Stephen King is the king of horror and an amazing storyteller. But what does King like to read? More importantly, what are Stephen King’s 10 favorite books? We have the answers to that question so keep reading to find out!
Even if you aren’t an avid reader, you have most likely have heard of Stephen King. He has over 20 movies adapted into movies and there’s a good chance you have seen a few of them. And like most people, we are curious what books shaped King to who he is today and his writing style. And there is nothing better than to look at Stephen King’s 10 favorite books. You can see the full list below!
Stephen King’s 10 Favorite Books
- American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)
- 1984 by George Orwell (1949)
- Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
- The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (1974)
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding 1954)
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954)
- The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (2012)
- Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter (1962)
- Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972)
This is a great list and I love when author has books that I haven’t heard of before. But there are also classics that everyone should read at least once. 1984 and The Lord of the Flies are two amazing novels that I can see influencing King’s own works of literature.
Three other classics that you should also read are Invisible Man, The Lord of the Rings, and Watership Down. If you have read them, then you can see why King chose them for his list. Ten books is not a lot of books and many amazing novels are often left out as a result.
Watership Down by Richard Adams is a great novel and a classic fantasy novel. It may not be your typical fantasy story but Adams’ makes it a fun read that you can’t put down once you start reading it. Seeing it on King’s list is surprising and I for one am happy that this novel is getting the love it deserves. It often gets overlooked and left off of many lists but King made sure his list was not one of them.
Conclusion
I think this is a great list and as a fan of fantasy novels and classic novels, I really enjoyed his selection. Any list that has The Lord of the Rings on it is already a good one in my opinion. What did you think of Stephen King’s ten favorite books? How many of these books have you read? Let us know in the comments below!
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Never cared for The Lord of the Flies no matter what lessons it taught. We were shown the film at a birthday party when we were 11 and it was indeed traumatic. Parents picked up crying children. In retrospect, it is amusing to ponder what the heck were those parents thinking showing the film to 11 year old girls.
If you’ve seen the header on my blog, you know I agree with Tolkien.
I also don’t believe that if left to our own devices we’ll resort to violence and chaos. Otherwise we would’ve died out as a species long ago. There’s a reason why altruism was encoded into our DNA. It helped us survive. Yes some of us are prone to destruction and they’re just as necessary to society as the peaceful, kind members. Lord of the flies only showed the violent succeeding and I didn’t find it believable. Chaos is needed, yes, but it’s always eventually reigned in.