Note: Originally Published 9-9-06

So I’ve been reading a lot of “high brow” books lately and while I learned a great deal from them, I was ready to get back to a book that I wanted to read purely for the pleasure of it.  Since Chabon doesn’t have anything out at the moment, I decided to go to my Stephen King pile that I haven’t yet gotten to.  I’ve read about 18 Stephen King books and have absolutely loved about 10 of them.  While I’ve enjoyed them all, I wouldn’t say that most of his work from the 90s on have really compared to his earlier work., excluding his masterpiece Dark Tower series.  Sure, there a few exceptions, but for the most part, he hasn’t been the same Stephen King who gave us Carrie, The Shining, and ‘Salem’s Lot.  Granted, even at 75%, he’s still better than most, myself included, but I yearn for the old style that bequeathed us such great stories.

Okay, I got way off track there.  My point is, I have about four Stephen King short story collections that I received several years ago and have never gotten around to reading them.  Because I wanted to just relax when reading and enjoy myself, I picked up one of those short story collections called Night Shift.

I’m only about 25% through it, and this is vintage King-literally.  I believe this collection was published somewhere between ’76 and ’78, and it is utterly compelling.  Eerily engaging, wildly imaginative, this is the King I know and love.