It was Thursday, Bruno the bear's birthday, and he had such a wonderful and fun time that he wished it didn't have to end. "He knew his birthday would be gone in the morning. So, wondered Bruno, what happened to it during the night? Where did it go?" Bruno just had to find out, and so along with his duck friend Bert embarks on a middle of the night odyssey to find Thursday and say goodbye. "First they came to a bridge. A gentle river gurgled beneath. "Oogle, gurgle. Oogle gurgle," it said. "Is that you, Thursday?" Bruno called out. "We've come to say goodbye." But there was no reply." Then on to the park, the lake, up the big hill to the train tracks, and even the seashore. Each time they called out their goodbye to Thursday. And each time there was no reply. Sad and defeated they head back home, and Bruno tells Bert what his Thursday would look like if he could find it ...round like his birthday cake, bright like his candles, and happy like his balloons. Just then, Bruno and Bert look up and see the big, glowing moon. "Just like Thursday..." Janeen Brian's simple, whimsical, and engaging story begs to be read aloud and shared, and is complemented by Stephen Michael King's expressive watercolor artwork that sparkles with lovely nightime detail. Together word and art create a magical, gentle, and soothing bedtime story. Perfect for preschoolers Where Does Thursday Go? is a sweet little treasure that's soon to become a special favorite at your house.

I've been reading Munsch since childhood - but re-reading this book for a Children's Lit course was a delight. This book sets a fine example for children (and adults) about the value of role reversal and what it can teach us about the divide between the sexes. In theory, this is too complex for children to understand, yet it does send the message to children that girls can be heroes, too. And unlike the siliconed, pancaked Bond girls, the Paper Bag Princess comes through in fine style.

This was the first Munsch book that I bought and I quickly went out and bought a whole load more. He's an excellent writer with a wonderful range of stories and a beautifully simple and fluid style of writing that is both accessible to children and able to roll off the tongue of most adults.

As you'll see from the other reviews here, this tale is about a young girl who, filled with nothing but courage, charity and a fair bit of brains, goes off to rescue a young prince from a ferocious dragon. After using all of her cunning to defeat the dragon she discovers that the prince is a bit of a monster himself, and so she decides not to marry him after all.

Although I agree that the story has a wealth of small lessons for children to learn about boys and girls and expectations and disappointments, I think that one of its strongest points is that the book serves as a wonderful introduction to the fact that not all stories end the way we expect them to (it's still a happy ending, just a different one) and that sometimes a twist can be more satisfying anyway.

Highly recommended for children from 3 to 103.

As an Education major and child care employee, I have scoured book stores and book fairs to find quality literature for use in the classroom. I often utilize the preschool children that I work with as "guinea pigs" and rate thier reactions to such literature. They loved the Paper Bag Princess! Although I brought the entire Munschworks collection to school last week, I was asked (and often ordered) to read only thie particular story each day, and often several times in a day.
The children were filled with laughter at various points in the story, especially when I would flip to the page in which Elizabeth tricks the dragon into using up all of his firey dragon breath-the children would instantly yell out, "He doesn't have enough dragon breath to cook a meatball...ha ha ha".
By the middle of the week, the children were reciting this story to thier friends and parents, and even acting it out (they enjoyed calling each other bums at the end). Munsch stories are truly a delight for any classroom or individual child's library!

This book is one of those rarities that can delight passionate history buffs, professional historians, serious field explorers, and armchair travelelers alike. The authors have skillfully drawn on nearly every worthwhile source on King Philip's War to create a fascinating and readable text. What's really great, though, is the photos, maps, and place descriptions. You might live over 350 years later and most of a continent away but they still give you a strong sense of "being there" during one of the greatest white-Indian showdowns of American history.

I read the book. Then I read Mr. O'Keefe from Denver's review. The only thing I can think is that Mr. O'Keefe's edition was missing the first 80 pages. Those pages contain the best, most concise and "logical" history of the war available. After that the book becomes a travelogue (Mr. O'Keefe: a "collage") structured geographically that the Boston Globe raved about. All of the "detail" Mr. O'Keefe complained about allowed me to visit a half dozen of the sites that I would never have been able to find otherwise. If you want an unstructured collage beyond most amateur historians, read Lepore's book. If you want to understand King Philip's War, I would recommend this book (Schultz/Tougias) highly.

