Need advice for starting The Dark Tower series.

[kingricefan]

It's not necessary to have read all of the books/stories that are connected to The Dark Tower books. But, you will have a more rewarding time if you do read the others first and then tackle the DT books. The 1st book in the series (The Gunslinger) is unlike any other book by King. The voice King used is sparse and dry- like the desert in which alot of the story takes place. I rather liked this use of writing style- it was a fresh breath of air to me and gave me another example of just how diverse King's talent truly is. The second book is where the tale really takes off and where King uses the voice he uses in his other books. I envy any reader their first journey to the Dark Tower- it is one that many of us have made numerous times and each time we take it we see/learn something new.

 

[FlakeNoir]

So, when do people recommend reading Wind Through the Keyhole?

As book 4.5, or at the end?

I read it at the end... I think it's nice to look back while also having a completely new story ahead.

 

[The Nameless]

So, when do people recommend reading Wind Through the Keyhole?

As book 4.5, or at the end?

I read it last but I would like to slip it in after w&g if I ever read the series again. Like flake said, I think I got more out of it because it was a little extra - I'd finished but there's more, it was a chance to become reacquainted with the gang.

 

[AnnaMarie]

I originally read it at the end...because I had finished the series when it was published. But on rereading the series, I put it where it took place.

 

[Spideyman]

Like Flake, I read it at the end. It was like going home for a family reunion, seeing old friends again.

 

[Bev Vincent]

So, when do people recommend reading Wind Through the Keyhole?

As book 4.5, or at the end?

Either is fine, but probably better at the end. It'll mean more to you that way.

 

[AnnaMarie]

I think it meant more after because it had been so much time since we had a "new" DT adventure. I don't think it would necessarily be the same when reading them all for the first time now.

 

[misery chastain loves co.]

I finished up reading the DT series for the first time a few months ago.(separate thread)and enjoyed all of the advice and teasers people were throwing at me throughout my journey. It was a great ride and am happy I finally took it. I saved WTTKH for last because of the same exact advice Spidey gave me above. Happy I did as it was like visiting an old friend or two...

Just don't get not_nadine started on Rhea!

 

[RandallFlagg19]

When I started reading Stephen King, I read The Dark Tower series before anything else. I loved it. Coming across all the connections later was awesome.

The chronological order of the Dark Tower series is

The Gunslinger

The Drawing of the Three

The Wastelands

Wizard and Glass

The Wind Through the Keyhole : Option a

Wolves of the Calla

Song of Susanna

The Dark Tower

The Wind Through the Keyhole : Option b


The story in The Wind Through the Keyhole does not relate to the main story arch, but chronologically takes place between Wizard and Glass and The Wolves of the Calla. It can be read any time after Wizard and Glass and not cause any spoilers to the main story arch; but my preference was to read it after The Dark Tower.

 

[Neesy]

When I started reading Stephen King, I read The Dark Tower series before anything else. I loved it. Coming across all the connections later was awesome.

The chronological order of the Dark Tower series is

The Gunslinger

The Drawing of the Three

The Wastelands

Wizard and Glass

The Wind Through the Keyhole : Option a

Wolves of the Calla

Song of Susanna

The Dark Tower

The Wind Through the Keyhole : Option b


The story in The Wind Through the Keyhole does not relate to the main story arch, but chronologically takes place between Wizard and Glass and The Wolves of the Calla. It can be read any time after Wizard and Glass and not cause any spoilers to the main story arch; but my preference was to read it after The Dark Tower.

I read The Wind Through the Keyhole first (around 2012 I think? or 2013?) as I had never even heard of The Dark Tower at that point (believe it or not).

 

[Narvic]

So, when do people recommend reading Wind Through the Keyhole?

As book 4.5, or at the end?

I truly enjoyed reading keyhole after I had a chance to digest the entire story. That made it like a really fun romp back into what had been so very enjoyable. Plus keyhole just leaves such a sweet taste. Someday I will read it all over again.

 

[HollyGolightly]

I read everything else first - I just thought I wouldn't like the Dark Tower Series. A fellow SK lover friend of mine used to get so aggravated because I refused to try DT. I started reading SK in 1987 and I didn't read The Gunslinger until spring 2013. It took me about 100ish pages to really look forward to reading it. BUT after that I was hooked. I read them back to back until I was finished. It took me a long time to finish. I'm glad I had read most everything else SK has written before I read DT, because I understood the tie-ins and it was exciting to recognize characters and places. But I'm sure it'll be the same if you read DT first and then you'll recognize all that as you come across them in the others.

