Book Club discussion

Well, this was my favourite book in the series so far. Yes, this has become the "Dark Tower Book Club," but only for the moment.

This book was almost entirely a story within a story. I think that made it easier for the story itself to develop as it was more contained and focused from a narrative perspective, as much as a book of this length can be and judged on the relative standards of the series.

I also like the ideas of the thinny, and how that was worked into the plot. The idea of time becoming distorted and following apart. The world coming apart at the seams, literally.

I finished this book on an airplane before the flight was over; having some time to kill I flipped back to the start of the book. All the Dark Tower books that I've read have had the same "Introduction" which was written by the author after the completion of the series, and sounds a little life a defence of the legacy of the books which the author deems to be some of, if the not the, most important in his oeuvre.

Right at the start of the introduction the author mentions that there are two kinds of authors: those who write for themselves, and, those who write for an audience. King is of the latter group. This idea is something which also corresponds to a conversation about music which I had with Mikael at a concert. One of my friend suggested that there were two types of bands/musicians: Katy Perry's and Rihanna's. Without clearing defining what it means to be in either group (Katy perry is more entertainment and pure talent; Rhianna is more something else) we basically turned the concept into a game and were able to agree on the classifications of a decent number of musical artists. It's funny that King's introduction would have the same concept.

There is a divide between mediums of art, Katy Perry music makes people dance, brings people together, but, how do those differences play out in literature. Is this something that we even need to be mindful of? Pretty sure the answer on that one is a yes, but difficult to explain why.

I'm going to read the 5th Dark Tower novel next, and then I'll try a "Rhianna" book for fun.