In living King Philip's war through the words of the author, this book put articulate reality into an historical time while capturing my interest from page 1. This book was well researched and written with a vision that portrayed places and events of no other book I have read. I highly recommend this book - FIVE STARS

"King Solomon's Mines" was published in 1885, when the interior of Africa was still an unexplored, "dark" continent; thus, it was the first book to present the possibility of adventure in Africa to the European reading public. Riding on the tails of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island," "King Solomon's Mines" made H. Rider Haggard famous. Much of what Haggard writes is based on his personal experience and observations in South Africa, where, unusual among the British colonizers, he learned Zulu, which gave him an insight lacking in his colleagues and contemporaries.

Although on the surface an adventure story for young boys, "King Solomon's Mines" raises interesting questions about the role of the colonists and their relationship with the African people on the eve of the great European scramble for Africa. Like the elephants that Quatermain and his group hunt and shoot down simply because they are there for the picking, so Africa and its riches presented itself to the Europeans as rich for exploitation. The question of "What is a gentleman?" runs throughout the narrative, leaving the European reader to discern whether Africans possessed a nobility and dignity comparable to the ancient Greeks and Biblical Hebrews. Haggard depicts the Zulu language as comparable to the richly metaphoric Old and Middle English languages.

"King Solomon's Mines" gives us a glimpse into a way of life that was shortly to disappear with the arrival of the Europeans.

I picked up Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" to read on the train, knowing that it would be entertaining, and I wasn't disappointed. Moving quickly but without forsaking the kinds of detailed narration that bring a story to life, Haggard's novel is an engaging treasure hunt of the Indiana Jones variety.

The book is styled as a long chronicle written by safari-leader Allan Quatermain to his son, describing a hunt for the lost diamond mines of King Solomon in the heart of Africa. Haggard peppers the tale with nods to real life that go out of their way to convince us that everything we are reading is true--editorial comments purportedly added later, for example--and the result is a compellingly detailed read. It is clear that Haggard knew Africa well, and his framing of this knowledge within a focused and nicely spun-out plot pulls you right through the book to its climactic finale, which I should probably allow you, after you've traipsed across deserts and tamed native unrest with the narrator and his companions, to discover for yourself.

So, "King Solomon's Mines" is a well-constructed read, but another of its strong points, the humor that is so central to the story, forces a look at the bigger context. Haggard takes solid jokes (like Good's pasty white legs, for which he is assumed to be a god by the natives) and, like David Letterman, returns to them at intervals in a manner that always uses them in a new way but lets the reader think that he or she is on the inside, slyly being chucked on the shoulder by the narrator.

It's this penchant for humor that gets a little uncomfortable once you think about it, because you can't help but compare Haggard's novel here to another journey to the center of Africa written two decades later, Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," which is conspicuously devoid of laughter unless it's the very evil kind. Haggard's novel is immensely entertaining--I don't want to deny that for a second--but it glosses over some very real problems that Conrad is more careful about: imperialism and its disastrous universe of consequences.

I probably shouldn't stand in judgment of Haggard for his take on and his playing to the racial politics of his day, but I'm going to do it anyway because Haggard was, in his day, one of the most widely read writers writing. Adventures like "King Solomon's Mines" set the bar for the British male for decades and, if it taught him to be a gentleman and fair-player, it also grounded this ethos in the belief that he was superior both socially and racially. Thus is it the gentlemanly westerners who manage to import due process into African law in this novel, and thus does Captain Good's native love-interest ultimately recuse herself from his affections because, as a white man, he is like the sun. And what can possibly be good enough to mate with the sun?, she asks. Disturbing, in retrospect.

This gripping adventure story gets four stars by virtue of its great plot and skillful spinning-out of that plot. It misses the fifth star because it buys wholeheartedly into the myths on which centuries of imperial violence were founded. And no matter how enjoyable this novel is, it's hard to chase those ghosts away.

