I watched the movies, the Jack Nicholson one and the made for tv one, then I read the book. Even with watching the movies first the book was excellent. I was scared even though at times I knew what may have happened and there were other surprises. The book was just a simple demonstration of Stephen King's excellent writing. i have recommended this book to all my friends that have not read it and they have loved it too. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys some surprises every once in a while.

THE SHINING READER IS A COLLECTION OF 15 CRITICAL ESSAYS ON STEPHEN KING's THE SHINING EDITED BY ANTHONY MAGISTRALE. THE ESSAYS ARE BROKEN DOWN INTO THREE CATEGORIES : THE SHINING AS TEXT (6), THE SHINING's LITERARY TRADITION (6). AND THE SHINING AS FILM (3). WHILE THIS MIGHT BE A LITTLE MUCH FOR THE CASUAL FAN, IT IS GEARED MORE TO THE HARDCORE KING/SHINING FAN LURKING INSIDE SOME OF US. WHEN THIS OUT OF PRINT BOOK SHOWED UP IN MY MAILBOX, I COULDN'T WAIT TO FINISH WHAT I WAS CURRENTLY READING SO THAT I COULD BEGIN THIS ONE. TO MAKE THINGS EVEN MORE INTERESTING, A COPY OF ABC's THE SHINING MINISERIES ON VHS ARRIVED TO FURTHER ENGROSS ME IN ALL THINGS SHINING. A FAN? SURE BUT THAT'S WHO THIS LITTLE BIT OF EXTRA CREDIT IS FOR. IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, IT WAS WORTH FINDING THIS OUT OF PRINT BOOK TO SATISFY THAT GUILTY LITTLE LITERARY PLEASURE SHORT OF READING THE ORIGINAL BOOK ONE MORE TIME.

In the past few years there seems to have been an explosion of commentary on horror fiction, but the quality of that commentary has been uneven. Some works seem more interested in "justifying" horror as a legitmate genre--they do more cheerleading and gushing than really insightful writing. I find much commentary on King to fall into this category (particularly, Winter's THE ART OF DARKNESS and some commentary on the genre done by Clive Barker). Others are so full of inflated scholarly jargon that it's hard to fight your way through the prose to figure out what the ideas are. Nina Auerbach's OUR VAMPIRES, OURSELVES comes to mind here.

A DARK NIGHT'S DREAMING falls somewhere in the middle. For the most part, this collection is quite readable, but the quality of the essays is uneven. I found little new or insightful in the background essays on the genre or on the influence of film, and that was disappointing. I was also disappointed in the chapter on King. On the other hand, I thought two of the chapters were very good--the one on William Peter Bladdy--which mixed some biographical background with commentary on the novel and the movie adaption of THE EXORCIST quite skillfully. And the chapter on Thomas Harris which really led me to think about THE RED DRAGON and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in a different light--and especially to think about the popularity of "serial killer" fiction and how it fits into the horror genre.

One could hope for a better collection overall, but this one certainly had its moments.