Actually Reading the Book I’m Named After (And All of Stephen King’s Other Work)

Before reading: Well well well, here we are at the beginning of the Dark Tower series. I have not been looking forward to this day. I enjoy reading Stephen King because he is the king of horror. I've always seen the DT books as being glorified Westerns. In all honestly that does not sound appealing to me in the least bit. I am, however, going into this with an open mind. Stephen King has proven to me before that just because I don't think I'm going to like a book of his doesn't necessarily mean that is what will happen. While I might not be too excited about the genre, I love King's writing style. He is, at his core, a really great author. So I am hopeful that I will end up enjoying this book as well as the many sequels that come after it. Rather, I better enjoy this book because there are many sequels that come after. I also know that this is a very well-loved series. It must be for a reason. Okay, less talking and more reading. Here we go. Yee-haw? Is it even a

Before Reading: This is the last of the four original "Bachman Books" and the last of the two that I have never bothered to read. Most of what I know of The Running Man  is from the horrible Arnold Schwarzenegger movie from the 80s. I'm going to erase that from my mind and assume that it took a lot of creative liberties. I'm actually excited to read this one. I love dystopian stories and I've always thought of TRM to be an older version of the Hunger Games. Let's find out.  After Reading:  Well, I finally finished the original four Bachman books, but don't worry...we will meet him again. While I wouldn't rank this as highly as The Long Walk  or Rage  it was definitely leaps and bounds better than Roadwork.  So three out of four isn't too bad Mr. Bachman. This definitely had a lot of similarities to TLW which I obviously am a fan of so that was exciting. However...the racist and homophobic elements almost made it too hard to read. You could argue th

Before reading:  Ol' Cujo. I've never been interested in reading or even watching  Cujo . I know the plot. I know what happens. It is, however, a classic. I will feel at least some sort of accomplishment by finally being able to say, "yes, I have read  Cujo ." I am hopeful that King's writing abilities will leave me satisfied and being a fan of the book. Well future Shayla? Did it? After reading:  It did. I loved it. It had everything that I have grown to love and recognize as being peak King. I don't feel like I really need to make a million blog posts discussing how good Stephen King is at writing characters but if I didn't at least mention it then that would be a crime. Most of the book is not about the incident with Cujo, it is just simply about the characters. The good ones and the bad ones...and the furry ones. It was just a really good book. Your run-of-the-mill good read. Also, personally, I really loved the cyclical aspect of it beginning and endi