It took me quite a long time to finish The Shining. According to Goodreads, I started it on the 4th and finished it on the 28th. That's unusual for me, and not just compared to Rage, which I started on the 30th and finished earlier today, the 31st.
The Shining was Stephen King's third published novel, following Carrie and 'salem's Lot. Rage was his fourth, though he actually started playing with the idea while still in high school. In contrast, he began Carrie after college (uni).
I've never even seen the movie of The Shining - which, apparently, is not a very faithful adaptation anyway - so I came to it completely fresh. I don't know why I found it so hard to get through. It's not like I abandoned it and then came back and read it in chunks; I just read a chapter or two a night every other day. That's very unusual for me. During that same time period I read quite a few other books, but if I'd left one this long without finishing, I normally would have just given up.
Rage, on the other hand, I'd read before. As I said, it was started when Stephen King was in high school, and published in 1977, three years after Carrie and the same year as The Shining. It was published under the name Richard Bachman, and my edition of The Bachman Books has an essay on "Why I was Bachman". Essentially, it has to do with wondering if his success was pure luck or talent, and with wanting to publish more than his publishers deemed necessary. In the essay, Stephen King describes how The Beatles dreamt of just going for an anonymous tour as Randy and the Rockets.
"They would wear hokey capes and masks a la Count Five, he said, so no one would recognise them, and they would just have a rave-up, like in the old days.
When the interviewer suggested they would be recognised by their voices, Paul seemed at first startled...and then a bit appalled."
Later in the essay, King points out that the Beatles would have been recognised before they even opened their mouths, by George's guitar licks. Since day one, he's been getting letters asking if he was Richard Bachman.
Since Bachman died of cancer-of-the-pseudonym in 1985, three years before I was born, I have never not known that Bachman and King were the same person. So I can't comment on whether I would have guessed or not.
The next book on the list is Night Shift, a collection of short stories King published in a variety of magazines - including playboy - throughout the previous years.
Some edits, while I remember;
King's goal, with The Shining was to write more than simple horror. To have a character driven by inner demons as well as outer ones. The film is a very unfaithful adaptation, but this does come across in the book.
Rage was withdrawn from publication following several real school shootings which made King uncomfortable with continuing to publish. I have it in an old edition of The Bachman Books, and it seems like it's also available in the Kindle edition of that book.
The Shining was Stephen King's third published novel, following Carrie and 'salem's Lot. Rage was his fourth, though he actually started playing with the idea while still in high school. In contrast, he began Carrie after college (uni).
I've never even seen the movie of The Shining - which, apparently, is not a very faithful adaptation anyway - so I came to it completely fresh. I don't know why I found it so hard to get through. It's not like I abandoned it and then came back and read it in chunks; I just read a chapter or two a night every other day. That's very unusual for me. During that same time period I read quite a few other books, but if I'd left one this long without finishing, I normally would have just given up.
Rage, on the other hand, I'd read before. As I said, it was started when Stephen King was in high school, and published in 1977, three years after Carrie and the same year as The Shining. It was published under the name Richard Bachman, and my edition of The Bachman Books has an essay on "Why I was Bachman". Essentially, it has to do with wondering if his success was pure luck or talent, and with wanting to publish more than his publishers deemed necessary. In the essay, Stephen King describes how The Beatles dreamt of just going for an anonymous tour as Randy and the Rockets.
"They would wear hokey capes and masks a la Count Five, he said, so no one would recognise them, and they would just have a rave-up, like in the old days.
When the interviewer suggested they would be recognised by their voices, Paul seemed at first startled...and then a bit appalled."
Later in the essay, King points out that the Beatles would have been recognised before they even opened their mouths, by George's guitar licks. Since day one, he's been getting letters asking if he was Richard Bachman.
Since Bachman died of cancer-of-the-pseudonym in 1985, three years before I was born, I have never not known that Bachman and King were the same person. So I can't comment on whether I would have guessed or not.
The next book on the list is Night Shift, a collection of short stories King published in a variety of magazines - including playboy - throughout the previous years.
Some edits, while I remember;
King's goal, with The Shining was to write more than simple horror. To have a character driven by inner demons as well as outer ones. The film is a very unfaithful adaptation, but this does come across in the book.
Rage was withdrawn from publication following several real school shootings which made King uncomfortable with continuing to publish. I have it in an old edition of The Bachman Books, and it seems like it's also available in the Kindle edition of that book.
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