Was it hard for you to read this book?

[Letti]

I wish I had read the Gunslinger first and not DotT. I would be interested in my opinion in that way.

How did you end up reading Drawing first?

I have written it down many times, not a big story.
I was about 12 and I was hooked on Dean R. Koontz. I read all his books and once when I went to the bookstore to buy some new books by him I was shocked to see I had read all of them which were published at that time. I was incredibly sad and disappointed.
I didn't want to buy anything else but just to be on the safe side (I still hoped that I could find something new by him) I checked the shelves again.
Than I suddenly saw DotT. The picture was quite interesting and when I read the back of the book I felt that's the most extraordinary thing I had ever read in my life. So I bought it but I didn't hope to get anything speciel from it. I didn't know that it was the second book of a long series.
In the other hand I started with DotT because the Gunslinger wasn't sold there in that very shop and if you go into a bookshop these days usually you cannot find it. I have no idea why.
When I finished it I was hooked on the story and I started to hunt for the first book and after some days and many shops I could buy it at last.
Anyway I read the first 4 books during a week or so. . Then I had to stop of course because Kind hadn't written the 5th book yet.

[Wuducynn]

Ah. I almost did that, I started reading Drawing when I picked it up at the store and then saw that there was another one before it and that it was part of a series. Glad I caught it, because I think its important to read them in order.

[LadyHitchhiker]

I actually started by reading these books out of order. I read the second book first and then the first and then the third. Albeit the second and third were my favorites, the first one was a quick read to me.

[Shiv]

Just have to say that I ripped through the story in a couple of days. Probably would have went through it quicker if I wasn't a slave to the annoyances of eating, sleeping and working.

I also have to say I never liked cowboy type movies or stories. Hate them to be honest. But this story captivated me from the first few lines. I just finished 6th book tonight and I'm still loving this series just as much as I did the first story.

/end sappy testimony

[Wuducynn]

Just have to say that I ripped through the story in a couple of days. Probably would have went through it quicker if I wasn't a slave to the annoyances of eating, sleeping and working.

I also have to say I never liked cowboy type movies or stories. Hate them to be honest. But this story captivated me from the first few lines. I just finished 6th book tonight and I'm still loving this series just as much as I did the first story.

/end sappy testimony

Thats not sappy at all, and I share those feelings.

[Woofer]

I doubt more than a handful of folks, if that many, will choose "Yes, it was incredibly hard. It's a miracle I could finish it at all. " This site is for DT junkies after all.

*WOLFHUGS to the site*

[Jean]

I doubt more than a handful of folks, if that many, will choose "Yes, it was incredibly hard. It's a miracle I could finish it at all. " This site is for DT junkies after all.

*WOLFHUGS to the site*

so far only one has voted that, and that was me

[Wuducynn]

You just hate the Dark Tower series, Jean.

[Woofer]

I doubt more than a handful of folks, if that many, will choose "Yes, it was incredibly hard. It's a miracle I could finish it at all. " This site is for DT junkies after all.

*WOLFHUGS to the site*

so far only one has voted that, and that was me

Well, if a bear is not a handful, I don't know what is!

Srsly, though, I saw your earlier post explaining why, and I can completely see it. While it wasn't difficult for me to get through it, I was blindsided by how very different it was from all of the other King that I had read. And, like you said, it can be a bit stilted and forced at times. The change in tone and tempo and type, in itself, made for a slower read than usual. Successive dips at the pool, however, haven't suffered from that problem.

[Letti]

Don't you think Jean that you could have enjoyed it more if you had been in an normal usual situation?

[Jean]

Woofer: thank you for understanding!
Nikolett: no, I don't think so... I'm afraid if the situation had been normal, I would just have dropped the book altogether. Then again, I have reread it since; as I said, it's better in the light of further developments, but not much better. I feel, though, that it is necessary part of the series, just like the Browning poem is; just not enjoyable reading.

[3 DOORS DOWN]

Loved the book in 1982 and still love it now,lost count i many times i
have read it.

[stone, rose, unfound door]

I know you were right when asking if people found it hard to read: someone I know totally struggled with it and got fed up; I just never understood how that could happen.
I, like most of the people here just couldn't put it down until I went to sleep. I became a fan when I read the very first sentence and was more and more fascinated by Roland as the story went. I was kinda disappointed when I saw he was actually not a machine in DTII

[gsvec]

The first time I sat down with Gunslinger, I was really excited to have found a new SK book - but I struggled with it after about 20 or so pages and decided to read it later since some other SK had just come out. When DotT was released, I bought it (of course!) and dug back into Gunslinger because I just HAD to read them in order (I'm a Virgo, after all). Again, around 20 or so pages in, I put it down. I wish I could remember now what the roadblock was. I faithfully bought the subsequent volumes as they came out and put them on my shelf . . . waiting. The very day I bought VII, I sat down and started to read all 7 volumes one right after the other because I was soooo into it - and it took me less than 2 weeks! Still had a little hump getting through Gunslinger, but I had my goal then and it was most definitely worth the wait. I haven't reread the full series again, but am thinking it might be a great "winter" to-do.

