I am currently finishing up on Dark Tower 4 - "Wizard and Glass". I have bought Dark Tower 5 - "The Wolves of The Calla", which will keep me busy for a while.

This seris by the 'Master of the macbre - Stephen King', is a fantasy/fiction adventure of Roland and his friends.

"I’ve been reading the Dark Tower series since I read "The Gunslinger" for the first time in the late 80s. There was something about the book that hooked me and I was desperate for the next novels in the series.

"The Drawing of the Three" drew me even further into Roland’s universe and with the additions of Eddie and Susannah, made me wonder what was going to happen and fear for these characters that I was beginning to love. The Waste Lands, with Jake coming back into Roland’s life, and the new band of gunslingers left in Blaine the Mono’s insane grasp only underlined this fear. And then the waiting began.

For almost six years Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy sat in Blaine and I waited to see how their dreadful rhyming contest would end. When "Wizard & Glass" was finally published, putting an end to Blaine and giving us all the information we needed to see why Roland became the man that he became, I was ecstatic. Surely, this would be the greatest series ever written. Surely, a series with four incredible novels like these could only be destined to be the best epic ever told."

I will keep you posted on how this turns out.

I just started reading Wizard and Glass primarily because I am hooked by Jake and Oy. It seems that in every Stephen King story, there are an abundance of strange characters, and one or two absolutely lovable ones.

I read and re-read the Gunslinger and just couldn't get into it. My BF encouraged me to keep reading the rest of the series, and so I do. Though King isn't one of my favorite authors, his books are interesting and a source of much conversation with friends and business associates alike!

I believe that Thinner was one of his. I was given that by a friend after my divorce and I dropped about 85 pounds inside of about 2 months. Great story..quite scary!! Alittle too close to home.

Other than that, I am reading the Harry Potter series with my daughter. I am also reading a book of short stories by Annie Proulx. One of the stories has been made into a film and is making the run at the film festivals. The story is Brokeback Mountain and is about a coulpe of gay cowboys set in Wyoming in the 60's. The movie stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The story was OK. Hopefully the movie will be better. It had a nice write up in the NY Times.

Yeah, my fourteen year old and I read through the Harry Potter books together, well, sort of together, several years ago I was ahead of him, but this last one I didn't even try to keep up. He read it very quickly and gave it to me. lol

Something similar happened with the Lord of the Rings trilogy back before the first movie. I decided we should read the book first. I had read them before in high school, but hadn't finished book three. Again, I was ahead of the race in book one, but he left me in the dust by book three. What was cool is how at age 12 he articulated in depth the differences between the first book and the movie and the reasons for those differences.

Now he is almost finished reading the Stand. He's become quite a Steven King fan.

I also read som Annie Proulx recently because Vincent recomended her. Her book, The Shipping News has to be one of my favorite novels.

quote:

Originally posted by Tim:
I am also reading a book of short stories by Annie Proulx. One of the stories has been made into a film and is making the run at the film festivals. The story is Brokeback Mountain and is about a coulpe of gay cowboys set in Wyoming in the 60's. The movie stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The story was OK. Hopefully the movie will be better. It had a nice write up in the NY Times.

I read Brokeback Mountain just this morning. I really quite enjoyed it. A real bittersweet, and fully human, love story. I'm looking forward to the film.

I also read the Stand. A great read! I'm always surprised when characters/situations from one King novel show up in other novels. It's like running into someone on the street that you haven't seen for a long time.


I liked Brokeback Mountain but felt kind of flat on the relationship that existed between Ennis and Jack. Obviously it was quite physical but really didn't feel that they were in love until the end of the story. Really felt it was a physical thing until Jack came back. I could relate to some of what was going on in the story... living the double life, etc...

I'm glad that others have the same reading list that I do!!!!

Hi Guys,

I'm not so sure there wasn't love between the two guys in Brokeback quite early on in their relationship, the times then would have made it very difficult and they didn't know....well one of them anyway if gay was his way.

I used to think The Pearl by Steinbeck was one of the saddest wee books I had ever read but Brokeback Mountain has pretty much taken that place now. Two young men found something physical that became so much more. They wanted it to be more but the times weren't right for one of them, and in the end he made the decision too late for both of them and the pain of that lost love shows in such a simple and understandible waay. A truely poignant story and I look forward to the film with relish....and hey two cowboys on the big screen getting it on...all my birthday wishes come true!!!!

Cheerio for now Vincent..x

Vincent,
You have read my mind! I am very much looking forward to the movie. With the two actors that have been cast (Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger), I can hardly wait! Check out the trailer at brokebackmountain.com.