Thank you Mr. King for writing The Green Mile in installments

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Lyndi3

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Jul 20, 2014
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Dear Mr. King,

I am currently reading The Green Mile for the second time and now that I am in my 30's, I took the time to read your foreword. You see, the first time I read the book (the very first book of yours I read), I was a teenager in high school, and didn't think I needed to worry about things like reading forewords. After finishing the foreword, I felt the need to write you, and while this platform is probably not what you had in mind way back in October of 1995, I hope this message gets received nonetheless.

If you had not written The Green Mile in installments, I would bet money that I would not have read it as a teen. You see, my father is an avid reader in general, and you are one of his preferred authors by far. I picked up on his reading habits early on, but in high school would have been quite intimidated to read a big, fat novel of my own free will (I will never forget how tedious and troublesome it was to read The Grapes of Wrath for my 10th grade Humanities course). So when my Dad handed me these six small, skinny books, my eyes connected with my brain and said, "Yea sure, we can handle this". Of course I was immediately enthralled with the story and flipped through those six mini-books in no time. I was shocked to learn the truth behind John Coffey (not spelled like the drink) and wanted to personally punch Percy Wetmore in the nose, hard. Eventually when the movie was created, I saw it opening day and was relatively impressed by the transition from paper to screen (99% of the time I am disappointed by this transition).

Over the years and many, many moves, I either lost, sold, or gave away (not sure which) my installments of The Green Mile. During that same time period I read some of your other works and have continually been entertained by some and haunted by others. So about two years ago when I came across a set of The Green Mile installments in a used book store in Florida, I of course had to buy them. I hadn't gotten around to reading them until now, and was quickly reminded why I love the story so much, as well as why I love the little books (I took one to the beach with me yesterday). Even though I don't have to wait in agony for another installment to be released, I agree with you in that there is something special about not being able to look up the end of a story in advance, as well as having to wait patiently to find out what happens next. With the way the digital world is today, I think the value of patience has lost some of its meaning and the effect it is having on our society is unfavorable.

So thank you, Mr. King, for writing The Green Mile in installments. I found the idea brilliant and refreshing, and hope you do it again some day. Perhaps then I will have to patiently wait for each installment to be released, even if it is so I can immediately download it onto my Kindle.

Ms. Lyndi H.

P.S. - The Shawshank Redemption is one of the best movies of all time...just saying.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
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Cambridge, Ohio
It's time for another one, don't you think?
greenmilelove.jpg
 
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