Books Stephen King has recommended

The reading lists at the back of Stephen King's On Writing, from its first edition and its tenth-anniversary one, and the books he has recommended to his readers online since.

240 books

Books by Stephen King →

The best-known books on the list

All 240 books, by author

AYou Will Know Me · Megan E. Abbott
A perfect crime · Peter Abrahams
End of Story · Peter Abrahams
Lights out · Peter Abrahams
Pressure drop · Peter Abrahams
Revolution #9 · Peter Abrahams
The tutor · Peter Abrahams
The White Tiger · Aravind Adiga
A Death in the Family · James Agee
The Blind Man's Garden · Nadeem Aslam
One Good Turn · Kate Atkinson
Oryx and Crake · Margaret Atwood
BLives of the monster dogs · Kirsten Bakis
Christine Falls · John Banville
Promise Falls Triology · Linwood Barclay · loved it
Regeneration · Pat Barker
The Eye in the Door · Pat Barker
The Ghost Road · Pat Barker
The Widow · Fiona Barton
In the Night Season · Richard Bausch
Fieldwork · Mischa Berlinski
The intruder · Peter Blauner
The last good day · Peter Blauner
2666 · Roberto Bolaño
The Sheltering Sky · Paul Bowles
The tortilla curtain · T. Coraghessan Boyle
Brutal youth · Anthony Breznican · loved it
A Walk in the Woods · Bill Bryson
Thank You for Smoking · Christopher Buckley
CAmnesia · Peter Carey
The night of the gun · David Carr
Killers · Howie Carr
Absolute Friends · John le Carré
Where I'm Calling From · Raymond Carver
Spartina · John Casey
The Yiddish Policemen's Union · Michael Chabon
Werewolves in their youth · Michael Chabon
The Jack Reacher novels, starting with Killing Floor · Lee Child
Latitude Zero · Windsor Chorlton
Missing You · Harlan Coben
The Narrows · Michael Connelly
The Poet · Michael Connelly
Heart of Darkness · Joseph Conrad
Family values · K. C. Constantine
The Marauders · Thomas Cooper
Big if · Mark Costello
The hours · Michael Cunningham
The Deep · Nick Cutter
DHouse of Leaves · Mark Z. Danielewski
Underworld · Don DeLillo
Cathedral · Nelson DeMille
The gold coast · Nelson DeMille
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao · Junot Díaz
Oliver Twist · Charles Dickens
Common carnage · Stephen Dobyns
The Church of Dead Girls · Stephen Dobyns
White Man's Grave · Richard Dooling
Zoo Station · David Downing
The woman who walked into doors · Roddy Doyle
IThe garden of last days · Andre Dubus III
The Dick Gibson show · Stanley Elkin
Peace like a river · Leif Enger
A fan's notes · Frederick Exley
As I Lay Dying · William Faulkner
Then we came to the end · Joshua Ferris
The fixer · Joseph Finder
Strong Motion · Jonathan Franzen
The Corrections · Jonathan Franzen
The Secret Place · Tana French
American Gods · Neil Gaiman
Crosscut · Meg Gardiner
Into the Black Nowhere · Meg Gardiner
The Dirty Secrets Club · Meg Gardiner
The Beach · Alex Garland
Frankenstorm · Ray Garton
The Long Home · William Gay
Deception on his mind · Elizabeth George
Gravity · Tess Gerritsen
Painting the Darkness · Robert Goddard
Lord of the Flies · William Golding
Gone series · Michael Grant
Furnace · Muriel Gray
A Gun for Sale · Graham Greene
Our Man in Havana · Graham Greene
Water for Elephants · Sara Gruen
Local Souls · Allan Gurganus
The Fifties · David Halberstam
The Raw Shark Texts · Steven Hall
City on fire · Garth Risk Hallberg · loved it
Why Sinatra Matters · Pete Hamill
Hannibal · Thomas Harris
Plainsong · Kent Haruf
Brighton · Michael Harvey
The Girl on the Train · Paula Hawkins
A soldier of the great war · Mark Helprin
Hex · Thomas Olde Heuvelt · loved it
Paul Simon · Robert Hilburn
Strange Weather · Joe Hill
The Fireman · Joe Hill
The Nix · Nathan Hill
The man in the picture · Susan Hill
Smilla’s Sense of Snow · Peter Høeg
Magpie Murders · Anthony Horowitz
Dirty White Boys · Stephen Hunter
A firing offense · David Ignatius
Natchez Burning Trilogy · Greg Iles
A Widow for One Year · John Irving
JTree of Smoke · Denis Johnson
The tooth fairy · Graham Joyce
The devil's own work · Alan Judd
KGood enough to dream · Roger Kahn
The Liars' Club · Mary Karr
The Hunger · Alma Katsu
Good Poems · Garrison Keillor
You · Caroline Kepnes
Right to Life · Jack Ketchum
The Secret Life of Bees · Sue Monk Kidd
Survivor · Tabitha King
The Poisonwood Bible · Barbara Kingsolver
Fargo rock city · Chuck Klosterman
How It Happened · Michael Koryta
Into Thin Air · Jon Krakauer
The Mars Room · Rachel Kushner
LThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · Stieg Larsson
