Stephen King Book • Page 97

Salem's and Insomnia before 5 is a good strat (just be prepared that Insomnia is considered by many to be an absolute slog, not one of his best lmao). I'd then recommend doing Hearts in Atlantis and Black House between 6 and 7. you can kinda read Keyhole anywhere, chronologically for the characters it is 4.5 but it's a pretty inconsequential story so you don't miss anything if you skip it now

 

on top of that my tired brain just recalled that two of the short stories in Everything's Eventual, the title story and Little Sisters of Eluria, are DT related and really good. there's no consensus on where these go but my recommendation is read Little Sisters after Wind Through the Keyhole as they cover similar periods in Roland's life. EE I'd knock out after you read Hearts in Atlantis

 

Yeah in addition to all you've mentioned, JM recommends The Mist, IT, Rose Madder, and Desperation/The Regulators before jumping to 4.5 haha

 

For what it's worth, of all these recommendations I had only read Salem's Lot before DT. That one is pretty important before getting to book 5, but I don't think I felt like I was missing out on anything for not having read Insomnia or anything else. Maybe I'd feel differently on a re-read, but I don't know. I did read Wind Through the Keyhole in sequence but it's certainly not essential.

 

I read the entire Dark Tower series as my intro to King (besides IT). Really the only book I WISH I read prior would be Salem’s Lot.

So if it feels overwhelming just remember you really don’t have to read all these books or novellas prior to “get it.”

It’s your own journey! I just couldn’t imagine being so enthralled and loving W&G and all excited to continue the story, but then pausing to slog through Insomnia lol

 

This is all good to know for sure. I certainly tend to go a bit overboard sometimes when it comes to a prescribed reading order in order to maximize any and all nods, winks, or easter eggs haha. I'll see how I'm feeling once I wrap up Wizard. At the very least, revisiting Salem's Lot is very appealing to me in general and it does seem to be the one unified recommendation.

 

Yeah I totally get that! I think when I started reading the series I saw a DT reddit post of every book to read to catch all easter eggs and I decided that wasn't going to be my journey lol - I just kept wanting to keep going with the main story.

It was really fun reading pretty much everything after I finished the DT and being like "oh wait I remember this" or "oh I see how this is connected now" and sort of reverse easter egging (not a sex thing).

I know a series re-read will come eventually, it's been about a decade, and I forget enough of it.

 

I've never actually read Rose Madder, I can see those others adding a bit to the world especially The Mist which is pretty short. the IT-DT connection is so thin that as long as you remember what Pennywise is I'd say you don't really need to revisit it lmao. that link is basically a fan theory, it's a cool one but not worth adding 1000+ pages after Wizard and Glass for

 

I think the most important to read are something like:

1. Salem's




2. Insomnia
3. Hearts in Atlantis
4. Everything's Eventual



5. Little Sisters of Eluria


But. The quality order is more like:

1. Salem's
2. Heart's in Atlantis



3. Little Sisters
4. Everything's Eventual

5. Insomnia

and the length....insomnia is 3x Salem's length, I'm sure.

As for 4.5, I read it after 7. I think I rec that. It feels almost like an alternate version of the characters sometimes, partly because of how it's narrated

 

yeah while it's not exactly essential I think Hearts in Atlantis is one of his best books

 

oh my god-

 

I was planning to read The Talisman this year anyway but I guess I’m prioritizing Black House now too.

 

I’ve read both, remember liking both (though the sequel slogged a bit) but have literally no memory of either haha

 

I actually prefer Black House out of the two

 

So exciting! Literally just did The Talisman. Will definitely try and hit Black House between now and October

 

Exclusive: The First Excerpt from Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Ending to ‘The Talisman’ Trilogy

Wizard and Glass gang about to be feasting

 

^ some pretty big Black House spoilers in the preamble before the excerpt starts here

 

So as someone that read the Dark Tower but none of the Talisman books, it sounds like they are somewhat related with this new book being more of a crossover?

 

there were hints in the Talisman of a connection but they essentially explicitly become the same world in Black House

 

Feel like I need to re-read these 2 now haha

 

Actively gonna choose not to read this but I did just finish Wizard and Glass yesterday, so this has me even more amped

 

The Talisman was one of the first King books I read. I really liked it but don't remember much. I need to re-read it and get around to Black House as well.

 

congrats, hope you're not too traumatised by the charyou tree

 

Mike Flanagan Sets Stephen King's 'The Mist' Movie At Warner Bros

surprised to hear that Flanagan is doing another movie of this