Stephen King’s private reading list
It would be easy to assume that just because Stephen King is… Y’know, Stephen King, the kind of novels he appreciates would be his works of horror fiction.
Not only is he the most famous horror author ever, but he’s also probably the most famous creative associated with the horror genre. One doesn’t get to that point without a genuine love for the genre, and it’s clear that King has that love for it. Just get him talking about the works of Shirley Jackson, and you will see just how far his devotion goes. However, the truth is a little different from that. The truth is that King is a true omnivore when it comes to fiction.
This is honestly par for the course. Any creative who comes up in one genre rarely loves that one in particular. More often than not, they have a genuinely balanced media diet and take in just about anything they can get. Is Stephen King no different, and honestly? He’d have to be in order to keep up his sheer output. King is as famous for his Herculean output of works, and when you look through them, there’s more diversity there than he gets credit for.
Sure, the majority of them fall into the horror genre. However, you’ve then got The Dark Tower saga, which is a vast, sprawling fantasy epic (honestly, it’s at least 12 vast, sprawling fantasy epics, but that’s beside the point). Then there’s the full-on ghost stories like The Shining and 1408. Grounded psychological thrillers like Misery and The Long Walk. Then you get the fact that some of his most celebrated works aren’t even horror stories to begin with, look at Stand By Me or The Green Mile.
So, what are the favourite novels of Stephen King?
Thus, when you ask Stephen King about his favourite novels, you’re likely to get a pretty vast array of answers, partially because King is a voracious reader who will seemingly give anything a spin and partially because he’s the kind of person who doesn’t have one solid favourite of any piece of art unless we’re talking songs.
Apparently, ‘Mambo No. 5’, of all tracks, had such a hold on King that it nearly caused his wife to divorce him. Understandable, it is a banger.
With books, it’s not so simple. In an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, King named the Larry McMurtry western Lonesome Dove from 1985 as his favourite novel. However, in a separate list written for J Peder Zane’s book The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favourite Books, Lonesome Dove doesn’t appear at all. There’s everything from Bleak House and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to 1984 and Blood Meridian, but no Lonesome Dove.
Which I think says a lot not just about King’s writing, but the way he writes. The prolific nature of Stephen King shows that this is a man who writes the same way that he reads. Because he’s unable not to. There’s incredible craft to what he does, make no mistake, but the drive to create is all-encompassing, just like his drive to read.
An enviable attitude that all of us can learn from, whether we’re stitching our first blanket, srumming our first chord or writing our 100th novel.