It's been a while since I downloaded my email for various reasons. I reinstalled my Debian box just before we moved house, but I didn't get round to putting the old Thunderbird profile back. Once we'd moved house I didn't connect the box up until last week, but it wouldn't connect. I tried reinstalling Debian Etch three times and the rsult was the same, it gopt na IP address from the router, but wouldn't connect to anything.
I've had enough, so switched the hard disks around and am now running Winblows XP. I've just finished formatting the disk that had Debian on it and will use it to hold all my photos and stuff. The main problem while being disconected was the ever increasing size of my mailbox, it was getting on for 6Mb. I've just started to download all the emails and there's 6484 of the buggers! This could take a while...
I finished reading The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower last week but have not posted about it as I wanted to collect my thoughts first and not post anything rash. I must admit to being highly disappointed with the ending, but then again, I would possibly have been disappointed with any ending. I've been reading The Dark Tower series since 1989 or there-a-bouts and that's a long time to wait for the conclusion, the journey was far better than the arrival.
I don't want to give away the plot if you haven't read this series of books, so I'm not going to go into specifics. I would urge you to read the books though, they are really good. I'm just not sure Stephen King knew how to finish it, I'm less annoyed about what happened to Roland than I am about what happened to the rest of the ka-tet, I thought it broke some of the rules to have them all finish the way they did.
One interesting thing that did come from the last book though, was the mentioning of Insomnia, another Stephen King books as being the most related work from the rest of his catalogue. I read Insomnia when it came out in paperback, which was quite a while ago now. The only things I can really remember about the book are to do with a lack of sleep, I can't remember anything to do with the Crimson King or the Dark Tower. I'm going to have to dig it out and re-read it.
I'm a massive Stephen King fan, I've been reading his books for over twenty years. I can remember one of the first books I bought, it was in a book shop in Dunfermline that's no longer there. My Mum didn't want me to buy it, but the lady behind the counter said her husband read them and they were fine.
I can remember buying the first Dark Tower book from James Thin on George Street in Edinburgh, another book shop that isn't there any more, I think it's a Waterstone's now. I can remember thinking that it didn't look like any of the other Stephen King books I had, with it's pastel shades and glossy pictures.
I can remember being well impressed that I'd got one with First Publication on it; I was still impressed when I got a copy of the second volume with First Publication on it as well. If you are a follower of the Dark Tower, I don't need to tell you of the gaps between books, it's like a junkies worst nightmare, you need your next fix, but you don't know when it's coming. But even worse, you think you're over your addiction until the next volume come out, then you're hook, line and sinker, all over again.
So it was with a bit of relief that he finally got his finger out and finished the tale. The final three books all came out with out too much of a gap between them. I bought the final instalment last November, but just couldn't bring myself to read it. I had to go back to the beginning and start from scratch, I felt I'd forgotten too much of what had happened.
Unfortunately for me I lent my first Dark Tower book to Sharon Pearson when we were still at High School. I never did get it back, but then I've got her Mum's copy of Skeleton Crew somewhere. So I bought the revised edition of the first book and earlier this year started reading them from the beginning.
I'm now just over half way through the final book, I would have posted this earlier, but the was issues with my web site hoster that meant this site has been inaccessible for the last few days. I've found myself reading till the early hours and getting up in the mornings and instead of going training, sitting on the couch reading before work. I'm totally hook, line and sinker all over again, but this time it's not long until it's over and part of me is sad.
