Which stephen king novel should I read first?

[xXRebeccaXx]

I have a choice between "thinner" and "the running man"

[JungianZoe]

Neither one are really Stephen King at his best.  I'd choose It, The Shining, or Pet Semetary first.

If you really want a scare, the latter is best of all.  There were parts of that book that kept me up at night, which is not easy for someone who grew up on horror movies.

[Janet_Girl]

My personal favorite was the "Gunslinger" series, aka "The Dark Tower" series.  Many of his early works are good too.  Google Richard Bachman.

"The Colorado Kid" is good too, and the Syfy series "Haven" is based on it.

"Thinner" is very good place to start between the two.

[cynthialee]

Both of those kinda blow but Running Man is the better of the two.

I would say the most scarry hair standing on the neck book he wrote that I read was Tommyknockers.

[saint]

IT is truly epic, his best by a mile I reckon.  I've been meaning to re-read it for ages actually, gonna check ebay for a cheapo copy

[Princess of Hearts]

The only Stephen King book that I have read is Salem's Lot.  I enjoyed it and I have read it twice now.  The only major niggle about the book is that Mr Barlow....Hold on a minute this my be considered a spoiler so I don't think that I'll go on.   I did like the David Soul mini-series.

[pretty]

If it helps, I hear The Stand was best.

I am reading The Dead Zone right now but not sure I am into it 

[Amaranth]

I've only read a few of them, but The Stand was amazing.  Very long, but worth it.

[tekla]

Read The Shining (perhaps the best haunted house book ever) and The Stand, and leave it at that.  The others are OK, but nothing he ever wrote horror wise was as good as The Shining, and nothing he ever wrote epic wise matched The Stand.

[Cindy]

I think the only one that made my skin tingle was Salem's Lot, in a few good well created scenes.

I have to admit to generally not finding him a good read for me. Try John Connelly. Not quite horror but damn site better written.

JMO
Cindy

[Akashiya Moka]

As others have said, The Stand.

[Vee]

It really depends on what you want to read.
For something really scary - Salem's' lot is awesome, also "It" ( hate clowns so much)
For fantasy - The dark tower series is teh best. But it's quite long. "The talisman" is very good" and "The eyes of the dragon" is a relatively short book, which reads more like a fairy tale, dark fairy tale.
For something more mystical - Thinner is good
For Aliens'n'stuff - Tommyknockers scared me a lot when I read it for the first time( that I was 12 and with very rich imagination has nothing to do with it, I swear)
"The Stand" is also very interesting. And thought provoking...to bad there are no zombies there 

[Princess of Hearts]

I liked the Mr Barlow in the mini-series best.   He was super scary!

[CybeleNV9751]

I would start with his best, The Shining, followed by The Dead Zone & The Stand.  For a more recent one, try
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon or Cell.

[ShadeOfGray]

I realize this is a dead thread, but I just have to say if you like Stephen King, read Bag of Bones.

Holy crap that book was scary.