Night Shift by Stephen King

[@CoffeeCatsandKing]

I love this collection. It has some of his best short stories right alongside some of his most ridiculous and zany.

[@MichelNJoia]

Read It this year for the First time. I've read most of his short story collection, and this one was superb. Great video!!

[@2025Mindfulness]

I read it when it first came out and Graveyard Shift scared me. Loved the book.

[@TheMikester307]

I first read this a couple of successive evenings in my dorm room in a semester when all my classes were in-class work, maybe 1981 or something. I loved it! I love King's short stories!

[@francescacanova8076]

I love of this book especially the preface and the introduction.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Yes, I agree. The introduction was particularly interesting.

[@LadyJaneBooks]

I read this sooo long ago! Brought me to memory lane! I personally lived Gray Matter and Sometimes They Come Back! Great review! 👍

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks! I’m so glad I didn’t live through Gray Matter! I would need therapy!

[@ThisJustInBookTube]

I am behind you on this one! I’ll have to finish reading it this weekend. I thought you’d be stuck on Star Trek all month. Great overview of King’s first short story collection. Hope you get some rest soon! Don’t clean that lower basement level!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Star Trek did phaser my August plans into dust! I’ve been having fun with it though.

[@BookBlather]

My aunt and uncle took me to see Children of the Corn in the theater. I was way too young. They told me it was going to be “suspense” 🥺

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Ha! That explains a lot about your reading taste!

[@stews9]

That is indeed a funny sentence. And yep, he just writes down what ever pops into his head. Many cite drugs, King included, but you're absolutely right, he'd benefit from an editor who does't fear offending the sales figures, a type of demon that can destroy pretty much anything.

[@Monsterblood]

Great review!! Kudos for filming late at night when you're tired... I gave up trying to do that because I would turn the camera on and forget how to talk after a long day at work 😂 This really is a great book. Jerusalem's Lot, Graveyard Shift, Last Rung on the Ladder are (I think) my 3 favorites from the book. I also didn't care for Strawberry Spring... I found it to be very underwhelming compared to the others. I loved Trucks for how funny and ridiculous it was.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Yeah, I’m surprised this video turned out to be as decent as it is. I was dead 💀 tired. It’s been a long time since I worked a…night shift…😩

[@AnneEWilliamson]

I don't think I've read a single short story by Stephen King, though I should considering I avoid reading his longer books, lol. This book sounds really good!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Yeah, this is a really good collection. I suspect you will like it.

[@jeremyfee]

I've got this book sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. Great discussion here, as usual!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks! I was worried doing this because I was so exhausted. I said I would do it though, so I felt like I had to!

[@jeremyfee]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 I admire your perseverance. I didn't end up making my Tuesday and Wednesday videos this week, and my video for today probably won't go up until around 7 pm. Sometimes there's just too much going on all at once.

[@kimesch9698]

I thought the noise from the dog shaking was a planned sound effect you did for when you mentioned “skeleton”! 😂

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Rhonda has great timing!

[@DamnableReverend]

I always say this is my favourite King book, but i had forgotten a couple of the stories, and somehow I didn't remember that hilarious line about the suppositories. I think you're righta bout King and just throwing on the page whatever pops into his head. But I really like this collection. Some of the stories do seem like real pastiches of his influecnes, but good ones, mind you! "Jerusalems' Lot" is definitely up there among Lovecraft pastiches, and I definitely get what you mean about the Matheson comparison. Interesting how in short story collections we almost all always have this one story (or so) that we don't like all taht much. I thought "Strawberry Spring" was pretty cool actually (I wouldn't want to see King always writing like this but for a short experiment? Yeah I think it works alright), but the one I didn't really feel much was "Sometimes They Come back". Maybe I'll have to re-read it, though.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I agree with you about Jerusalem’s Lot. This was a great collection, much better than I remember it being. But then, I wasn’t reading all that critically in the 80s.

[@sgriffin9960]

This is a book I definitely want to read, except for that last story maybe…

[@knittingbooksetc.2810]

I’m going to read The Stand after I finish the Dark Tower series.

[@CestKevvie]

Yay more King!! Still haven't read any of him. Maybe I'll have time in October, and even then I only will if I can find any for cheap lol. I'm most interested in reading Gerald's Game. Night Shift sounds really good. Sometimes They Come Back sounds familiar, and is a fantastic title! I love absurd stuff so maybe I need to read Lawnmower Man. Also idk who Richard Matheson is. Now Children of the Corn I have read! Didn't know it was part of this collection. I enjoyed it. The movie is meh, but the adult actor who played the lead kid is also in a favorite so-bad-it's-good movie called Tammy and the T-Rex, where Denise Richard's boyfriend gets murdered and his brain put inside an animatronic dinosaur.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Don’t know who Richard Matheson is….GASP! Get a copy of I Am Legend and read that book. It’s amazing. Don’t watch the movie though, that movie sucks. This early King stuff has been pretty good. Thanks for watching! I really need to comment on more of your videos. I always seem to watch them at 3:30 am or so while I’m drinking coffee my brain 🧠 is just starting to function. I have learned many interesting things from them and I appreciate that. You are the best.

[@CestKevvie]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Thank you! 🥺 I will look into Richard Matheson!

[@moisheplatinumberg6016]

I disagree about Maximum Overdrive (Trucks). It was pure 80s gold.

[@leonoldfield9765]

👍

[@AJ_Dunn]

I think "The Mangler" resulted from King's time working at a laundry. I actually liked "Strawberry Spring." "Children of the Corn" was the creepiest for me. I really liked the character relationship in that story. I disagree that King doesn't go back through his stories. I think he keeps things in them because he thinks they work.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Oh man, there’s nothing about that line that works! Ha! The Mangler was fun!

[@mediumjohnsilver]

What with Stephen King having written “Trucks” and “Christine”, I don’t think the author will purchase any of those fancy new self-driving automobiles any time soon.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Neither will I…especially if they are manufactured in Maine!

[@DDB168]

Stephen King comparable to Richard Matheson ! Wow that is gonna trend on the twitter sphere. Truck is obviously influenced by the classic Aussie horror film - 'The cars that ate Paris'. I would call it a comedy actually 😉 I prefer the Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton version of Night shift 🤣 And no I havent seen the corn movie. 😣

[@jamesfetcho6315]

2 sleepy. I believe I have figured out by Your hours what You do. Sometimes silly is Good. Trucks I think they made one called Trucks(a Lower budget movie in the 90s), and one called Maximum Overdrive (from the 80s) My Brother named his Son after a character in Children of the Corn. Somebody is sleepy....you cussed....uhmmm You said A$$ 😁 Great Review, and Video 👍😁👍

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Maximum Overdrive! Of course! I remember that being crazy. So you figured out I’m actually an astronaut 👩‍🚀? Good detective work!

[@jamesfetcho6315]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 LoL.

[@stews9]

"Trucks" echoes Theodore Sturgeon's much better "Killdozer" by the way.

[@WorkingManReads]

So I will tell my wife that I need to read more Stephen King so I understand how important it is to have a strong marriage 🤣 great review

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Yes, Stephen King brings marital harmony! 😂

[@SteveTalksBooks]

I should have read this instead of If It Bleeds :(

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I did laugh at ass sentence, but having to put something up an old bum is no laughing mater. I should reread the story.

[@DuncanMcCurdie]

How dare you slander the greatest movie ever made and forget its title, Maximum Overdrive.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Maximum Overdrive seems to have a lot of defenders!