Thoughts 
The Shining by Stephen King, Audio & First Anchor Books Mass Market Edition July 2012 (orig 1977), 15 hrs 49 min – 659 pages
For the February #ShineOn Readalong hosted by Softdrink at Fizzythoughts.com 
FAVORITE CHARACTER: Dick Hallorann
FAVORITE POEM: ”The night is dark / the stars are high / a disembodied custard pie / is floating in the sky . . . “ p.?
FAVORITE TOPIARY: The bunny rabbit. 
(snow covered Topiary Garden in Lakeville MA)
LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTER CONNECTION: I couldn’t get the actress from the movie out of my head until it said in the book she was blonde. That helped me knock image out of the visual.
Shelly Duvall
INTERESTING WEATHER CONNECTION: Thankfully, I had finished this before Winter Storm Nemo hit but the heavy snow and high windy conditions sure reminded me of Hallorann’s drive up to the Overlook Hotel. (That’s not a spoiler, is it?)
OK, I’m now ready to watch the movie in its entirety. Has anyone seen the 1997 version with Rebecca DeMornay and… our awesome STEVEN WEBER?!?! 
RATING: Three slices of Custard Pie.
HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine
I like Dick, too. And Danny.
The topiary terrified me…you had a favorite?!
I really disliked the guy Jack drank with all the time (can’t think of his name at 8am).
Oh, and I hated the hotel (since it, too, was a character).
I was trying to think up favorites! And that one reminded me of Watership Down. *shrug*
Hahaha!
Man, the topiary creatures scared me to death! Dick was definitely my favorite. Years ago I watched the miniseries with Weber and it was really good. The Jack Nicholson version has a completely different ending from the book. The Weber version really involved Stephen King (he even has a cameo) and it stays much closer to the story.
awesome – maybe I can get to see BOTH versions.
Dick is my favorite character and the 1997 version follows the book much more closely, it’s pretty good.
Fabulous, I must find it!
I will be finishing up the audio today on my way home from work. It wasn’t as thrilling as I expected it to be but solid writing nonetheless. I have not seen the TV version but I love the feature film although I have no idea how Duvall got that role.
She does have a strong creepy factor look to her. She was only perfectly cast as the wife of PopEye the Sailor.
I HATED the movie and was so disappointed after reading the book and really liking it. The Shining was the first King and first horror type book I had ever read and I thought the movie would be great. To me, Halloran was the only good casting and then they changed the ending. I haven’t seen the Steven Weber one but I doubt that it could be any worse than the first one.
Well, it sounds like the made-for-TV version was much truer to the book.
Just finished The Shining today (in the daytime, thank you very much) and thought the book was pretty scary. (Certainly scarier than Under the Dome and a much, much better ending!) My favorite character has to be Dick Hallorann, too, but I also liked Danny and Wendy and was rooting for them. I didn’t like any of the topiary at all!
I loved Dick. I was surprised at how different the endings of Nicholson movie and the book were. Can’t say I loved either one of them!
Actually that is one motivator in why I want to see the flick – I want to know what they changed!
I love how you did your post. I put mine up today. I am glad we read it – it was fun
I read a good chunk of it while driving in a snow storm (well, I read while my husband drove). It definitely made me feel more creeped out than I would have otherwise. I liked Dick Hallorann too. Definitely the best character in the book. Danny was interesting, but I didn’t really feel like we got to know about him as a character much. No real personality, just info on his shining.
You LIKED the hedge animals?!?