Creatio Ex Nihilo--The DiMB Book Club

Welcome, fellow uneducated, slack-jawed, and wide-eyed yokels. If you, like me, would like to become more well-read, then welcome to the Demons in My Britches book club--Creatio Ex Nihilo. Like our film discussion group, this will be very informal and open to everyone who wants in. Anyone can suggest books and we will discuss them on our own time and when available, whether that means on this blog, in person, or via Skype, something I had not heard of until I saw Daniel using it a year ago to keep in touch with the victim of his torrid love affair, one Rie Ma.

As the club's founder, I naturally get first pick for what we read, and I have decided upon the preeminent series of the world's best-selling author, Stephen King: The Dark Tower. Despite what you might think, his most critically acclaimed series isn't straight horror. Rather, it's a mix of fantasy and western, put together in one ludicrously epic package. As King himself says in the intro to the first book, The Gunslinger, he was inspired to write this series by both The Lord of the Rings and the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (join our film discussion group to watch this landmark film, and stay afterwards at our CD-signing tent to pick up Cam Heaslip's special energy drink, which releases hits of acid and molly so that they peak right during the shootout climax of Leone's epic western film). You can tell King really just wanted to make the most epic thing possible. This is like a pulpy, popular fiction version of Homer and The Aeneid. Don't worry, we'll eventually get to the classics in our book club, but I wanted to start with something a little easier and more fun, and I think this is the perfect intro. It has almost everything, considering its scope, and because it's King, it is incredibly easy to read and very thrilling.

There are seven books total in the series. This is them in chronological order (shut-up!), starting with the first: The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower. According to Wikipedia, King has described this series as his magnum opus. I have only read the first book, which was entertaining and a fun read, but I think it really only scratches the surface of this complex and epic series. I believe it is by far the shortest book. I'm sure people's local libraries carry these books, so there is no need to buy them for our book club. If someone needs them, I do have copies of the first four and I could loan them out individually after I finish each one.

Please post comments if you are interested in joining our book club. I stress that it's very informal and you can read as much or as little as you want. I'm hoping to see this book club as a way to get people like Matt or Mike started reading. I assure you guys that The Dark Tower is very easy reading and undoubtedly you'll find it an immersive, white-knuckle read. By the way, I don't plan on starting The Dark Tower for a little bit myself, because as you can read in my earlier post about my upcoming reading list, I have the Odyssey and the Bible up next on the plate. I don't plan on reading the whole Bible at once, though, so I say we'll probably start sometime in mid-September or so, would be my guess. If you want to, of course, you can always start reading now if you're a slow reader.

Please, please, please, feel free to post any suggestions about the book club you want. And anyone looking to join, just tell me or other members (as far as I know, Daniel is the only other member at the moment, but we'll have more soon). Happy reading!

--Edward