Surely a classic, this was Haggard's first foray into the literary field -- to prove he could do it better than some of his contemporaries. Having spent time in South Africa as a minor civil servant, he drew on his experiences of that land to impart a feel for the country in this short, but by no means small, tale of treasure hunting & adventure among unknown & exotic peoples. This is the story of an over the hill "white hunter" impressed into the service of two English gentlemen seeking the brother of one who had disappeared years before on the edge of a great desert in vain (or perhaps not so vain) pursuit of the fabled mines of King Solomon. Along the way they are joined by an enigmatic native guide who is much more than what he seems as they stumble across previously unexplored (@ least by Europeans) tracts of Africa & into a lost nation related, apparently, to the Zulus of southern Africa whom the English of that day so feared & respected. Drawn at once into the internal politics of these people & overawing them w/their European tricks, they are soon in deadly peril from the the cruel king of that country and the evil sorceress who conspires behind his throne. But there's no use telling too much of a tale like this in a review -- the interested reader is urged to read it for him or herself. It's quick & exciting & no more than what it seems: a fast paced adventure in strange parts, for those w/a taste to see how the great ones, like Haggard, did it. -- Stuart W. Mirsky (mirsky@ix.netcom.com

I read this novel for an oral presentation in my 10th grade honors english class. This was such a good book, in fact, that I produced a 15 minute presentation and earned a grade of an A+ from a teacher that has NEVER given an A+ in 30 years of teaching.

In his shortest Novel of the Asian series, Clavell fills every page with meaning. His contant references back to Christ build his every aspect of the setting. The last two pages of this novel are the best two pages of literature that I have ever seen in my 16 years on this earth. I have read and re-read them over 100 times (honest!). I recommend this book to all audiences, but especially to those who want a book with heavy information.

"And Adam ruled, for he was the King. Until the day his will to be King deserted him. Then he died, food for a stronger. And the strongest 'was always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and luck and strength together. Among the rats" (352).

This book is lumped into the "Asian Saga" series of James Clavell, and yes, it takes place in Asia, but bears no other true resemblance to the rest of the saga. It's shorter, of course, but it's also not an epic...it takes place in a POW camp almost entirely.

The character of King, the American trader who lives high-on-the-hog through his wheeling and dealing, is fascinating in the feelings of hatred & envy he generates. Everyone wants to be close to him, not because they like him, but because he can afford to give away cigarettes, share an egg, pour coffee, etc. He has learned to manipulate the system totally to look out for #1.

He makes friends with unassuming British fighter pilot Peter Marlowe, who at first acts and translator and later as partner and friend to King. His character goes through lots of development, and he is really the conscious of the camp. Although not written in the first person, we really see things through his eyes.

The book is packed full of colorful characters, many sketched only briefly, yet Clavell makes us see them all, and understand them.

THere are moments of high drama, where our characters are close to being caught or captured, and the plot moves at a brisk pace.

I found the ending of the story to be just a tiny bit rushed, BUT it made some powerful statements. When the war ends, the fear that sweeps through the camp, first that the Japanese will take vengeance on the POWs and second, the fear of "what do we do now," is very convincing. It's not what I ever thought the liberation of a POW camp would be like, and it really made me stop and think. And the dynamics that occur when the first officers from "outside" show up to help liberate the camp are fascinating.

This book is an exploration of the human spirit that is dramatic, moving, occasionally funny and always unexpected. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

In my honest opinion, this was one of the best books I have ever read. Its unique setting, plot, and characters make for an unforgettable read. The emotional roller coaster that King Rat takes you through is phenomenal. One minute, you could feel dire hatred toward the King because of his treatment of his fellow POWs. The next, you could be laughing hysterically due to the idea of Colonel Smedly-Taylor paying top dollar for rat legs. After that, you would be feeling sorrow and pity toward the King. No book I have read before has left such a lasting impression on me. After I was finished, I almost wished I were just beginning it so I could experience the ride all over again. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a thoughtful, impacting story. James Clavell will forever hold a fond place in my heart.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in Cavaliers, from the pet owner to the breeder and show exhibitor. Full of specific information related to Cavaliers and personal anecdotes, all aspects of the breed are covered, including history, health, grooming, breed standard, breeding, and Cavaliers in art. Photos and/or drawings illustrate every page - show champions as well as informal photos show the charm of the breed. I have several books on Cavaliers, but this is the best, and the one that I always recommend to others.

Any dog lover--but especially Cavalier lovers--will love this beautiful book. It is by far the most comprehensive book ever written about this wonderful breed. What a find! I highly recommend it.

I Loved the cavalier art.
Good treatment of breed standard.
Superb pen & ink illustrations to show breed standard. What artist did these?

