A few days ago, I began re-reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I first read the series over a period of about 2 months in the summer of 2013. I have always enjoyed King’s books, but had not gotten around to the Dark Tower because I didn’t really know what it was, or if I would like it. By the time I finished the series, I found that I did like it, although I found it to be a little uneven in places. My favorite books in the series were (1) Wizard and Glass and (2) A Wind Through the Keyhole.

The first time around, I listened to the audiobooks. This time, I am reading the paper books. Not the e-books–the paperback editions of all 8 books. I am doing it slowly and carefully, and with a yellow #2 pencil in hand, doing lots of underlining and making marginal notes along the way.

It’s true, having been through the series once, I know the story and the outcome, but knowing that, and knowing how many tendrils the Dark Tower books send out into other stories by King, a more careful reading exposes more of the story that I realized the first time around. Indeed, the first time around, I found The Gunslinger (the first book in the series) to be a bit slow and difficult. This time, more than two-thirds through the book, I am finding it almost new, and revealing.

Of course, I am particularly looking forward to re-reading Wizard and Glass and A Wind Through the Keyhole, but for now, I am completely enjoying the immersion in the world that King has created in these books. I am roaming through them a second time, and knowledge of that first time through has not completely left me. It makes a careful reading that much more enjoyable.