The Final Chapter

In 2004 I started readin the Dark Tower series from Stephen King. It's been a long road reading them obviously since I am only halfway through with the last book. I remember reading the last page of the Gunslinger on a concrete step outside a police station as I waited to clock in to work thinking "what a piece of crap. I'm mroe confused about everything in life now than I was before I read it."

I was told, however, to read the second book.

After a while I did. I don't know, maybe I was bored. I read it and loved it. And on I went to the third book. I breezed through those books and then for Christmas that year ('05) I got the fourth book which took a while to get through. I wasn't in the mood to go trapsing through Roland's past. As a matter of fact I really objected to it since Roland was a pretty mysterious guy, just a gun that talked, really. I liked that. I liked not knowing anything about him and now here I am reading about the circumstances that made him who he was. I couldn't care less. Because of this it took a long time to get through it.

Then I deployed. Let me tell you something about deploying: you can read. A LOT. I wore through the collection of books I wanted to and a friend was reading the last three books in the series so I borrowed them. I read through them very quickly and when I came back to the States I started reading the last book, the Dark Tower.

I'll say this: the series is weird. There's a definite turn in the road from book four to five and I wasn't really a fan. But they are written well and I do like reading them. It's an odd ride to be on and I'm enjoying it. Going through the book however was a fast process until something (two things actually) drastic happened that made me stop reading.

And now I'm reading it again.

I have mixed feelings about it though. This is a series I've put a lot of time into and now it'll be over.

I have this feeling often with just about everything. Perhpas I'm just weird, but it's more likely that this is a case of one more thing that I had as a less responsible youth that will be done. One more chapter finished. As much as I love being a dad and a husband, I kind of hang on to these things. I don't know. It seems kind of sad in a way or maybe I'm just thinking about this too much. I certainly don't want to give the impression that I'm not happy - I am - but, you know, it's still sad.