Reading all of King’s work has been a wish of mine for a long time now. But the man has written a lot! Just look at the dates below and quickly you will notice that he published a book almost every year since 1974! Sometimes even multiple books in one year…

I have been tracking my reading for a couple of years now (online through StoryGraph, on Notion, and in a journal), but I thought it would be nice to track my progress in reading King’s books also on my blog.

Read 21 Read/82 Total Books

Novels

Carrie (1974) 4/5 (Read in 2022)

The first published novel by King. The story goes that King did not know how to finish this story and if it would be any good, so he threw it away. But his wife, Tabitha, fished it out of the trashcan and convinced him to keep on going. We probably have to thank her for her curiosity and insistence, otherwise (in a different universe) King may have never started his big career.

The story follows a teenage girl who possesses telekinetic powers and lives with her super-religious mom. She is it outsider at home and at her high school. I think this story is so famous that it requires no more spoilers. Just read it and judge for yourself. I enjoyed reading it and I liked it more than the movie (both the original and the new version of the movie is not my thing).

Salem’s Lot (1975) 3/5 (Read in 2021)

King’s take on the vampire genre. Not great, not terrible. I know that it is a favourite of many, but it was not very memorable for me.

The Shining (1977) 4/5 (Read in 2020)

This is one of my favourite King’s novels. I loved the spooky atmosphere of the hotel and the isolation the family experienced due to the snowy environment. A perfect reading experience for the winter months!

Rage (1977)

This story is discontinued and hard to find. Only the old edition of the Bachman Books contains it.

The Stand (1978)

The Long Walk (1979)

The Dead Zone (1979)

Firestarter (1980)

Roadwork (1981)

Cujo (1981) 4/5 (Read in 2020)

A rabid dog and a highly problematic and dysfunctional family. The character of the mother irritated me a lot and I did not really care for the characters except maybe the child. But the plot itself is good and the ending is very gruesome.

Fun fact: Stephen King wrote a short sequel story to Cujo about the father of the family. It’s a good story; you can find it in the short story collection You Like It Darker.

The Running Man (1982)

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)

Christine (1983)

Pet Sematary (1983) 5/5

All-time favourite! I used to watch the movies as a child and I loved the scare of it. Reading the book as an adult was a different experience, but still a very positive one. The characters are interesting and realistic. The scare factors get to you at different levels. I would always recommend this book to start out with if you are new to King’s work.

Cycle of the Werewolf (1983)

The Talisman (1984)

The Eyes of the Dragon (1984)

Thinner (1984)

IT (1986) 4/5 (Read in 2021)

A classic in horror literature and movies. Some may find it a bit too long, but I enjoyed the lengthy passages on the history of the town.

The Dark Tower 2: The Drawing of the Three (1987)

Misery (1987) 4/5 (Read in 2020)

Great thriller! Also very effective for creating an uneasy atmosphere during the winter months.

The Tommyknockers (1987)

The Dark Half (1989)

The Dark Tower 3: The Waste Lands (1991)

Needful Things (1991)

Gerald’s Game (1992)

Dolores Claiborne (1992)

Insomnia (1994)

Rose Madder (1995)

The Green Mile (1996)

Desperation (1996)

The Regulators (1996)

The Dark Tower 4: Wizard and Glass (1997)

Bag of Bones (1998)

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) 3.5/5 (Read in 2024)

Great survival story with some supernatural (forest God) elements. I read this one in two evenings (late nights) and loved the old King’s way of writing. The main character, a young girl named Patricia, is relatable and easy to empathize with; the whole time I was rooting for her. As in most of his books, King’s talent for depicting family struggles and human problems is very effective in this novel.

Dreamcatcher (2001)

Black House (2001)

From a Buick 8 (2002)

The Dark Tower 5: Wolves of the Calla (2003)

The Dark Tower 6: Song of Susannah (2004)

The Dark Tower 7: The Dark Tower (2004)

The Colorado Kid (2005)

Cell (2005)

Lisey’s Story (2006)

Blaze (2007)

Duma Key (2008)

Under the Dome (2009)

11/22/63 (2011)

The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012)

Joyland (2013) 3/5 (Read in 2022)

A coming-of-age story; something King is good at! Not my favorite book from the whole list, but definitely entertaining and worth the read.

Doctor Sleep (2013)

Mr. Mercedes (2014) 4/5

The first book in the Bill Hodges trilogy. Great start into the trilogy and a good thriller in general. Not a lot of supernatural elements are needed to make this book suspenseful.

Revival (2014)

Finders Keepers (2015)

End of Watch (2016)

Gwendy’s Button Box (2017) 4/5 (Read in 2020)

An interesting (child-like) view on the philosophical concept of power and responsibility.

Sleeping Beauties (2017) DNF

Too many characters who I didn’t know and didn’t care about. King wrote this one together with his son, Owen King, and I was excited to see what their collaboration would bring. But after struggling for months through this story, I decided to give it up. This was the first time that I did not finish a book from him.

The Outsider (2018)

Elevation (2018)

The Institute (2019) 3/5 (Read in 2020)

Interesting concept and good character development. But the children in the book felt a bit unrealistic; you could sense that they were written by an adult and they felt like mini-adults. While some of King’s child characters in other books do depict realistic emotions and thoughts, for example in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, this one missed this experience.

Later (2021) 3/5 (Read in 2021)

Mediocre and forgettable thriller/ crime fiction story. The story itself is predictable and the characters are boring. In hindsight, I would rate it a 2/5.

Billy Summers (2021)

Gwendy’s Final Task (2022)

Fairy Tale (2022)

Holly (2023) 3/5 (Read in 2023)

Disappointing. The plot itself is suspenseful; a well-written thriller. However, too much politics and pandemic opinions are thrown into the story. Almost every page mentions these themes, which ruins the reading experience.

Never Flinch (2025)

Short Story Collections

Night Shift (1978) 4/5 (Read in 2020)

Different Seasons (1982)

Skeleton Crew (1985)

Four Past Midnight (1990)

Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993)

Hearts in Atlantis (1999)

Everything’s Eventual (2002)

Just After Sunset (2008) 4/5 (Read in 2020)

Full Dark, No Stars (2010)

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015) 4/5

If It Bleeds (2020) 3/5 (Read in 2020)

You Like It Darker (2024) 5/5 (Read in 2024)

Non-Fiction

Danse Macabre (1981)

Nightmares in the Sky (1988)

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000) 4/5 (Read in 2018)

One of my favourite non-fiction books about writing. King gives many helpful tips in this one and also tells the story of his own life. It reads indeed as a memoir full of needful advice.

Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing

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