 

[Kurben]

As for needed to read certaion books before Dark Tower i say no. It stands on its own legs. But it does have ties to other books where you get more info on a character that plays a secondary part in the tower. Take Father Callahan in Wolves of the Calla, SoS and Dark tower, he is a main player in Salems Lot. But you don't need to read SL before DT to understand whats going on in the DT-series. I personally read SL before DT but that was because they were piublicised in that order.
As for winds through the keyhole i don't think it matters if you read between 4 and 5 or in the end. A lovely revisit as it was written or in order it all happened.

 

[SpazzTheBassPlayer]

I have heard that the books weave through the worlds of some of King's other books, do I need to have read these books as a prerequisite to reading The Dark Tower books or can I read the series and be fine with reading the original books later?

What are the books I need to read that tie into The Dark Tower?

Once you finish the Dark Tower series, its more fun to find the "Easter Eggs" in the other books. If you havent read it yet, I wont bother posting examples, but finding these Easter Eggs is a lot of fun when reading Stephen King ---- and there are TONS of them (if you are like me and like to read SK multiples of times, its fun to catch the ones I missed the first times)

 

[MickeyLovesSK1988]

I have heard that the books weave through the worlds of some of King's other books, do I need to have read these books as a prerequisite to reading The Dark Tower books or can I read the series and be fine with reading the original books later?

What are the books I need to read that tie into The Dark Tower?

In the front of his older books the titles that tie into The dark Tower Series are all listed in Bolder print. That's a lot of reading before you start DT series. Just start the series read them in order and then read the ones that tie in, if you want to.
I read the series and have since reread some of the tie-in's and will be starting DT series again because I Love it. Good Luck

 

[Soapstone]

that makes sense. if i read one book of the series then the connecting ones, or read them before reading that particular book for the knowledge needed, having the list for that book would help a lot! i have been collecting them through my local thrift stores so i dont have them all in order yet, but i got maybe 3-4 of them.

 

[Walter Oobleck]

I don't know that I'd ever have read Stephen King if it weren't for The Gunslinger. I'd read It in the early 90s on the advice of my brother, the math and science teacher, gone now, gone too early...but he said, here, read this, this is good, it's about a clown...and he elaborated some. So I read It and It was good. I'd seen The Shining that some seem down on, way back when, early 80s was it? I can't remember if I'd seen the movie, It, before reading the story but I must not have though I have read the story a number of times since and at some point I saw the movie as on rereads I saw characters from the movie. And then I was hanging out at a local board concerned with our yardage where a member posted a pic of the cover of Dreamcatcher and I picked that story up, read it, enjoyed it.

But it wasn't until the summer of aught-six, the wife and I out west, me in a gunslinger mood--we'd come across northern Wyoming, Sundance, Devil's Tower, Deadwood, South Dakota, and we'd stopped in a mall in Rapid City and while my wife was doing what women do in the mall I was in the bookstore, sniffing books. Picked up The Gunslinger, looked at the cover, wondered what did he do with this one? Read that famous first line, read a bit more, bought it. Had no idea at the time it was the first in a series and truth be told, I was a bit disgruntled...why I'm not sure. So...I get the second, The Drawing of the Three, and I was hooked, line and sinker. Couldn't read the stories fast enough, there hasn't been one I didn't enjoy and have a blast reading.

For whatever reason, the stories stay with me. Some things I forget...a lot of things I forget...but these stories stick. There's a lot of poetry in them...the magic of words, and that's fun stuff. Knowing there are connections, links in the chain if you want, all that is fine...discovering them on your own is even better. It's one thing for someone to tell you, here, read this, this is good. It's another thing altogether to discover on your own the truth of the matter and in the end I think it'd probably be more rewarding to you to make those discoveries without the foreknowledge they are waiting to be found. And I believe most here will tell you they discovered things they'd passed over too quickly the first go-round.

 

[Tiny]

maybe Iv misunderstood; but my answer to the first question in the first post is
No.

you dont have to read anything in order to read the Gunslinger/dark Tower books.
it wouldnt kill you to do so, but its not nessasary .

if you really want to, you can read 'Salems Lot' and "Everything Eventual" , and Hearts in Atlantis
these three are heavely woven into the dark tower books. "The Stand" is another, but again
you DONT HAVE TO. it is all right not to.

Insomnia is sortta tied in... but only a little.
there is of course IT , but its barly tied in. Wind through the Keyhole is like part 4.5
but you can read it last and that would be fine.

 

[SHEEMIEE]

Can i add "From a Buick 8 " to the list - just to test the water . If you like that, its like an open door (see what i done) to midworld.

 

[muskrat]

And you can link Insomnia to Pet Semetary thru poor Gage's shoe, thus linking that dark tale into the DT mythos; Christine shows up in It, and blam, add the haunted car to mid-world. And on and on. Boggles the mind.