great read, and Richie Ginelli is one of my all-time favorite King characters. This is a top-20 King book!
-From a Buick 8 is way too high! Maybe I'm missing something here, but I thought that was an uneven, uninspired effort. Am I missing something?
-Yes, there is a brand new Dark Tower novel just out. It's called Wind Through the Keyhole. And yes, it is included in the 62 ranked books - number 35 to be exact.
Ah, that was fun. Looking through that list, and thinking back on all those books, made me wonder about other authors have a huge list of books we could rank. Hmmmm...Elmore Leonard anyone?
King Novels image by Marc Burnell
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