Challenge: 50 Books discussion

Hi Guys,
This month we will be reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King. As this is quite a short book I thought we might also read The Little Sisters of Eluria. This is a prequel told over a five issue comic books series. I'll be covering these on the first week and covering the Gunslinger through the rest of the month, I hope everyone is as excited as I am!

Schedule
Week 1: June 1st-7th: The Gunslinger : The Little Sisters of Eluria issues 1-5
Week 2: June 8th-14th: The Gunslinger, Chapter 1 - The Waystation, Chapter 2 (pg 1 - pg79)
Week 3: June 15th-21st: The Waystation, Chapter 2 - The Slow Mutants, Chapter 1 (pg79 - pg 158)
Week 4: June 22nd-28th: The Slow Mutants, Chapter 1 -end (pg158 - end)

Summary

The Little Sisters of Eluria:
Roland is a gunslinger in a deserted town when he gets ambushed. He ends up in a strange infirmary attended by the "Little Sisters" and wondering if he'll survive their care.

The Gunslinger
Beginning with a short story appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1978, the publication of Stephen King's epic work of fantasy -- what he considers to be a single long novel and his magnum opus -- has spanned a quarter of a century.

Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, The Dark Tower series is King's most visionary feat of storytelling, a magical mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror that may well be his crowning achievement.

In The Gunslinger (originally published in 1982), King introduces his most enigmatic hero, Roland Deschain of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting, solitary figure at first, on a mysterious quest through a desolate world that eerily mirrors our own. Pursuing the man in black, an evil being who can bring the dead back to life, Roland is a good man who seems to leave nothing but death in his wake.

The Little Sisters of Eluria Wiki

The Gunslinger Wiki

Stephen King Wiki

**Please feel free to share your thoughts as you read.

**Please remember to mark your spoilers.

I don't have The Little Sisters of Eluria and no time or money to order them before the reading begins. Will this give away any secrets or spoilers in the Gunslinger? Should I skip any updates in the first week? Sorry if I irritate anyone, as Harley Quinn says in Suicide Squad, " I am known to be quite vexing". I am new to group reads and can't learn unless I ask questions.

No not at all! No spoilers and it's not important to the main story of the Gunslinger. I just thought that, because the book is so short, it would be interesting.
Please ask as many questions as you like!!!

Spoilers ahead!!!

So I couldn't wait, I'm so looking forward to rereading The Gunslinger that I just blasted through Little Sisters!

Lovely tale, classic Roland. We meet a younger, less jaded version of Roland who finds himself injured by slow mutants and in the care of the Little Sisters of Eluria.
Things, surprisingly enough, are not as they seem!

Hi Guys,
*Spoilers ahead*
So this is my second read of The Dark Tower series so I will be marking any observations/comments that I might make on the second read with spoiler links so if you are only reading this for the first time stay away from them.
Anyway, section one read. The first part of the gunslinger deals with some of Rolands trek across the desert after the man in black but the first two pages have the number 19 and the word RESUMPTION? What do we think is the relevance of this?? (view spoiler)[ I was surprised and delighted with this on the reread as resumption means the beginning of something again after a pause or interruption. Anyone who has finished the series will see the importance of this. As for the number 19?? Well, the man in black uses it as a key word for Nort but I'd like to think that the man in black realises that he has played this game of cat and mouse with Roland before and that this is the 19th time around. Although that could be just me. (hide spoiler)]
As for the town of Tull, the religious symbolism in this section was interesting. Trying to set Roland up as a devil type and the man in black as god like, is Roland a bad guy?? He certainly has no problem gunning down men, women and children!
(view spoiler)[ Last ly, it was really nice to see the moment when Roland returns and starts again. All of his little moments of de ja vous and familiarity with the situation finally makes sense! (hide spoiler)]

I have been fighting the urge to start this book because I want to participate in the group read. I suppose I will post something on the ninth or tenth after I read the first two chapters. To keep myself away from the Gunslinger I have read an Elmer Kelton western, Peter Benchley's Jaws and am a quarter of the way through the third volume of the Wheel of time series lol

Exanimis wrote: "I have been fighting the urge to start this book because I want to participate in the group read. I suppose I will post something on the ninth or tenth after I read the first two chapters. To keep ..."
Oohh I love the wheel of time series, just finished book 11 myself! I know the feeling, I'm going off to read some Terry Pratchett before I just sit and finish the book tonight!

