This Week in Reading #2

The Hollow by Jessica Verday
The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins
Coming of the Storm by Kathleen and Michael Gear
The Gunslinger by Stephen King

This week: 151 pages
Last week: 206 pages
Total: 357 pages

Favorite Sentences and/or Passages (in no particular order):

1: "When one quests for the Dark Tower, Time is a matter of no concern at all." The Gunslinger

2: "I think novelists come in two types, and that includes the sort of fledgling novelist I was by 1970. Those who are bound for the more literary or "serious" side of the job examine every possible subject in the light of this question: What would writing this sort of story mean to me?  Those whose destiny is to include the writing of popular novels are apt to ask a very different one: What would writing this sort of story mean to others? The "serious novelist is looking for answers and keys to the self; the "popular" novelist is looking for an audience. Both are equally selfish. I've known a good many, and will set my watch and warrant upon it." Stephen King, Introduction of The Gunslinger

 3: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." The Gunslinger

As you can probably tell, my main choice of reading for this week was The Gunslinger, the first book in King's widely acclaimed Dark Tower series. However, his introduction is what really caught my attention. He describes how he felt when he was young, and nothing but a fledgling writer. How he felt so powerful, that nothing could stop him, that he would notice the right idea once it passed him by.

In some ways, he reminds me a lot about myself, in a way. Young, ambitious, and waiting to change the world for at least one person through the power of a story well told. Tolkien did it. Hemmingway did it. Charles Dickens did it. Why can't I?