Boxwish Blog

Jack Torrance's book from The Shining available to buy

Posted by Team Boxwish on 06 January 2009 at 11.47AM

Searching for some New Year reading? Look no further Boxwishers as we are not just your number one stop for movie goodies but also a bastion of literary loveliness. May we present All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy. From writer Jack Torrance, this masterpiece of language and form is a timeless classic that will prove popular with all age groups and will be a papery pal for years to come. Either that or it’s just a fantastically funny gag based on the Stephen King book/ Stanley Kubrick horror flick The Shining. It’s probably more the latter.

Fans of the book/ film will remember that writer Jack Torrance (played with bug-eyed menace by Jack Nicholson) takes his family to live at the isolated Overlook Hotel where he struggles to get his creative juices flowing. This writer’s block takes a terrifying form as Jack’s wife Wendy finds that Jack has spent all his time simply typing one phrase over and over again: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. And it is this line that proves the foundation of this spoof book with all of its 80 pages repeating it and formatting it across the page differently for variety.

The idea for it came from blog OverthinkingIt.com which published a mock review of the film’s chilling non-book only for reader New York artist Phil Buehler to take it that step further and actually get it printed. OverthinkingIt.com is obviously thrilled and so are we – a book we can get through in a mere matter of minutes.

And it got us thinking – what other fictional movie books would you like to see nestled on book store shelves? Magical Me by Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? A Match Made in Space by George McFly from Back to the Future or Swedish Homemade Penis Enlarger Pumps and Me by Austin Powers from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery? But if it’s the last one, maybe keep it to yourself.

Get your copy of All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy here.

[via OverthinkingIt.com]

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Comments (4)

A Match Made in Space by George McFly gets my vote.

Posted by Swiss_Cheese on 06 January 2009 at 02.36PM
That would have made an awesome Xmas present!

Posted by beetlejuice_fan1 on 07 January 2009 at 02.32PM
The book is available since last year from another publisher:
http://www.amazon.com/work-play-makes-Jack-dull/dp/8887381070/
and
https://www.createspace.com/3357729

:)

Posted by choulalo on 09 January 2009 at 10.34AM
Too late. A far more convincing version of "Jack Torrance's All Work and No Play" has been completed and edited by artist Klaus Scheruebel in spring 2008. Check out the 600 pages volume:

http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425637690/140136/klaus-scherubel-jack-torrances-all-work-and-no-play.html

Posted by max on 20 January 2009 at 05.21PM