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The Shining by Stephen King

21 replies

ElektraLOL · 19/04/2019 21:02

I love this! I wish I'd read it before. It's so much better than the film (which I also loved)

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Mookie81 · 20/04/2019 21:52

Read 'Rose Madder' and 'The eye of the Dragon', both excellent.

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ElektraLOL · 20/04/2019 20:44

Yes there is way touch padding in IT and it actually obscures the narrative for me...

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sashh · 20/04/2019 04:36

There is a sequel, set many years later, I think it's called 'Dr sleep', something like that anyway.

I have never seen the film.

beansonbread · 20/04/2019 04:14

I love Stephen King books! My favourites are definitely Misery, Cell, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Long Walk, Carrie, The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption.

I enjoyed most of IT but just found it way too long and just wanted it to be over from about 2/3 in.

The first King book I read was Carrie when I was about 13 and I was hooked from then on in. Really need to read some of his newer stuff.

JAPAB · 20/04/2019 02:39

Cell is possibly my favourite of his modern stuff. It also has my favourite opening chapter of his books. Such a convincing portrayal of an apocalyptic event.

Everything's Eventual is a must because while most of the stories I felt a bit meh about, The Man In The Black Suit and 1408 are great. The latter, particularly, might be the creepiest thing of his I can remember reading.

icannotremember · 19/04/2019 22:19

Different Seasons is a collection of four novellas, worth a read but pretty disturbing at times. Some of the stories in Just After Sunset are very creepy too.

Room101isWhereIUsedtoLive · 19/04/2019 22:15

Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a must read Stephen King imo. Fabulously rendered short stories that vary so much.

icannotremember · 19/04/2019 22:14

I love so many of his books. Delores Claiborne, The Dead Zone, Needful Things, The Stand... Some of the stuff he wrote as Richard Bachman is brilliant too. The Long Walk I first read aged 16 and more than 29 years on it still gives me the chills.

pallisers · 19/04/2019 22:12

Misery scares me

I listened to Misery as an audiobook and I can still remember screaming out loud in the car on the way home from the school drop off :)

I also highly recommend King's On Writing which is part memoir and part guidance on how to write.

user1469530553 · 19/04/2019 22:08

Love Stephen King! Fire starter, the dead zone, the shining, the stand. He does have a tendency to waffle in the bigger books, though. I think he suffered from the phenomenon many writers do where they have huge success, and they don’t seem to be edited so rigorously. He’s got better again though.

BabloHoney · 19/04/2019 21:44

The film and the book are very different. The Shining is one of my favourites books, it’s absolutely terrifying but so much more then just a horror book. I was quite young when I first read it, and as the child of an alcoholic parent, I found the way it described Danny’s experiences and the ways he coped with his Dad’s drinking so so haunting and so so brilliant.

BlueMerchant · 19/04/2019 21:42

Love Stephen King although I prefer the horror rather than his more recent science fiction genre (Dark Tower et Al)
Love IT (the first King I read. It got me hooked)
Love The Green Mile.
Actually I love most of them and often re-read the short stories collections.
Agree The Shining is great and was eager to read Doctor Sleep but if I'm honest I had such high hopes that I was a little disappointed.
Needful Things is also fab.
I could go on.....Smile

swampytiggaa · 19/04/2019 21:36

Misery scares me 😂😂😂 As does Pet Semetary and Cujo. Love the Shining and It and Salem’s Lot. Not keen on his newer stuff tbh.

BloomsButtons · 19/04/2019 21:33

The Stand is brilliant and I love Misery.

Needful Things is good too but read it after 'Salem's Lot.

swampytiggaa · 19/04/2019 21:31

I love The Stand 🙂 I read it every couple of years 🙂

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ElektraLOL · 19/04/2019 21:28

Yeah I imagine most people have seen the film first. Kubrick has his own unique style anyway. I'm not sure Jack Nicholson is the same Jack I see in the book although I did like him in the film because he did the black humour so well.

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pallisers · 19/04/2019 21:09

It is the first Stephen King I read (relatively recently) and I was rivited by it (and agree Dr. Strange is a wonderful sequel). I loved nearly everything else of his I've since read too. Apparently King himself hates the kubrick version of the book.

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ElektraLOL · 19/04/2019 21:09

Oh and Carrie of course.

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Original poster
ElektraLOL · 19/04/2019 21:08

Oh really? I think Ewan McGregor would be great as Danny. Salem's Lot is on my list next. The only Stephen King I've read so far is IT (really good but I got irritated by the long discourses about newspaper articles and historical disasters) and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon which I thought was really suspenseful.

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StoorieHoose · 19/04/2019 21:04

Read Doctor Sleep once you have finished the Shining. Film coming out of that too. Think Ewan McGregor plays Danny

BillywilliamV · 19/04/2019 21:03

Prefer Salem’s Lot...terrifying

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