Stephen King has revealed which of his many, many stories are his favorites.
"My favorite short story would be called Survivor Type, which was about a physician who gets stranded on a little island, and he's smuggling heroin and he's starving, so he eats himself piece by piece," the prolific writer told Stephen Colbert, adding: "I like Misery, the novel Misery, a lot, that was kind of fun, it was a fun book to write… I like Lisey's Story very much, it's a series, it's now streaming on Apple Plus, and I held onto that for a long time. The Stand, and there was one called Stand By Me – The Body. And Billy Summers, my current one."
All of these titles bar Billy Summers have been adapted into movies or TV shows, with Kathy Bates famously bringing Misery's superfan Annie Wilkes to life in the 1990 film, which also starred James Caan as Paul Sheldon, the writer she idolizes. Stand By Me, the beloved classic about a group of young friends trekking to see a dead body, which stars River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, and Kiefer Sutherland, was first a short story titled The Body.
Lisey's Story, meanwhile, is now an Apple TV Plus series starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen, and sees a widow dealing with both an obsessed stalker, and repressed memories that surface following her husband's death. Survivor Type has been adapted five times – and The Stand, which follows the survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic, has been turned into a miniseries twice.
Surprisingly, some of King's most iconic works, like The Shining, Carrie, It, Pet Semetary, or the Dark Tower series, didn't make the list. That's somewhat understandable, though, considering the sheer number of novels and short stories King has written across his career.
If you're in the mood for a fright, check out our roundup of the best horror movies of all time.
