The Shining...

...ranks up there as one of my favorite Stephen King books. This marks my third time reading it, at least. This is also one of the best slow building horror stories. There are glimpses from the beginning of what is to come, but the suspense just builds and builds and builds. The suspense is better done in this book than in 'Salems Lot, perhaps because there was no sense of what was to come, only what had been. Either way, King gives just enough gnaw at the edge of you imagination.

Kubrick's adaptation of this novel remains the best book to screen adaptation, in my opinion, of all of King's books, and perhaps most book to screen adaptations. He gets the mood just right, gives you enough to dive in a little deeper and just when you think it is getting a little repetitive, BANG, to dead girls show up. It is such a great adaptation that I hardly miss the parts that did not make the movie (no spoilers). I have seen this movie way too many times to count, I own it on DVD, and even once went to see a midnight showing of it at the University of Arizona.

The Inspiration:
In late September of 1974, Tabby and I spent a night at a grand old hotel in Estes Park, the Stanley. We were the only guests as it turned out; the following day they were going to close the place down for the winter. Wandering through its corridors, I thought that it seemed the perfect—maybe the archetypical—setting for a ghost story. That night I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a fire-hose. I woke up with a tremendous jerk, sweating all over, within an inch of falling out of bed. I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in the chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind.

In case were wondering, because I know that you were, the book pictures that I have selected are the covers that I have. I don't know if it is rare or not, but this book is a silver and reflective cover - one of my favorite covers. I got it because it was shiney.

So, how many times have you read this book/seen this movie?