Book Review: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

Over Thanks giving weekend Flor and I put some miles on the car. first we drove to LA to have dinner with her family and then I drove back to San Diego. On Saturday I drove back to LA to join Flor for our wedding shower and then drove to Fresno to be with my parents for Sunday. My mom came down for the shower also so Flor sat with her in her car for the ride and during this three hour drive by myself I finished up my latest King novel in the car: The Drawing of the Three.

This is the second book in King's Dark Tower series and though I read this book in my high school years I was amazed to reread it again as I didn't remember much detail from it. The end of the book was far more intense than I remembered it being also. Frankly this was a three hour drive that flew by! I was into the story more than I had been into one in a long time. It was great.

The Drawing starts off hours after The Gunslinger ends. Roland is dying of infection and he has to gather three people from another world through magic portals that only he can control. These three are his path to the Dark Tower. Amazingly, the entire book does not ever leave this premise and at the end of the book he's still on the same beach though a different section of the beach and he's still fighting infection and death except now he has drawn three "companions" or "helpers" for his quest and the reader is thoroughly sucked into the journey.

An interesting tie-in to The Gunslinger is in the third portal that Roland enters he enters the mind and body of the man responsible for killing Jake, the boy Roland meets at the weigh station in The Gunslinger. Jake died but somehow found himself in Roland's world after his death. Later in that book Roland sacrifices Jake and allows him to fall to his death for at least a second time. Jake tells Roland there are other world than this and he's correct in King's imagination.

Looking forward to book three!

I'm Becoming An Online MBA Student At Ashford University!

I can hardly believe this but after 5 years of school and three years off just to go back and finish my degree I am now going back again a full year later to get a Masters in Business Administration. This will not change my working situation at all and I will actually receive financial assistance from my employer to pay for the degree so it should be great for me in the long run.

This will be a 16 month program with 100% of the classes taken online. This is of course what makes this program feasible for me as I can't very well quit my job.

I'll be starting the online MBA program at Ashford University on January 8, 2008 and will be anticipating graduating in April or May of 2009. Wish me good luck!

This means that I will have a graduate degree for at least two years before Flor gets one. That will make me feel good. :) Of course she is going to be a doctor and I'll continue as a banker so I guess she'll eventually be far more impressive than me anyway.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Expect more pictures from me in the future as the holiday's are coming up I will have to start capturing moments again.

Book Review: Heart In Atlantis by Stephen King

In my ongoing pursuit to revisit my Stephen King library and re-read some books that I first read as a child and read for the first time new King books I have come across Hearts In Atlantis for the first time. This is considered widely to be one of King's better books as it does not merely delve into fantastic stories but deals with real issues. I however was not impressed by much of the book but only part of it.

Hearts is written as a collection of short stories featuring many of the same characters throughout the course of their lives. The first story I enjoyed a lot and wanted more when it ended. The second was marginal and got mildly interesting when King decided to end it. The third story had the makings of a riveting novel but it was a micro story that ended before it began. The fourth story nearly put me to sleep as it didn't have a lot of story in it just driveling about war stories from a sad character that happened to show up in the first story. The fifth and final story was a bit better but I also found slightly pointless as well.

I don't even know what to say about them. I finished these books a month ago and finally decided to at least note it here in this blog. I don't even want to go into detail about these stories because I didn't care for them. I suppose that I just like King's usual style more than his artistic/academic style better. If you want a real review of this book then you can read this review as it pretty much sums up what I don't care to write. What I will say though is that I loved the huge tie in of "the beam" in the first story. "The Beam" is a central theme to the Dark Tower series which I'm currently reading and it was nice to get a large piece of it in this book. The first story in this book is worth reading just for that.