The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles, Bk 2)

I am impressed with Rice's ability to write something that feels modern, but perfectly captures the feeling of the gothic horror era (which I think of as about 1890-1940 ish, for no reason cause I"m not a literary historian). That fine line between horror and awe. I enjoyed this book, however the pace did slow too much in a few spots, but it was completely worth it to continue.  I like her ideas, and she presents them in a well-designed manner. I am certainly going to continue onto the next book!

The Shining - Stephen King

This book is SOOOO much better than the movie.  That is my general rule, but this is, perhaps, the best example. This is the only Stephen King movie I've seen before reading the book.  The book makes so much more sense! And I absolutely agree with Stephen King that the end of the movie was stupid! Very stupid! Compared to what he wrote? Stupid. WHY would you change something to make it worse?
Remember this is one of his earlier books and written when he was on a lot of drugs. Good, not my favorite by him, but ideal as a middle-ground book for him if you'd like to test out your preference (or not) for King's work.