This was the very first Stephen King book I ever read. The situation is so unique and suspenseful the pages just flew by and I couldn't stop reading. 
 Paul Sheldon is a famous author. He is crippled in a car crash, but thankfully he ends up in the home of a former nurse, Annie Wilkes, who takes care of him while he recovers. Too bad Annie turns out to be every writer's worst nightmare: the obsessed fan. 
 A very character-driven book, Misery is about Paul's struggle to stay alive while he is at the mercy of his paranoid and maniac-depressed host. King succeeds in putting the reader in the middle of her instability right along with Paul. We're just as much at the mercy of her erratic mood swings as he is. You never know what she's going to do next, and come to realize she is capable of anything under that friendly exterior. Makes for nail-biting suspense. 
 At the heart of the book is something very personal for Stephen King: the power of writing. The book is about how Paul uses writing to keep his sanity. Over and over while the world crashes down around him, he takes solace in his fictional world to keep himself sane. It's a grand subtext that's even more powerful than the interaction between the characters. 
 Misery is an absolutely suspenseful story. It's amazing how so much can happen without ever leaving the house. If you read only one Stephen King book, let it be this one. It's for the fans. 
 For a book-to-movie comparison, check out my blog.