Love Stephen King. 'The Shining' was first book of his that I read, too. Could not put it down. Remember screaming out loud reading a particular passage that involved a bathtub. Funniest thing is that while reading it I thought to myself that Jack Nicholson would be PERFECT as the father if and when it were made into a film...before even knowing that Nicholson had already been cast in the part!

It was such a disappointing film though, although it did depict well the complete isolation of the hotel. I remember reading somewhere that having the hedges coming to life in a realistic, frightening way was technologically unachievable at the time (without looking ridiculous), which is why they went with the maze and 'frozen' ending. Talk about anti-climactic!!! There I was waiting for a boiler to blow!!!
Weber tv version was much better.

Another King all time favorite of mine is 'The Stand', which also was made into a pretty good mini-series. I never managed to read 'It', but enjoyed that on tv as well, so I can only hope it was true to the original story.