The Best Book To Start With


This week I started rereading The Gunslinger. Of couse, I'm also reading Under The Dome. What prompted a fresh reading? Two things. First, an over abundance of audible credits. Second, the announcement of a new Dark Tower book. To reread the series will take something like a million years, so I need to start now.
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Where You Start Matters
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I'm a pastor. People ask me all the time, "What book of the Bible should I start on?" Think I suggest Leviticus, Revelation or Jude? I don't think so! Try Mark. It's like the ADHD Gospel, constant action. That's good starter stuff. Nothing wrong with the other books, but they're just not what you need to get your feet wet on. Does it matter where you start? It does.
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When it comes to King, there are certain books that are better to start out on than others.
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When I was a sophmore in High School a friend told me I would really enjoy a writer named Stephen King. He brought me two books: The Stand and The Dark Tower, the gunslinger. I started the Dark Tower having no idea what it was -- but I liked the title. I quickly surmised that the tower was not exactly going to be the focus of this book.
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I eventually gave up reading the Dark Tower and moved on to The Stand. I was hooked! LaterI came back to the Gunslinger, but it's never been my favorite novel. I like the other Dark Tower novels. Except I have not read Wizard and Glass cover to cover.
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What is the best Stephen King novel to start on? Here's my list. Feel free to offer your own:
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1. The Stand, Complete and Uncut.
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2. The Shining.
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3. Misery
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4. Under The Dome.
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5. The Mist.
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I wouldn't start with: Tommynockers, The Talisman or Black House, The Gunslinger, Geralds Game, Insomnia.

1 comment:

  1. My first King was Pet Sematary. I was a kid.

    Reading it as a kid was kinda boring. Reading it again as an adult (and father) was DEVASTATING. I'm about to read it a third time. And I just became a father for the third time last year. Oh boy.

    The Stand is amazing but really long. I'd say start with Salem's Lot, then The Green Mile and then perhaps It, before working your way up to that one. Plenty of people I know have no interest in a novel that long.

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