Here follows a brief introduction, and below in the replies you will find my summaries and thoughts and discussions on the book. I've divided them into four posts, with five short stories covered in each post. These all are very spoilerful, if you're worried about that sort of thing. My Final Thoughts post, at end, is spoiler-free.

Night Shift (February 1978)

Night Shift is Stephen King's first short story collection. In his career he would go on to publish several such collections, along with collections of longer novellas he had written. Some of his best stories are found in his novellas, and fans believe that sometimes there are even better stories lurking in his short fiction, where King can focus his ideas.

This is the first book where King wrote a foreword, in which he introduces himself to his readers and establishes his friendly, conversational storyteller voice that works so well in his non-fiction writings. He doesn't call anyone a Constant Reader yet, but he directly thanks his fans for buying his books and making it possible for him to keep writing more.

This is also the book that started the Dollar Baby policy for King. Students and independents wanted to make film adaptations of King's short stories, and would ask him for permission. King established a policy that for only one dollar, they would get the rights to make a little film version of a short story, which is pretty generous. But King was rich now, he could afford to be generous. And you can get he made it all back and more when it came to the bigger budget film versions of his stories. At this point, only Carrie had been made into a big movie, but The Shining was soon to follow.

As a fun additional note for this notion, Frank Darabont, who would go on to adapt and direct The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, started as a Dollar Baby director, doing a small-time adaptation of The Woman in the Room, the last story in this very collection we're about to read.

If you're interested in a particular story, they lay out like this:

1. Jerusalem's Lot
2. Graveyard Shift
3. Night Surf
4. I Am the Doorway
5. The Mangler

6. The Boogeyman
7. Gray Matter
8. Battleground
9. Trucks
10. Sometimes They Come Back

11. Strawberry Spring
12. The Ledge
13. The Lawnmower Man
14. Quitters, Inc.
15. I Know What You Need

16. Children of the Corn
17. The Last Rung on the Ladder
18. The Man Who Loved Flowers
19. One for the Road
20. The Woman in the Room