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| The Long Walk (Joey Remmers) photo credit HERE |
Did you vote at Lilja's Library's poll, asking fans what their favorite novel was? The project was titled, "10,000 fans" in which he explained that a list of ranked the King books. Problem was, a lot of fans did not like the ranking! Well, Lilja decided to put the issue right in the people's hands, declaring that 10,000 fans can't be wrong! The results were interesting, if not predictable -- since we all know which King novel would get picked by the fans, right?
The final results are HERE.
However, I remembered an interview in which Lilja shared his own favorite novel. . . and guess what, it wasn't even in the top ten. This made me wonder, what is are Lilja's top favorite Stephen King books? He kindly shared with me his 5 favorite books -- making him the 10,001st fan to cast their vote.
Lilja wrote: "My top five is:
1. The long walk
2. The stand
3. IT
4. The Talisman
4. The Dark Tower 3 (The Wastelands.)
Cool stuff, huh! I like how it spans King's work, too. IT and The Stand are both fan favorites, while The Long Walk is a Bachman, The Talisman a genre of its own and of course there had to be a Dark Tower in the lot.
While I disagree with the final verdict I can understnd why The Stand has continually been rated in top place ll these years.
ReplyDeleteIt's the one King book that non-King or non-genre fans can digest the most easiest without having to bother or hassle about anything else he's written.
Of all his works, The Stand, maybe along with The Shining, Green Mile and Different Seasons are the ones most casual reader are familiar or comfortable with.
The vote represents a broader spectrum than just King or plain books fans, these are the casual weekened readers, the ones more concerned with making ends meet, raising kids, putting food on the table rather than bothering about any book.
In that sense, I think most people are smarter than book people like me, and just KNOW that goes double for Harold Bloom.
Still, for all that, if it comes to judging books, I think quality and substance counts more than anything else, so that's why I respectfully disagree and stand by Steve Spignesi in nominating It as King's Magnum Opus.
I think Spignesi did the best job in ranking King's books from best to still good but lesser.
ChrisC
Bravo to Lilja. I put off reading The Long Walk for a LONG time, just recently picking it up to read. Now, having finished it, I'm kicking myself for having waited so long! It's not my favorite, but I'd probably stick it in the top five.
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