To Kill a Mockingbird · Harper Lee
Our Guys · Bernard Lefkowitz
The Given Day · Dennis Lehane
World gone by · Dennis Lehane · loved it
Up in Honey's Room · Elmore Leonard
The Fortress of Solitude · Jonathan Lethem
Sunburn: A Novel · Laura Lippman
What the Dead Know · Laura Lippman
Wilde Lake · Laura Lippman · loved it
Dispatch · Bentley Little
The Ignored · Bentley Little
Day four · Sarah Lotz
MA river runs through it and other stories · Norman Maclean
The Fixer · Bernard Malamud
Life of Pi · Yann Martel
The darkest secret · Alex Marwood · loved it
The killer next door · Alex Marwood
The moon and sixpence · William Somerset Maugham
Cities of the Plain · Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men · Cormac McCarthy
The Crossing · Cormac McCarthy
Angela's Ashes · Frank McCourt
Charming Billy · Alice McDermott
Ancient shores · Jack McDevitt
Atonement · Ian McEwan
Enduring Love · Ian McEwan
The Cement Garden · Ian McEwan
Bad country · C. B. McKenzie
Dead Man's Walk · Larry McMurtry
Zeke and Ned · Larry McMurtry
I'll Be Gone in the Dark · Michelle McNamara
The people's act of love · James Meek
Fever · Deon Meyer
A Canticle for Leibowitz · Walter M. Miller Jr
Slade House · David Mitchell · loved it
Big Little Lies · Liane Moriarty
Darktown · Thomas Mullen · loved it
NHer Fearful Symmetry · Audrey Niffenegger
OThe Aubrey/Maturin Novels · Patrick O'Brian
In the Lake of the Woods · Tim O'Brien
The Good Wife · Stewart O'Nan
The speed queen · Stewart O'Nan
We were the Mulvaneys · Joyce Carol Oates
Zombie · Joyce Carol Oates
The English Patient · Michael Ondaatje
The Quick · Lauren Owen
PDoing harm · Kelly Parsons · loved it
State of Wonder · Ann Patchett · loved it
No safe place · Richard North Patterson
The Accident · Chris Pavone
White bone · Ridley Pearson
Hard revolution · George P. Pelecanos
The turnaround · George P. Pelecanos
Red Moon · Benjamin Percy · loved it
The Abstinence Teacher · Tom Perrotta
Nineteen Minutes · Jodi Picoult
Vernon Little God · D. B. C. Pierre
Behind her eyes · Sarah Pinborough
Freedomland · Richard Price
Close Range · Annie Proulx
Fine Just the Way It Is · Annie Proulx
The Shipping News · Annie Proulx
QOne true thing · Anna Quindlen
RSight for Sore Eyes, A · Ruth Rendell
Waiting · Frank M. Robinson
Close Your Eyes · Michael Robotham
Shatter · Michael Robotham
American Pastoral · Philip Roth
The Plot Against America · Philip Roth
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 · J. K. Rowling
Midnight's Children · Salman Rushdie
Bridge of Sighs · Richard Russo
Empire Falls · Richard Russo
Mohawk · Richard Russo
SFinal Girls · Riley Sager
Golden Prey · John Sandford
Dominion · C. J. Sansom · loved it
Reservation Road · John Burnham Schwartz
A Suitable Boy · Vikram Seth
The Young Lions · Irwin Shaw
Drood · Dan Simmons
The Terror · Dan Simmons
American wife · Curtis Sittenfeld
The crater · Richard Slotkin
The illusionist · Dinitia Smith
Child 44 · Tom Rob Smith
Voodoo Heart · Scott Snyder
Men in Black · Scott Spencer
Joe Hill · Wallace Stegner
Quicksilver · Neal Stephenson
Those girls · Chevy Stevens
The Niceville trilogy · Carsten Stroud · loved it
TMy Absolute Darling: A Novel · Gabriel Tallent
The Little Friend · Donna Tartt
The Secret History · Donna Tartt
War and Peace · Leo Tolstoy
A Head Full of Ghosts · Paul Tremblay · loved it
Disappearance at Devil's Rock · Paul Tremblay
The Cabin at the End of the World · Paul Tremblay
The Chalk Man · C. J. Tudor
A Patchwork Planet · Anne Tyler
VThe Southern Reach Trilogy · Jeff VanderMeer · loved it
Hocus Pocus Or, What's the Hurry, Son? · Kurt Vonnegut
WHollywood Station · Joseph Wambaugh
All the King's Men · Robert Penn Warren
The Little Stranger · Sarah Waters
The paying guests · Sarah Waters
Brideshead Revisited · Evelyn Waugh
The ax · Donald E. Westlake
The Underground Railroad · Colson Whitehead
Crooked river burning · Mark Winegardner
The force · Don Winslow · loved it
The story of Edgar Sawtelle · David Wroblewski
YRevolutionary road · Richard Yates

Titles we couldn't find (3)

These are on the list too, but they have no page here yet.

The Godfather Review · Mark Winegardner · no copy found online
The Hank Thompson Trilogy · Charlie Huston · no copy found online
The Sky in the Water · Tabitha King · no copy found online

Source: Stephen King, On Writing (2000 and 2010), as reprinted by Aerogramme Writers' Studio