King is a good story teller. I own all of his books, except the most recent because I wait for them to go paperback these days. Unfortunately, like so many artists, much of his best inspiration came via chemicals, and when he gave up the drugs his furiously paced prose fell off. Being nearly killed in a car accident (He was walking and got hit by a drunk) a few years ago didn't help either. Desperation was an odd kind of companion novel to one he wrote as Bachman called The Regulators.

It is by far my favorite King book.

Four Past Midnight is another good set of short stories/novellas that are good, as are the previously mentioned collections (Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and Everything's Eventual are the rest of his collections as far as I remember off the top of my head).

Salem's Lot and Carrie are very good, from among his older works.

I'd recommend the first three in the Gunslinger series, but the rest fall off from the premise as he goes too long between picking up the pen. Still good books, but not the same driven brilliance as the first two in particular.