I just finished chapter one and had a hard time getting through it, I am not a Stephan King fan. The chapter begins with Mr. Kings tried and true plot that he seems to use in every book. If it ain't broke, don't fix it right? The gunslinger comes into town where he finds trouble with a female protestant preacher, I believe Mr. King either has a fear or a deep hatred for female protestants.King's first book Carrie had the main characters mother as a bible thumper. There was the bible thumper in the Mist and who knows how many times he has used this same setup. I expect to find a weird kid somewhere in this book, that's another of his overused setups. As usual there are lots of things that make no sense at all, the gunslinger aborts a baby with his revolver, without firing a shot, a baby that is apparently the child of the man in black and the bible thumper protestant. The man in black resurrected a dead man in the town so you would think the preacher would know to stay away from him.
It all ties up at the end of the chapter to make some sense but that doesn't excuse the fact that you have to read 3/4 of a chapter filled with drivel that makes no sense until the end of the chapter and some of it not even then. If I were reading this in any other way than broken up for this group read, I would probably abandon The Gunslinger.
I think it would be interesting to know if the name Jesus were used more in the Bible or in Stephen Kings writings. Personally I believe Mr. King uses the name much more.
I guess what I am really trying to say is that so far, The Gunslinger has proven to be another repeat of the same ol' tried and true formula that Stephen King uses in every story he writes, there is nothing new here. I will be glad to see the movie when it comes out because once they are rewritten, Kings stories make much better movies than books.

Carol wrote: "Hi Guys,
*Spoilers ahead*
So this is my second read of The Dark Tower series so I will be marking any observations/comments that I might make on the second read with spoiler links so if you are on..." I don't know the relevance of the number nineteen yet but I did get the feeling that this was not Roland first time coming to this town, the desert or his first time chasing after the man in black. I think Roland and the man in black are two sides of the same coin, so to speak. Neither is really good or evil they are simply on opposite sides. I admit that I didn't really notice the word RESUMPTION but sense this is my first time with a group read I need to pay better attention and try to learn something :)

Exanimis wrote: "I just finished chapter one and had a hard time getting through it, I am not a Stephan King fan. The chapter begins with Mr. Kings tried and true plot that he seems to use in every book. If it ain'..."
I myself have not read an awful lot of Kings work but he says himself that he considers The Dark Tower as the tale that ties all of his work together.
I remember the first time I read this thinking, what??? But persevere! I tend to finish a series when I start it so I plowed on and ended up loving it!

I just finished chapter two, The Way Station.
Enter the weird kid that I already said I expected.
Roland is reciting a nursery rhyme about planes that can't fly and he is wondering what a plane is when he finds the way station. The only person at the way station is a ten year old boy who is described as well built, handsome with skinny arms, sun bleached hair and pretty lips, a few pages later Roland states that he loves this boy, Is Roland a pedophile?
The boy remembers being killed in New York when he was ran over by a Cadillac. The boy remembers TV and other modern conveniences and remembers that he was walking to school carrying a bowling ball, I guess 10 year old NY city boys like to bowl, when he was pushed into the road by the priest or the man in black.
Roland gets the boys story after hypnotizing the boy with a hand trick involving a bullet then goes into his own flashback of when he was a child. When was he a child? from the description Stephen King gives ( and he rarely give any description at all) I got the impression of medieval times, is that right?
The cook is hung publicly and we go back to Roland and the boy in the present before the chapter ends.
I get the feeling that the world Roland is in is either hell or purgatory. The man in black grants wishes, in a way, but there is a horrible price to pay, sounds like the devil.
Typical of Stephen King's writings, it takes a cruel violent person to defeat the evil monster or devil. (Roland)
Does a person have to read this entire series before they can understand what is going on in the Gunslinger?
With made up words like Gunna and poorly written accents/slang this book makes me feel like I am reading the ramblings of a patient confined to a mental hospital.

I have never done a group read before and I apologize for not really knowing what to say or do. I finished this book today because I didn't want another abandoned book on my list but this is the last Stephen King book I will ever read. I also finished reading this in the hope of discovering the reason Hey Jude is mentioned so many times (spoiler, the answer isn't given.) I really do not have anything good to say about this book.

So, The Waystation to The Slow Mutants read. I'm really enjoying this, even more so on the second read then the first.
This section of the story sees Roland meet up with Jake at the waystation and making there way out of the desert and into the foothills on the trail of the man in black.
We also get to see a little of Roland's childhood and hints that things have been going wrong for a long long time. We start to see a softer side to Roland in his treatment of Jake. And, of course, there is that weird and creepy sex-ish scene with the demon prophet thing.
Major spoilers ahead!
(view spoiler)[ So, as I've said before, this is my second reading of the whole Dark Tower series and it is quite a long tale. That being said, I had completely forgotten that it was poor Jake that meets Roland and that he had died before and will again, and again, and you are really hoping that this time Roland will turn back. (hide spoiler)]

Section 3 of the book see a much darker side of Roland, as he lets Jake die, and we begin to wonder if maybe Roland should turn back.
Personally, I think this is the weakest book in the series and would encourage people to continue reading this series. I think it just gets better and better!