It's funny-- I first read of/heard of this book at age 13, after I read my first Stephen King novel, It.* And then I just never got around to it. King kept writing and I kept reading and sometimes I read a lot of King and sometimes I ignored him for awhile and some things appeal and some things don't and I didn't get around to it for another 34 years. And then I finished another book late at night and didn't have anything else close to hand, so I read it.

And it was grand. Grand in the best possible way. You can tell King is writing with genuine love-- for his daughter, for his metaverse, for his characters, for his plans for Flagg et al., for love of just writing a story. It's wonderful as a self-contained drama if you never, ever read any other King. And it's wonderful as a short story in the larger quest for the Dark Tower. Much better than The Wind Through the Keyhole. But I digress.

I wonder what else I think I should have read circa 1990. I should figure it out and get on those.