"The Man in Black Fled Across the Desert and the Gunslinger Followed."

Finally after twenty years and 3756 pages, I have finished reading The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I completed my journey, even though occasionally throughout the years I had to put down a book and start it up again at a later time. Especially #4, The Waste Lands, which I think I had to start over three times. But, dang it, I wanted to reach that Dark Tower as bad as Roland did. Then to my surprise, after reaching the Tower, I found out that the whole series wasn't about the goal of reaching the Tower but of relishing the adventure along the way. Now, I'll probably have to start over from the beginning...only this time relish the story and not worry about obtaining the goal.

The great thing about this series was all the inside references to other King works. The more you knew other King books, the more you felt like you were "in" the story. You could read the series without knowing anything about any other King story but the knowing made it all the sweeter. I had noticed that King used this idea of citing previous works in many of his other stories but it wasn't until I read Black House that I realized how almost every story had something to do with the Dark Tower.

So now I am reading King's newest book, Lisey's Story. After that, I will give King a rest and read a book which Jough and Beleisha gave me for Christmas, Marley and Me. Jough and Beleisha, by the way, are now vacationing in the Caribbean. (as I look at my outdoor thermometer which is registering a balmy 1.2 degrees...above zero at least!) I hope they are having a great time!

I had a very scary dream the other night, and no, it didn't have Paul Giametti in it. **shudder** For some reason we were in France. For the record, I have absolutely no desire to go to France. I was looking out our hotel window at the Eiffel Tower, when all at once it fell over. Well, it tipped almost all the way over, straightened back up, and then crashed all the way over to the side. It was like a big wind came and blew it completely over. We ran over to see what happened but it was difficult to find it because we couldn't see it. Finally, we found it laying on the ground, a huge pile of twisted metal and something about water...but that is when I woke up.

So last night, I had to look up information about the Eiffel Tower just to make sure it is securely fastened to the ground. And it seems to be. The Seine River flows beside it which explains the water in my dream, however, I was unaware of that before I looked it up. It does sway in the wind and in hot weather as the sun heats the metal. But not enough to knock the thing down. And I did glean a great deal of information about the tower that I didn't know before. But still, that dream is giving me the creeps.

I also have a great idea about Bippy, Carl, and a barrel of monkeys. Stay tuned.