Book #5: Night Shift (1978)

So here we are, ready to start book #5.

I've got very high hopes for this one, as it's my first go at one of Stephen King's short story collections.  I've heard that he's often at his best when he writes short stories, and after my distaste with Rage,  I could use a little bit of awesome.

I had thought I wasn't familiar with this book at all, but perusing the story titles and I'm seeing a lot of familiar names.  While I'm pretty sure I've never read any of them, I'm aware of several by reputation.  Quitters, Inc, Children of the Corn, and Sometimes They Come Back, stand out, and Jerusalem's Lot has got to be a sequel/prequel/spinoff of Salem's Lot.  

I'm actually giddy at the prospect of returning to the world of Salem's Lot.

I don't usually do much research about a book before reading it, as I want to avoid spoilers as much as possible.  However, I did peruse wikipedia briefly and saw that stories in this book have been adapted to feature films five times, four television adaptations and well over a dozen "Dollar Baby" student films.  That's quite the legacy.

Most of these short stories were written in the decade or so prior to the publication of this collection, so I'll forgo the usual historical context, as it's probably not as applicable here.

So, lets begin.

Book #5
Night Shift
Publication date: February, 1978