 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to Top 5 Friday. We're in front of the King's shelves, so you know what that means. This is a Stephen King themed list. Today we are talking about the top 5 non-horror Stephen King books. I'm going to try and limit these, I think I have, to books that there was no intention to horrify you. There might be, of course, violence. There might be graphic situations. There might be things that did horrify you, but the intention of the book as a whole, or the story as a whole, was not to horrify you. So right off the bat, we are going to get to, now I took this with a broad brush stroke. I went through and I checked everything he has. I almost put dunce, macabre, how do you pronounce that word? I almost put that on this list, but I'm not a huge fan of it. I think I gave it around 3 stars, but I did put a non-fiction on there and on here, and that is on writing. Whether or not you are a writer, this is a terrific memoir. In fact, it is a better memoir than it is a tool to learn how to write, or the mechanics of writing. King basically just goes through his life and his process and describes what he has done over time, how he got to where he is, and it is a terrific story. It is, of course, non-fiction. Like I said, it is a memoir, but I think some of the best parts of this is, at first, it gives a new writer confidence. He gives you the okay to screw up constantly. He cements the idea in your head that all of this stuff is just practice until you publish. He also says, if you sell something and someone then sends you, if you write a story and then someone sends you a check for it, he considers you talented, which is something that helped me out when I was struggling with whether or not I was good enough to be doing this job. Next up, we have Hearts in Atlantis at number 4, and it's the title, Novela with Ted Brodigan. I don't know why, I always want to call him something else, but I think it's Ted Brodigan. The emotional level of detail here, this is fantastic writing. He did something special with this book that I can't put a finger on. It's not that much different than any of his other stuff. There's almost no point to this book, and it's by far the most literary thing he's ever written, because the cohesion of, I can't find a single theme other than maybe growth and loss throughout the entire book, which is something that he's played on over and over and over again throughout his career, you know, growing up and losing things. But it seems so, none of this stuff adheres to each other. None of the stories I don't think, I don't think they adhere to each other, but it is still a fantastic experience. I like, of course, Hearts in Atlantis, the opening novella, I like more than the short stories afterward. And that's another thing that's weird about this one, is not even King knows how to classify it. I remember in an interview listening to him talk about this book, he said, whatever it is. And that's pretty much how I feel about it. But Hearts in Atlantis, I don't feel that there's anything in there that's supposed to horrify you. There is a horrific scene of violence. I think it's horrific anyways. Anything involving children in violence, I think it's horrific. But the intention of the entire thing, I don't feel it was too, to horrify, offend, disgust, any of that stuff. I think it was meant to be a heartfelt story, Hearts in Atlantis. So the next two are going to be in the same book. I know you guys are going to see it coming. I know that, of course, we're going into different seasons. The first one is Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne's character is amazing red. I like everybody in the book. I especially like how the book wraps up. It is not often that we get a happy ending. Now, Brooks he doesn't get a happy ending, but it's not every day that we get such a pleasant ending from Stephen King. And this book is full of unpleasant endings. But there's something about the way Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is written that reminds me a lot like, and it came before, but Dolores Claiborne is written in that same conversational tone that makes you just feel like you're sitting down and talking to an old friend. And I've said this before time and time again. It's like listening to an agent wisened storyteller tell you a story. It's a master craftsman doing his best work. And Rita, why didn't I put this up at the top then? You'll see in a minute. But the next up we have what this cover tie-in is for. I don't know why. I like this edition, even though it's a, sorry, cover tie-in, movie tie-in. Stand by me. I like this, even though I don't like this artwork. I like this cover of the book. That doesn't make any sense, but I do. I like this. I don't like the boys running across the thing, but I like this version of, I think it's maybe the colors is what, I mean the color, color file? I don't even know that is word, but it's the almost pink writing of different seasons and then the blacks and the blues and everything just just makes me feel, you know, all warm and fuzzy. But anyway, stand by me. I put that just very, if I had to say both of these stories, novellas, books, whatever you want to call them, are kind of tied at number two and there really is no number three. Because stand by me, I love it for the same reason that I love Rita Hayworth in the Shawshank Redemption. Now I would put at people on here, if it was, because these three are just kind of tied. Funny, oddly enough, I like the breathing method the most in this book, but that is definitely a horror story. I feel that it's supposed to scare you. It's supposed to disturb you at the very least. It did me, I'm not sure why. I guess it was the simplicity of it, but we're talking about the body. I said stand by me like 18 times. It's the body is what I'm talking about. I got Stephen King fans out of here, it's called the body. But you have, you have these four kids that are so close. Anytime you get four kids together and they start, you know, ragging on each other and picking on each other and just have that easy back and forth that King does so well, man. I am locked in for good. But again, it is a master craftsman doing what he does best and that's telling you a story. Anything could have happened in here other than them finding a dead body. That's not the point of the story. The point of the story are these kids. It's friendship and by the end it's the loss of innocence. It's an amazing tale, I think, and the movie Stand By Me, The Adaptation is one of my favorite movies of all time. But I didn't put App Pupil on this list because I also feel that that one, and we need to discuss this. Do you guys think that that's a horror story or do you think it's a non-horror story? I think there's too much in that book that is horrific to call it. I think the whole idea of that book is to horrify you. So it doesn't go on the list. We would have had an honorable mention with probably on writing is what would have happened because App Pupil would have been there at the end. Last, certainly not least, my number one non-horror King book is Leasy Story. I thought it was going to be Elevation Hunt. I'm kidding. Leasy Story is amazing. I know guys, I know you hate the way she makes up words. I know you hate so many things about this. I know so many people think it's boring, but this is my list. This is my opinion, and this book is fucking amazing. From word one to the end, now mind you, I understand you people that hate this book because when I first read this book, I hated it too. It was only upon rereading it after I had seen some modicum of success and I got married and I had kids and all that came together, the domesticity of it came together that I understood where he was coming from with this book and I got to thinking about it and even now it kind of breaks me up. The way Leasy takes care of Scott afterward, and I don't remember character names all that often, but I remember every single detail of this book. The way she takes care of Scott after it destroyed me because my wife had to take care of me after I first hurt my back. That's a long story, but there's so many things, so many boxes checked in this book for me that it brings back such heartfelt memories, some good, some bad, some traumatic, even horrifying, but at the end of the day it's the love of these two characters that shines through and it's probably the only good love story that King has ever written and most of it's not on screen. What I mean is you find out about the love story afterwards and that's the best part of this book for me and that's why it's my number one. Leave your top five non-horror Stephen King books. Again, books that you think are not meant to be horrifying. If you put something up there that everybody else thinks is horror but you're not, please give an explanation why I would love to talk to you about that kind of thing. I talked to one person who said Pet Cemetery isn't horror and I thought that was funny. We had a nice long discussion, but I would love to talk to people who think some of his horror work isn't actually horror, isn't actually meant to be horror. But until next time, I have been E, you have been E. This has been Top Five Friday. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye.