All Paths Serve The Beam

So, in a whirlwind 24 blast, I bought The Dark Tower VI: Song Of Susannah a day early and read it cover to cover. It was naturally fantastic and I could go on and on about it, but chances are you haven't read it yet, or don't plan on ever reading it so, wouldn't be interested. The Dark Tower VII, aptly titled The Dark Tower, is set for release on September 21, 2004. Same as The Star Wars Trilogy DVD and King's birfday. Weird, huh? Considered by many to be the defining work of his career and hinted at many points in this most recent book to encompass virtually everything he's ever written, I am naturally left with only one completely insane course of action:

Finish the great re-read of all of his books I started a few months ago (in which I completed Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, and Rage [yeah, I got that one]; and started The Shining) before the release of Book VII. Not too insane of a task, right? I mean how hard can it be to read 25,696 pages in 105 days? Not at all difficult! Especially since I read SoS over a 24 hour period. A 400 page book! And it didn't even take anywhere near the whole 24 hours! No problem! That's a 244 page average per day, in case you were wondering.

And, to make things even harder for myself, I'll be reading both versions of The Stand and even two versions of The Dark Tower I through IV. Why not, right?

So, check in every day and watch my progress in what I'm calling The Castle Rock Memorial Read-A-Thon. I will naturally be sprinkling in my own comments as we go along, including any sneaky references to the Tower and anything else I find interesting. Much like my Wednesday Inbox feature, I'll be devoting a good amount of space, day-by-day (although I can't promise updates on the weekends, just means more juice for Mondays), to talking about just why I feel this is all worthwhile (or, when we hit a particularly nasty patch of prose, why I feel like punching myself in the throat). It's even got its own category here: The Castle Rock Memorial Read-A-Thon. Also aptly named.

Here's where we "Stand" (Get it?):
Carrie Done
'Salems Lot Done
Rage Done
The Shining p. 40

An 1,138 Page Head Start
Approximately 25,676 Pages And 105 Days To Go

See you tomorrow.