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Standalone Books in Order
Below you'll find the complete list of Standalone books in publication order. This is generally the recommended reading order for the series.
Reading order verified: April 2026
Quick Answer
What order should I read the Standalone series? Start with "Act of Love" (1981) and follow publication order through all 82 books.
The complete Standalone reading order is listed below in publication sequence.
Publication Order
Act of Love
1981
Texas Night Riders
1983
The Magic Wagon
1986
The Nightrunners
1987
Cold in July
1989
The Boar
1998
Freezer Burn
1999
The Bottoms
2000
The Big Blow
2000
Bubba Ho-Tep
2002
A Fine Dark Line
2003
Sunset and Sawdust
2003
Lost Echoes
2005
Leather Maiden
2008
All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky
2011
Edge of Dark Water
2012
The Thicket
2013
Deadman's Crossing
2013
I Tell You It's Love
2014
Paradise Sky
2015
Fender Lizards
2015
Hell's Bounty
2016
M.I.A. Hunter
2016
Bubba and the Cosmic Blood-Suckers
2017
Man With Two Lives
2018
Driving to Geronimo's Grave
2018
More Better Deals
2020
Jane Goes North
2020
Fishing for Dinosaurs and Other Stories
2020
Moon Lake
2021
Radiant Apples
2021
The Events Concerning
2022
The Donut Legion
2023
Night They Missed the Horror Show
1988
Love Doll
1991
Tight Little Stitches on a Dead Man's Back
1992
The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance
1992
The Folding Man
2010
Dread Island
2010
Bullets and Fire
2011
The Steel Valentine
2011
Incident On and Off a Mountain Road
2011
The Ape Man's Brother
2012
Christmas with the Dead
2012
Hot in December
2013
A Bone Dead Sadness
2014
Black Hat Jack
2014
Fishing for Dinosaurs
2014
Hoodoo Harry
2017
Apache Witch and Other Poetic Observations
2021
Shooting Star
2023
The Unlikely Affair of the Crawling Razor
2024
By Bizarre Hands
1989
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with the Dead Folks
1991
Bestsellers Guaranteed
1993
Writer of the Purple Rage
1994
Electric Gumbo
1994
A Fist Full of Stories
1996
The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent
1997
Private Eye Action as You Like It
1998
The Long Ones
2000
High Cotton
2000
For a Few Stories More
2002
Bumper Crop
2004
Mad Dog Summer
2004
The King and Other Stories
2005
The God of the Razor
2007
Deadman's Road
2007
The Shadows, Kith and Kin
2007
Sanctified and Chicken-Fried
2009
Unchained And Unhinged
2009
The Best of Joe R. Lansdale
2010
Written With a Razor - Short Stories and a Screenplay
2012
Trapped in the Saturday Matinee
2012
Bleeding Shadows
2013
The Tall Grass and Other Stories / After the People Lights Have Gone Off
2014
Terror Is Our Business
2018
Driving to Geronimo's Grave and Other Stories
2018
Gothic Wounds
2022
Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Fiction of Joe R. Lansdale
2023
In the Mad Mountains
2024
The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale
2025
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