It perhaps sounds a bit weird, but jumping headlong into a pop culture staple can be intimidating. Be it Star Wars or Star Trek, Marvel or DC, or any other long-running series or franchise, one can look at the full breadth of a canon and be frozen by the scope to the point that you don’t know where to begin. That being said, having the guiding view of an expert can help mitigate any of that daunting feeling. For example, who better to take advice from about Stephen King books than Stephen King himself?
When it comes to getting into King’s expansive body of work, there are three particular titles that he would recommend starting with – and that’s the lead story in this week’s edition of The King Beat. But that’s not the only headline, as the pop culture icon has also revealed some fun facts about his personal movie-watching habits and discussed how the on-going Vietnam War in the mid-1960s ended up influencing him to write the exceptionally hardcore tale that would become his first completed novel: The Long Walk. There’s a whole lot to get into, so let’s dig in!
Do You Want To Start Getting Into Stephen King Books? King Himself Has Suggestions Where You Should Start
Without looking it up, can you guess how many books Stephen King has written – including novels, non-fiction, collections, published scripts, independent novellas and comics? If you guessed “92,” you’d be spot on… though I’d also wonder if you possibly cheated.
That’s a hell of a lot of titles to choose from, and I can understand any wannabe reader being overwhelmed in considering where to start. The epics like The Stand, IT, and The Dark Tower series are obvious choices to set aside until one has reached veteran status, but there are still dozens of other options. Should one go back to the very beginning, or perhaps start with the more modern titles, which led to lean more toward mystery than horror? Is a novel the way to go, or perhaps does the better way in include the smaller bits that come with his collections?
I’d wager that every Stephen King fan has their own take on the best way to proceed, but why not go straight to the source for a recommendation? With the release of The Long Walk on the near horizon (set to arrive in theaters September 12), the author recently participated in an AMA session on Reddit, and one question he answered concerned proper starting places for new readers. Asked for a list of three titles, he responded,
SALEM’S LOT, MISERY, and THE LONG WALK. All of them are still my friends.
Those aren’t exactly low-profile titles, as all three of those books have been gotten the extra exposure that comes with being adapted, but if you’re personally unfamiliar with the stories, I’ve provided their individual loglines below:
- Salem’s Lot: An author returns to his home town with the intention of writing a book inspired by the most traumatic event in his childhood, but what he discovers instead is that the small Maine hamlet is becoming infested with vampires.
- Misery: In the midst of making a big career change and bringing an end to his most famous and beloved series of books, an author finds himself held hostage by a madwoman who forces him to resurrect her favorite character.
- The Long Walk: In a dystopian America, teenagers are selected to compete in what is essentially an incentivized death march – with the last boy left standing in the endurance trial winning riches and the ability to make a single wish.
The three books can all be classified as “Classic King” (released in the period between 1975 and 1987), and while I wouldn’t say that they are the books that best showcase the author’s underrated range as a storyteller, they do all feature the core elements that have made his work so beloved: they all have tremendous and complex characters who make meaningful and compelling choices that drive their stories forward.
Personally speaking, one of my go-to recommendations for folks looking to become Constant Readers is 1999’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (the story of a girl who gets lost in the Appalachian Mountains and must find a way to survive in the wilderness), but those are some terrific choices for any novice looking for a perfect entry point.
Stephen King Offers His Thoughts On The Perfect Movie Watching Experience On The Big Screen
When it comes to watching movies in theaters, we all have our own individual preferences – including where we like to sit and what we like snack on. Personally speaking, I always try to get into the middle of the first row of a theater’s rear section, hoping that the screen fills my entire field of vision, and while concessions aren’t always my thing, I’m a guy who takes the share bag of Peanut M&Ms and sprinkles them into my popcorn for bites blending salty and sweet.
But how does Stephen King enjoy the big screen experience?
It’s no secret that Stephen King loves going to the movies (evidenced in both the cinematic qualities of his writing and his penchant for posting reactions to what he’s been watching on social media), and one of my favorite answers from his Reddit AMA this week concerns his habits when going to see a new release at his local theater. It turns out that he’s the kind of guy who likes to sit close and chow down, writing
Third row so the screen looms over me. Big box of popcorn with lots of the animal sweat they call butter and a box of Junior Mints.
I love that answer in general, but calling the movie theater popcorn butter “animal sweat” is such a perfect and awful description that I think I’m going to personally use it going forward. And as for the seat choice and the snacks? Fans can perhaps follow his lead to enhance their experience watching The Long Walk when it arrives in cinemas everywhere next month. And to further discuss that particular story…
Stephen King Discusses How Writing The Long Walk Was Influenced By Hearing About His Peers Dying In The Vietnam War
When Stephen King first wrote The Long Walk at the age of 19, it was a very scary time to be a teenager. The Vietnam War was raging on with no end in sight, and young men that were the same age as the author were regularly being sent overseas to meet their fate. King was able to avoid service personally because he was enrolled at the University of Maine at Orono, but the shock of what he was seeing happen to his generation was very real, and it was a key inspiration in writing what would be his first completed (albeit not first published) novel.
In the same Reddit AMA that has inspired all of this week’s King Beat headlines, the author was asked about how the environment of the late 1960s influenced what remains one of the darkest books he has ever written. He explains in his response that he was very aware of kids his age dying in the jungle during the international conflict, and the horror of it all was fuel for his creative fire:
Well, at that time, Vietnam was chewing up our kids pretty bad. Back then (1967) there were still college deferments for kids in school. But it was a scary time to be young, and a year later they did away with deferments and put in a lottery. I was lucky, drew a high number. But that was too close to THE LONG WALK for comfort.
What’s even scarier is that while The Long Walk was written nearly 60 years ago and published nearly 50 years ago, it feels as relevant as ever. It feels all too common that younger generations have to carry the burden of choices made by older generations, and it’s both unfair and regularly cruel. The fact that screenwriter JT Mollner barely had to make any updates to the story in adapting the book for the big screen is perfectly disturbing evidence of this – and you’ll find out what I mean soon, with the exceptionally bleak and buzzy upcoming Stephen King movie now less than two weeks away from arriving in theaters across the country.
That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, the last one of August 2025, but as the calendar flips over to September, there is a whole lot King-centric stuff to look forward to, including not only the theatrical arrival of The Long Walk but also the publication of the author’s take on the fairy tale Hansel & Gretel (featuring artwork from the legendary Maurice Sendak). As always, I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with a full roundup of all the biggest news from the world of King, so be sure to head back here then to read all about it.
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