The Shining

  I have always been a Stephen King fan, right after I saw The Shawshank Redemption film. I was so fascinated by that film I had a look for the guy who wrote the story the film was based on. I was 15 when I first read Stephen King. Of course I knew the name but when I was that young I was never interested in books the way I am now. I did used to read but I never got the pleasure I get from them now. I remember the first 'grown-up' book I read when I was only 12- Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, a big big book for a kid. It was more than 600 pages and it was a life-time story of a family. Since then I started reading like crazy, I would sometimes read 3 books at a time- one during the day before school, one while I was in class and a third one before bed. My obssession with books started when I got my hands on Jane Austin's books- I had to read them all, and I am quite proud of myself for reading almost all of them. I have always loved reading but it wasn't until I started reading Ayn Rand when I found who I was and who I wanted to be. John Steinbeck thought me to love people, Hemingway thought me that there is beauty even in the unfortunate, Jack London showed me the power of being yourself and never giving up. So many other authors that have becomed my friends, my personal close friends. But it was Stephen King who inspired me to try and write. Writing does not come naturally, you need to learn, to find a way to put the words that are in your head on a piece of paper or a Word.doc; there is an art behind it, it may take years and years to master it. Just because you have the imagination and the stories in your head doesn't mean you can write them down. It is hard.

  
  Anyway, I just read the Shining. I never thought a book can scare you the same way The Ring used to scare you when you were a kid (saying 'when you were a kid' because it is too embaressing to admit you still sh*t yourself at the thought of that little girl). What I loved about the book is that it gave you the same 'jump' scares just like a real horror film, which is quite hard to achieve in a book. It was hard to believe that he managed to write those scary bits as good as he did- building a tension, suspend and then one sentence that makes you jump out of your skin. It is hard to explain it in a post, but I will give an example. I was reading the bit with the dead lady in the tub when I felt the urge to go to the loo; it was 4 in the morning and my boyfriend was asleep next to me. I had to wake him up and ask him to stay infront of the open door of the loo so I can do my thing... It was that terrifying-no lights in the flat would have given me the illusion of safety.
  All in all no one is as good as Stephen King, he is not just the master of horror literature, he is simply good at everything he does. He can makes you so scared you are going to need assistance to go get a glass of water at night, he will also make you cry at the beautiful stories he tells you about and make you care about the characters. Everyone knows John Coffey and Andy Dufrense- you just cannot NOT care about them. 
  I just wish one day I can meet Stephen King just to say THANK YOU.