The Shining....

Last night I finished reading The Shining.  It was good amazing.  I was hooked from the first chapter; then, Saturday night I stayed up until 1:30 so I could figure out how it ended.  Didn't feel so great when I got up for church the next morning but it was well worth it. 

"One of the advantages of reading books is that you get to play with someone else's imaginary friends, at all hours of the night."  ~Dr. SunWolf

The book focuses on the Torrance family.  Jack, the father, loses his job after losing his temper.  His previous alcoholism complicates the matter.  Because the money situation becomes desperate, his friend Al sets him up with a job interview at the Overlook hotel.  He takes the job as winter caretaker.  Because the hotel is situated high in the Rockies, it's unreachable during winter.  Jack's job is to stay there all winter, heating and caring for the building and ensuring it isn't robbed.  His family understands the importance of the job but isn't thrilled.  His son, Danny, who has psychic visions, knows that the place is haunted.  However, Danny doesn't want to ruin the opportunity for his father.  Once they are locked in for the winter, they discover the hotel's bloody history and encounter angry spirits.  The terrors of the hotel continue to the very end of the book. 
Although I'd read some of Steven King's short stories, this was the first time that I'd read one of his novels.  He is a truly talented writer; the imagery was amazing.  The surprises of the story never stopped and I could easily picture everything he wrote.  His ideas were chilling.  During the especially scary parts I could feel my heart racing as I worried about the characters whom I had become so attached to.

"A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end.  You live several lives while reading it."  ~William Styron
 After contemplating all the scary movies I've watched, I've become almost positive that horror novels affect me much more than horror movies... I think I've found a new addiction.

"Never judge a book by its movie."  ~J.W. Eagan

"To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."  ~Edmund Burke

"A house without books is like a room without windows."  ~Heinrich Mann

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life."  ~W. Somerset Maugham

"The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts."  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." ~Groucho Marx

Happy Monday (:

 (hahaha)