The 96 books Stephen King suggested every young writer should read
Despite protestations, Stephen King may well be the most popular novelist of all time. The serial horror hero has contributed some of the world’s most recognisable titles to both literature and cinema. There are quite literally hundreds of titles that rank as intrinsic pieces of his and the world’s cultural catalogue. While a large portion of the literary world will turn their noses up at the populist nature of his work, few can doubt his potency as a writer.
Such is the vastness of his impressive career that a young writer would be wise to listen to any advice he has. From his writing technique to his proliferation of subject matter, King’s ability to craft countless bestsellers should not be lost on anyone. Many of these lessons can be learned within the covers of his acclaimed book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, and, as a final memento of that book, King provides 96 books he thinks every aspiring writer should read.
In truth, they aren’t exactly a definitive list. The author is quick to assert that these are the titles which had helped him around the time of writing the book and from which value can certainly be extracted: “These are the best books I’ve read over the last three or four years, the period during which I wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Hearts in Atlantis, On Writing, and the as-yet-unpublished From a Buick Eight.”
King is reflective of the list’s connection to his own work of the time, sharing: “In some way or other, I suspect each book in the list had an influence on the books I wrote.”
Like any writer worth his salt, King is also quick to assert that every scribe is different and that different authors would benefit from different books. But if you’re a young writer looking for some indication on great work, then you’d be hard-pressed to find a better list to start off with: “As you scan this list, please remember that I’m not Oprah, and this isn’t my book club. These are the ones that worked for me, that’s all. But you could do worse, and a good many of these might show you some new ways of doing your work. Even if they don’t, they’re apt to entertain you. They certainly entertained me.”
There are some notable titles within the extensive list. While tipping his hat to another prolific writer in J K Rowling, King also selects works from Graham Greene, Kurt Vonnegut, Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx as the list shows how much King cherishes the act of reading as directly influencing the skill of writing, famously saying: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Find the full list of 96 books Stephen King thinks every young writer should read below.
96 books Stephen King thinks you should read:
- Peter Abrahams – A Perfect Crime
- Peter Abrahams – Lights Out
- Peter Abrahams – Pressure Drop
- Peter Abrahams – Revolution #9
- James Agee – A Death in the Family
- Kirsten Bakis – Lives of the Monster Dogs
- Pat Barker – Regeneration
- Pat Barker – The Eye in the Door
- Pat Barker – The Ghost Road
- Richard Bausch – In the Night Season
- Peter Blauner – The Intruder
- Paul Bowles – The Sheltering Sky
- T. Coraghessan Boyle – The Tortilla Curtain
- Bill Bryson – A Walk in the Woods
- Christopher Buckley – Thank You for Smoking
- Raymond Carver – Where I’m Calling From
- Michael Chabon – Werewolves in Their Youth
- Windsor Chorlton – Latitude Zero
- Michael Connelly – The Poet
- Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness (Free eBook – Gutenberg / Kindle)
- K.C. Constantine – Family Values
- Don DeLillo – Underworld
- Nelson DeMille – Cathedral
- Nelson DeMille – The Gold Coast
- Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist (Free eBook – Gutenberg / Kindle)
- Stephen Dobyns – Common Carnage
- Stephen Dobyns – The Church of Dead Girls
- Roddy Doyle – The Woman Who Walked into Doors
- Stanely Elkin – The Dick Gibson Show
- William Faulkner – As I Lay Dying
- Alex Garland – The Beach
- Elizabeth George – Deception on His Mind
- Tess Gerritsen – Gravity
- William Golding – Lord of the Flies
- Muriel Gray – Furnace
- Graham Greene – A Gun for Sale (aka This Gun for Hire)
- Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana
- David Halberstam – The Fifties
- Pete Hamill – Why Sinatra Matters
- Thomas Harris – Hannibal
- Kent Haruf – Plainsong
- Peter Hoeg – Smilla’s Sense of Snow
- Stephen Hunter – Dirty White Boys
- David Ignatius – A Firing Offense
- John Irving – A Widow for One Year
- Graham Joyce – The Tooth Fairy
- Alan Judd – The Devil’s Own Work
- Roger Kahn – Good Enough to Dream
- Mary Karr – The Liars’ Club
- Jack Ketchum – Right to Life
- Tabitha King – Survivor
- Tabitha King – The Sky in the Water
- Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible
- Jon Krakauer – Into Thin Air
- Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
- Bernard Lefkowitz – Our Guys
- Bentley Little – The Ignored
- Norman Maclean – A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
- W. Somerset Maugham – The Moon and Sixpence (Free eBook – Gutenberg)
- Cormac McCarthy – Cities of the Plain
- Cormac McCarthy – The Crossing
- Frank McCourt – Angela’s Ashes
- Alice McDermott – Charming Billy
- Jack McDevitt – Ancient Shores
- Ian McEwan – Enduring Love
- Ian McEwan – The Cement Garden
- Larry McMurtry – Dead Man’s Walk
- Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana – Zeke and Ned
- Walter M. Miller – A Canticle for Leibowitz
- Joyce Carol Oates – Zombie
- Tim O’Brien – In the Lake of the Woods
- Stewart O’Nan – The Speed Queen
- Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient
- Richard North Patterson – No Safe Place
- Richard Price – Freedomland
- Annie Proulx – Close Range: Wyoming Stories
- Annie Proulx – The Shipping News
- Anna Quindlen – One True Thing
- Ruth Rendell – A Sight for Sore Eyes
- Frank M. Robinson – Waiting
- J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- Richard Russo – Mohawk
- John Burnham Schwartz – Reservation Road
- Vikram Seth – A Suitable Boy
- Irwin Shaw – The Young Lions
- Richard Slotkin – The Crater
- Dinitia Smith – The Illusionist
- Scott Spencer – Men in Black
- Wallace Stegner – Joe Hill
- Donna Tartt – The Secret History
- Anne Tyler – A Patchwork Planet
- Kurt Vonnegut – Hocus Pocus
- Evelyn Waugh – Brideshead Revisited
- Donald Westlake – The Ax
