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Lisey's Story is different from his other books in terms of writing style: plenty of Amazon reviewers hated all the cutesy terms and nicknames that the husband and wife use in Lisey's Story. I think King was trying for a more literary style, and a more personal story. I made it through the book, and gave it a good review on Snortyville, but it was definitely slower moving than his books usually are.

I really enjoyed the Dark Tower series but only from the third book on. You can skip reading Books 1 and 2 and not really miss much, and they are exceedingly grim. But the later books have so much more to them, and I found it intriguing how King wrote himself in as a character.

Probably my favorite Stephen King book is Insomnia. I've reread that one about three times; it's very interesting. Old guy turns into an insomniac after his wife's death, starts seeing auras, then realizes he has become a pawn in an interdimensional game to shake up levels of reality between the opposing sides of Random and Order.

Very interesting how several of King's books connect to this overall "meta-theme" about the levels of reality: the Dark Tower series most overtly of all, but also Insomnia, It, Everything's Eventual, and several others.

Books (so far) that I've figured out tie into his mega-universe:
Dark Tower series (duh!)
The Stand
The Talisman
The Dark Tower
Desperation
Insomnia
It
The Eyes of the Dragon
From a Buick 8
Hearts in Altantis
Needful Things
The Regulators
Rose Madder
Storm of the Century

Some of these tie in quite tightly, other only as a peripheral vision. And of course there are a ton of short stories ("The Little Sisters of Eluria") that also tie in.

I've even thought that I caught some familiar names in "Cujo" and "Pet Semetary" that might loosely tie in, but by the time I start comparin 20 plus books my mind starts getting fuzzy. Maybe I'll do a spreadsheet for fun one day.

Oh, finally finished "Lisey's Story", it got better - I think I needed to be in the right mood to read it.

Yeah - I read Firestarter, too. I even remember watching the film for the first time with my dad. Cripes that was a long time ago. I used to like King until The Stand and for some reason, each book I read after that never held the same appeal. I should try some of his more recent stuff to see how I feel - suggestions, anyone?

I loved "Cell" too. I wished we would have found out who broadcasted the Pulse but I guess that's part of King's charm, keeping us guessing. I had a hard time with "Lisey's Story" at first too, but once you get past her cleaning out his stuff, it gets tons better!

The one book I could never get into was "IT". I get about halfway through the book (and I've tried about 3 times) and I just lose complete interest.

Sweet! I really liked it. It kind of reminded me of Rose Madder, with the other world and all.

OH the Dark Tower books are da bomb!! I've read them all and am in the process of collecting them in hard back when I get the money. I've read I'm pretty sure every book and short story the man has ever written, I love King...

Hello Miss Independent!

That just goes to show you have great taste in literature! King is one of my favorites, too.

I'm not sure if you watch the movie adaptations (some King fans, as you know, avoid them); have you seen "The Mist" yet?

I really liked King's first books. After his accident he seemed to have lost focus and his books became kind of "off the wall". I have not read any of his recent ones, but I have heard from fans that he is writing good again.