The Shining

Once again, this is one of the books that I have already read. I’m not sure whether I saw the film before reading the book, although I’ve certainly seen it since. Perhaps I merely knew the basics, particularly the “Here’s Johnny!” scene and picked up the book at home (my parents seemed to have quite a few decent books lying around when I was young (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Kramer Vs Kramer are ones I remember most clearly – maybe they only read novels that had been adapted to film, who knows), although they’ve never been what you’d call readers. These days, such a description would be doing them a disservice as, my mum particularly, consistently has a book on the go.

Anyway, the reason I mention the film is that it’s barely possible to conceive of the novel without the image of Jack Nicholson in your head as well as so many of the scenes from the seminal film. I’m going to do my best to separate the two as I re-read it, concentrating more on the writing and allowing myself to follow the story as Stephen King told it. Only then will I go back to the film and try to see that in as great a degree of isolation as possible.

Out of the books I’ve already read and those of which I haven’t, but know something about, this is one that I’m most looking forward to and will be opening myself up for.