We all Shine on....

So I recently learned that if you tell a Stephen King fan that you liked one of his books they will undoubtedly thrust more upon you. Not that that is a bad thing, he is an incredible writer but reading two King novels practically back to back is a little wearing on one's soul.

A friend of mine from work lent me The Shining and I have to say I was a little apprehensive at first because I love the movie and I figured this would be a boring read since I knew what was going to happen. This was definitely not the case. The Shining the book is really nothing like Kubrick's The Shining; It's better. Not only does it have more background on the characters, more terrifying parts and a completely different angle on Jack's madness, it has a different ending! Plus just to push the differences further: Jack's trademark line "HERE'S JOHNNY" was an improvisation of Jack Nicholson and is not even in the book.

I've always been a little pigheaded when it comes to reading horror novels. I mean, its my mind and I can picture it as scary as I want it to be. This book shut me up. I had nightmares from this book and my eyes were always wide with terror when reading it on the subway.

After reading it I did a little research on how King came up with the concept and its a really interesting story. Apparently he had set his previous two novels in his hometown of Maine so he wanted a change of scenery. King flipped through an atlas and his finger landed on Boulder Colorado so he moved his entire family there. While he was there, him and his wife decided they needed to get away so they went to the Stanley Hotel (This is the hotel that King later filmed his T.V. adaptation of the Shining). When they got there, they were the only two guests due to the fact the hotel was prepping for its off-season. They stayed in room 217 and while King's wife slept he explored the hotel and had a drink at the bar with the bartender, Grady. He stayed up and finished the bones of the book that night. Seriously, it practically wrote itself.

Anyways I recommend this book to anyone who wants to send a shiver down their spine. It can get a little over-descriptive at times but King will take you for quite a ride. My suggestion though, if you haven't watched the movie watch it first and then read the book. I give it 4 Tony fingers up out of 5!