[Ves'Ka Gan]

I did find it hard to get through, I've told many people, had I not bought all of the first three books at once, I may have missed out on the entire series!

Of course, on the second reading, I enjoyed it a lot. I suppose the reason I didn't like The Gunslinger the first time, was because I didn't much like Roland. After "getting to know him better" in the other books, I was able to relate to him better the second time around.

[Jean]

I know you were right when asking if people found it hard to read: someone I know totally struggled with it and got fed up; I just never understood how that could happen.

That lonely voice that says, "Yes, it was incredibly hard. It's a miracle I could finish it at all," belongs to me.

[Brainslinger]

I know you were right when asking if people found it hard to read: someone I know totally struggled with it and got fed up; I just never understood how that could happen.

I bought this for a friend a year or two back (it was for Christmas or her birthday, I forget which.) Shortly after she told me that she started it, but she stopped. It wasn't really the type of thing she was into.

I was disappointed as you could imagine.

I had a nice surprise the other day though. I was speaking to her on the phone, and she happened to mentioned that she had finished the book a while back! Seems she put it aside, finding it hard going, but then went back to it, she just never told me (I've met up with her a few times since I gave her the book.) She told me she enjoyed it too.

(She described it as being about a 'cowboy chasing death'. Not sure about that synopsis but it was amusing, and not entirely inaccurate.)

I visited her shortly after and lent her my 'Drawing of the Three'.

As for me (I think I might have said this already) I found it a bit harder reading than the other books I think.... but not too hard. I think I prefer the sequel books though.

[Jackie]

I didn't find it hard to read at all. I found it very interesting and easy to get sucked into. I must admit that at times i had pulled some all nighters reading it [even on school nights ]

[Matt]

I agree, I was fully engrossed from the first time pretty much. If we are using "hard" as "hard to understand at first", I think I could get in that camp.

I still read it sometimes and find stuff that I didn't get before

[stone, rose, unfound door]

I know you were right when asking if people found it hard to read: someone I know totally struggled with it and got fed up; I just never understood how that could happen.

That lonely voice that says, "Yes, it was incredibly hard. It's a miracle I could finish it at all," belongs to me.

I read your post and I do get your point, but as I said before, I just can't understand what could be so hard in it. Perhaps I can't simply try and read it the way someone else would. I'd been looking for something new for some time before finding it and cowboy stories fascinated me becaue it's so different from anything I could ever experience here and Roland totally fascinated me. I wanted to see how far he could go and how inhuman he could be and then I was shown that he was not the way he was in the Gunslinger. This book is as good as Song of Susannah to me: everytime I start it again, I just can't put it down. (and you know what thinking it's as goos as SoS means to me )

[Anastasia]

Well, I can't say that it was hard to read. However, during first several pages I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. At very first I thought it was going to be some Western and Fantasy story combined all together...not something I would like. But shortly after I was absolutely hooked and couldn't stop and put it aside

[pixiedark76]

No it was not. I read Gunslinger first and then I read Drawing of The Three. I think that Drawing of the Three is the best in the DT series. The way SK got into the characters heads. I felt that the characters of Eddie, Susanna and Jake just lept out at me. I also liked the way it showed the complex personalities of Odetta/Detta Walker. This book is one of the most complex that SK has ever wrote.

[MetGrl57]

It was slightly hard for me to get into at the very start, but I pressed on. I've always been fascinated by westerns and cowboys and such due to the influence of my dad, and thats what made me pick up the book originally. But I was pleasantly surprised that there was a lot more going on in the story than that haha. So I ended up reading it pretty quickly, actually. The copy I originally read was from the library, so I immediately went out and bought my own copy as well as Drawing.

[candy]

I LOVED THIS BOOK, from the moment i picked it up. i was young at the time(oh to be young again) and was rummaging in book shops trying to pass the time. it was a short beautiful book unlike anything else i had read at that time.

in fact, out of the whole series the book i found the hardest was wizard and glass - this seemed to dip and in the middle and i felt as though i was plodding through the book, which none of the other books made me feel.

[Ka-Shume]

In 11th grade I had to do a paper on an American author and then read a book by him and do a paper on that. I was going to do Eragon by Christopher Paolini but my English teacher wouldn't let me do it when I mentioned I'd already read it. So I had to do something else, I remembered that my teacher had briefly mentioned to me earlier something about the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. So I asked him about it and he told me the first one was called The Gunslinger, I was sort of disheartened to hear that it was going to involve guns, being a huge fantasy buff myself. (dragons, swords, magic ftw)

I found it a bit slow but had to persevere for the project, and after I finished I continued along the beam to the Dark Tower.