Stephen King has been writing for more than 40 years, and to date, he’s written more than 50 novels, non-fiction books, and short-story anthologies, most of them bestsellers. More than 30 movies have been adapted from his work. According to some estimates, he’s the most financially successful horror writer in history, with somewhere in the realm of 350 million books sold. He’s a literary phenomenon, and his collected works form an impressive mountain that newbies may be hesitant to climb. Even some of his individual books look like mountains; many of his best-known works are 600-page-plus doorstops, with The Stand and It in particular topping a thousand pages each. And many of his later books allude to or directly tie into his signature series, the Dark Tower books, in ways that are likely to confuse newbies. Therefore the AV Club has some reading suggestions for the Stephen King newcomer to sink their teeth into.
I have about 40 of Stephen King’s novels, and my favorite is my Easton Press edition of The Dead Zone.