The 150+ Books Stephen King Recommends Reading
At the end of “On Writing” Stephen King lists 150+ books he believes are worth reading. Check out the list and let me know whether or not you agree with his choices.
Alex Wieckowski
Alex & Books
- Published
- July 1, 2018
- Reading time
- 6 min
- Length
- 1,254 words
I used to think that I read a lot of books; last year I read 35 and this year I’m on track to read 42 books. However, when I read Stephen King’s book “On Writing” I began to think otherwise. In his book, King writes, “I’m a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year.”
Let me repeat that.
He says he’s a SLOW READER, but he still gets through 70-80 BOOKS A YEAR.
At this point, you might be wondering why a best-selling author like King reads so many books. Well, it’s because he believes reading a lot makes you a better writer. King writes that every book has its own lessons, and for writers that don’t have time to read, King says “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time to write” (pg 147).
Read my review of "On Writing" here.
At the end of “On Writing” King lists over a hundred books that are worth reading. It’s a long list, but an interesting one at the same time. So without further ado, here is King’s list of books worth reading:
Abrahams, Peter: A Perfect Crime
Abrahams, Peter: Pressure Drop
Abrahams, Peter: Revolution #9
Agee, James: A Death in the Family
Bakis, Kirsten: Lives of the Monster Dogs
Barker, Pat: The Eye in the Door
Bausch, Richard: In the Night Season
Bowles, Paul: The Sheltering Sky
Boyle, T. Coraghessan: The Tortilla Curtain
Bryson, Bill: A Walk in the Woods
Buckley, Christopher: Thank You for Smoking
Carver, Raymond: Where I’m Calling From
Chabon, Michael: Werewolves in Their Youth
Chorlton, Windsor: Latitude Zero
Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness
Constantine, K.C.: Family Values
DeMille, Nelson: The Gold Coast
Dickens, Charles: Oliver Twist
Dobyns, Stephen: Common Carnage
Dobyns, Stephen: The Church of Dead Girls
Doyle, Roddy: The Woman Who Walked into Doors
Elkin, Stanley: The Dick Gibson Show
Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
George, Elizabeth: Deception on His Mind
Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
Greene, Graham: A Gun for Sale
Greene, Graham: Our Man in Havana
Halberstam, David: The Fifties
Hamil, Pete: Why Sinatra Matters
Hoeg, Peter: Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Hunter, Stephen: Dirty White Boys
Ignatius, David: A Firing Offense
Irving, John: A Widow for One Year
Joyce, Graham: The Tooth Fairy
Judd, Alan: The Devil’s Own Work
Kahn, Roger: Good Enough to Dream
King, Tabitha: The Sky in the Water
Kingsolver, Barbara: The Poisonwood Bible
Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
Lefkowitz, Bernard: The Ignored
Maclean, Norman: A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
Maugham, W. Somerset: The Moon and Sixpence
McCarthy, Cormac: Cities of the Plain
McCarthy, Cormac: The Crossing
McCourt, Frank: Angela’s Ashes
McDermott, Alice: Charming Billy
McDevitt, Jack: Ancient Shores
McEwan, Ian: The Cement Garden
McMurtry, Larry: Dead Man’s Walk
McMurtry, Larry, and Diana Ossana: Zeke and Ned
Miller, Walter M.: A Canticle for Leibowitz
O’Brien, Tim: In the Lake of the Woods
O’Nan, Stewart: The Speed Queen
Ondaatje, Michael: The English Patient
Patterson, Richard North: No Safe Place
Proulx, Annie: Close Range: Wyoming Stories
Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News
Quindlen, Anna: One True Thing
Rendell, Ruth: A Sight for Sore Eyes
Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Schwartz, John Burnham: Reservation Road
Smith, Dinitia: The Illusionist
Tartt, Donna: The Secret History
Tyler, Anne: A Patchwork Planet
Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited
And if this list of 100 books to read is too short, King added an updated list to his new edition of “On Writing.” So here are 50+ more books that King recommends:
Adiga, Aravind: The White Tiger
Atwood, Margaret: Oryx and Crake
Black, Benjamin: Christine Falls
Blauner, Peter: The Last Good Day
Carr, David: The Night of the Gun
Chabon, Michael: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Child, Lee: The Jack Reacher novels, starting with Killing Floor
Connelly, Michael: The Narrows
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Danielewski, Mark: House of Leaves
Diaz, Junot: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Dooling, Richard: White Man’s Grave
Dubus, Andre: The Garden of Last Days
Enger, Leif: Peace Like a River
Exley, Frederick: A Fan’s Notes
Ferris, Joshua: Then We Came to the End
Franzen, Jonathan: Strong Motion
Franzen, Jonathan: The Corrections
Gardiner, Meg: The Dirty Secret Club
Goddard, Robert: Painting the Darkness
Gruen, Sara: Water for Elephants
Hall, Steven: The Raw Shark Texts
Helprin, Mark: A Soldier of the Great War
Huston, Charlie: The Hank Thompson Trilogy
Kidd, Sue Monk: The Secret Life of Bees
Klosterman, Chuck: Fargo Rock City
Larsson, Stieg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Le Carre, John: Absolute Friends
Leonard, Elmore: Up in Honey’s Room
Lethem, Jonathan: The Fortress of Solitude
Lippman, Laura: What the Dead Know
McCarthy, Cormac: No Country for Old Man
Meek, James: The People’s Act of Love
Niffenegger, Audrey: Her Fearful Symmetry
O’Brian, Patrick: The Aubrey/Maturin Novels
Oates, Joyce Carol: We Were the Mulvaneys
Pelecanos, George: Hard Revolution
Pelecanos, George: The Turnaround
Perrotta, Tom: The Abstinence Teacher
Picoult, Jodi: Nineteen Minutes
Pierre, DBC: Vernon God Little
Proulx, Annie: Fine Just the Way It Is
Roth, Philip: American Pastoral
Roth, Philip: The Plot Against America
Rushdie, Salman: Midnight’s Children
Russo, Richard: Bridge of Sighs
Sittenfeld, Curtis: American Wife
Tartt, Donna: The Little Friend
Wambaugh, Joseph: Hollywood Station
Warren, Robert Penn: All the King’s Men
Waters, Sarah: The Little Stranger
Winegardner, Mark: Crooked River Burning
Winegardner, Mark: The Godfather Returns
Wroblewski, David: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Yates, Richard: Revolutionary Road
I've read about ten books on this list so it looks like I have a lot of reading to do! But let me know how many books on this list you've read and tell me which books on this list you’d recommend reading and which you wouldn’t in the comments below!
*PS: The links on my website are Amazon affiliate links, Amazon pays me a small fee for each item purchased. Important Fact: It doesn't affect the price of your purchase at all, and it helps keep this website up and running ad-free.*
- Read my review and summary of "On Writing" here.
- Visit Stephen King's website here.
- Buy the book here!
Reader freebies
This page contains affiliate links. If you buy something through one, Alex earns a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. See the affiliate disclosure.
Before you go
I write one of these a week.
One book summary every Sunday, plus my hundred favourites when you join. Free, and read by 50,000+ people.