Kevin's Watch

I've asked this on a couple of other boards, but I haven't gotten too many responses.

I take the dust jackets off all hardcovers before reading, to keep them in mint condition. But while reading Wolves, I noticed that a black subsance was coating my fingers. It was fairly difficult to remove, too.

Did anyone else experience this? Donald M. Grant is primarily known for its high-quality limited editions - did this mass market publishing effort prove too much to handle? Or was I just unlucky?

Answer me true, I beg ya.

If it do ya, Sai Roland, I too noticed this. I do that same thing! LOL! So, I put the jacket back on can ya ken.

Yup. Same here!

Number two on the reasons I don't buy hardbacks - the jacket.
Number three - the hard cover.

Say thankya, Brinn and Furls Fire. Glad to know I'm not alone.

Stonedowner, I admire your will-power . . . but there are some authors I just can't wait until the paperbacks appear. And King is one of them.

I'm a little peeved about the cover of Wolves, for no good reason. I was under the impression that the first four were re-issued in hardback in a format that would match the remaining three. I'm a bit of a collector when it comes to certain books, (TDT and TCTC mainly) and I was disappointed when Calla looked nothing like my other four hardbacks. The cover art is fine, but I was hoping the spine would match the others and it just doesn't. Picky and anal I know....and it's really not that big a deal.
So I ordered the special artist edition direct from Donald M. Grant publishing, hoping it would be the matching one....and it doesn't match either. *sigh* Oh well, it's prettier than the other one, and signed by the artist, Bernie Wrightson. (Couldn't afford the $200.00 for the one signed by King) Anyway, it's my first collector's edition book, and we likes it a lot.

btw, I didn't notice the black stuff coming off 'cause I read books with the dust jackets on. But my hubby takes them off, and he's also having this problem. I thought it was because ours got wet.

Bird and Bear, I see your point, as I'm somewhat of a collector myself, and I like matching series. I have matching covers for the first editions of the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and the matching covers for the SF Book Club editions of the First Chronicles.

My Dark Tower collection is a mess, though. I once had the limited editions of Gunslinger and Drawing of the Three, but sold them during a time of financial crisis. I kept the limited edition of The Waste Lands, though. So I have the reissued trade paperbacks of Gunslinger and Drawing, the limited hardcover of Waste Lands, the first trade paperback of Wizard and Glass, and the hardcover of Wolves.

My Gap series is just as lame. I have the mass market pbs of the first two, the first edition of the third and the SF Book Club editions of the fourth and fifth. I don't know what happened to me. Brain glitch, I guess.

And of course, as you hint at, it isn't always the reader's fault, because the publishers are inconsistent and they keep changing the design as the years mount up between the publication of books. Already my Song of Ice and Fire hardcovers don't match. I'm being penalized just because I recognized greatness from the original printing of Game of Thrones back in 1996?

The only one I bought was Wolves. I want to get the other 4 tho. My Covenant and LOTR collections are both in HC and PB. First editions on the Covenant books. LOTR I have the collector's edition bound in red leather, which also includes The Hobbit, and I have PB's. I also have all of Tolkien's other books. I have alot of other collector editions books as well in a huge wall library case. Too many to list Heaven help us if we ever decide to move...will need a moving truck just for all my books. LOL

bump

No problem here Roland.

Great book BTW! Can't wait to see where the next takes us.

After reading Black House I had the thought that maybe Roland and his ka-tet will meet up with Parkus and Jack Sawyer somewhere along the way to the Tower.

Furl's Fire, that would be cool, as that portion of Black House was by far my favorite part of the book.

At some point, Roland must get involved with Ted Brautigan, the escape artist unwilling Breaker featured in Low Men in Yellow Coats.

The novel's publishing date has been pushed back to late August, according to Amazon (and confirmed by King's official website.) I don't know if this has to do with King's recent bout of pneumonia and lung surgery or just publisher whims. I was hoping to see the book in June myself.

I know, I saw that it was pushed back too. Bummed me out

I think they are all going to meet up at the Tower eventually. Why else would King plant all these little hints and characters everywhere? Especially Jack and Parkus. Jack can't go back to "our" world, so it only makes sense I think...

And what of our little breaker...Tyler Marshall? hmmmmmmmmmm

Clue me in, Furls. I don't recall Tyler Marshall. Is that the character that Ralph and Cora saved in Insomnia?

Tyler Marshall is the little boy Jack and the Thunder Five save in Black House. He was a very talented Breaker which is why the Crimson King wanted him.

Thanks. I'd forgotten his name. I re-read all the Dark Tower novels before Wolves of the Calla was published, but not Black House or Insomnia or Low Men or The Talisman - some of the details have slipped away.

Just checked stepheking.com and there are new release dates for DT6 and DT7:

Song of Susannah, June 8, 2004 (My daughter's bday)

The Dark Tower, September 21, 2004

Yes, I was gone Friday or I would have seen the e-mail from King's website. Let the good times roll!!!!!

OMG! This is one of THOSE books...the kind, where I'm on the last three pages or so, and I'm giving everyone around me a play by play of what's happening in the book, and then...

Spoiler

IT"S THE LAST PAGE AND SHE HASN"T HAD THE FREAKIN" DEMON BABY YET!

I do that with lots of books...."It's the end of the book, and HIS GIRLFRIEND"S STILL A VAMPIRE..." "Ok, can we turn off the light now?"
I kept everyone awake while I finished a book, and then she was still a vampire and still in Brazil....
Oh yeah, and I did have the black fingers problem...took me awhile to realize that was what was causing it though.

Roland, you are referring to "PAT"... he is the one Ralph and Lois rescue. My theory is...and Furls Fire, if you haven't read Insomnia, please read no further (Spoiler)...is that Pat may be the unborn in Susannah, OR that Tyler may be his Twinner in the territories.

Thoughts?