The wheel of Ka

I've been kicking myself ever since last Monday. How on Earth could I forget about notebooks?!?!?!

My favourite book isn't one book. It's not even several, really. Having spawned both graphic and ordinary novels, the story of The Dark Tower by Stephen King transcends ordinary literal works, and it sits on the highest level of the Tower.

Okay, yes I realise I'm sounding like I'm overdoing it, but if I were to pick a story to read for the rest of my life it would Roland Deschain's quest for The Dark Tower and given all the work around it I would never be bored.

It's often hard to describe books without giving spoilers because at some point you naturally have to start talking about the plot, but it's hard to do even that with this book. Based on Robert Browning's poem 'Child Roland, to the Dark Tower came' the main bulk of the story is contained in seven novels. It starts with Roland Deschain, last of the Gunslingers (a kind of Western take on the knights of old), walking a beaten path through a desert in Mid-World, a place of King's imagination after watching one too many Westerns. Over the 7 novels he picks up companions, traverses through worlds and time, deals with the magical and real, all on his quest to find and climb The Dark Tower. A lot of the supplementary books and graphic novels deals with Roland's past and the destruction of his home city of Gilead at the hands of The Good Man, John Farson, and all are just as good as the novels.

It's hard to know why they hold a special place in my heart, if I'm honest, apart from the incredibly creative and intelligent way it twists and turns, and the brilliant way in which King writes everything so brilliantly. In the end, I think it's characters, who from the first page are so believable and engaging that you find yourself laughing and crying and running and tensing with them; not at them, having had something tragic or wonderful happen to them, but with them. It feels more like a true story than some true stories, to me at least.

Anyway, there you have it-my favourite story is The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I look forward to seeing all of yours, and hopefully add to my reading list ;)