_The Grey King_ is arguably the strongest book in Susan Cooper's _Dark is Rising_ sequence. A winner of the Newbery Medal, it is the story of Will Stanton and his new friend, Bran Davies. Will, a character who appeared in _The Dark is Rising_ and _Greenwitch_, is the youngest of the Old Ones, a group of magical beings fighting to protect the world from the Dark. In this book, he is sent to relatives in Wales to convalesce from typhoid. He learns he is in Wales to win a quest for the Old Ones--and for the first time, he must do it without the direct guidance of his friend and mentor, Merriman. During the course of the book, his new friend Bran becomes deeply involved in Will's quest and both boys learn a lot about themselves. The title character, the Grey King, is a member of the Dark who is bent upon preventing their success.

On one level, this book is an all-out fantasy adventure. There is a cryptic poem, magic, good and evil lords, and fascinating uses of classic Arthurian legend. On a deeper level,however, this is a story about coming-of-age and family. Will learns how to be an independent Old One rather than an apprentice. Bran struggles to understand his mysterious past and his place in the world. This book is more than just a thrilling adventure--it is the story of people's choices and what "family" really means. In other word's, _The Grey King_ is deep *and* fun.

I highly recommend this book to all readers. It may be a little hard for very young readers--but middle readers and older will enjoy it. I reread this book (and the rest of the series) at least twice a year. It should be read after the three previous books in _The Dark is Rising_ sequence (_Over Sea, Under Stone_; _The Dark is Rising_; _Greenwitch_). Lovers of Arthurian legend will particularly appreciate it.

The book opens with a Welsh poem: "On the day of the dead,when the year too dies/Must the youngest open the oldest hills/Throughthe door of the birds, where the breeeze breaks..." A beatiful, mystical and magical beginning to a beatiful, mystical and magical book.

We see Will Stanton, a seemingly normal English boy struck terribly ill, go to Wales to visit his aunt and uncle to recuperate, where he will have the adventure of perhaps a lifetime, sweeping everybody around him, including the reader into it. As we read of his quest to awaken the Sleepers, we learn a little Welsh culture, history, and language. We feel the emotions of the characters involved; experience their sorrow, bewilderment, hatred and joy. We dabble in a little High Magic, and realize the presence of the Dark, and the Light's endless struggle against it.

One of the great things about this book is that you don't have to read the other parts of the series to understand, and become swept up in the magic of it. Even though it's the second to last book, it was the first I read of the series. It speaks for itself.

If you liked C. S. Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia", you'll probably enjoy these books. It's the same struggle between good and evil told in a new way, and though I think this series is the easier read, it loses nothing off it's competion.

Diolch yn fawr!

"The Dark Is Rising" is a hard book to top, but Susan Cooper nearly matches it in "Grey King." A stunning, atmospheric Welsh fantasy tinged with Arthurian legend, it also introduces one of the most important and unusual characters in the classic series.

In the aftermath of a nasty case of hepatitis, Will Stanton has temporarily forgotten his mission from the Light: to recover a golden harp, with the help of the "raven boy" and "silver eyes that see the wind." When his family sends him to Wales to recover from the illness, he regains his memory when he meets an albino boy his own age named Bran -- which means "raven." Bran's mother "Gwenny" vanished many years before, and his stepfather has devoted himself to religion and penitance. Bran's only friend is the silver-eyed dog Cafall.

Will acquaints his new friend with more information about the battle with the Dark, while Bran acquaints him with information about Wales that can help Will find the golden harp, and wake the Sleepers under the hill. But the malevolent Grey King is spying on them with magical warestones and trying to wrest the harp from Will. To stop the Grey King, Will must learn the secret of Bran's past and evade the dangerous farmer Caradog Pritchard...

Atmosphere is thick and enticing in "Grey King" -- Cooper has clearly come a long way from the fluffier "Over Sea Under Stone." This book, unlike "Greenwitch," does not handle the Drew family, or even much about Merriman: it's all about Bran and Will, who are given equal parts of the plotline. Though there are many other characters, these two are the core of the story.

Here the Arthurian theme, which has been present in a smaller way throughout the series, becomes more pronounced and integral. Cooper continues interweaving mythic elements into it, such as the Sleepers, Cafall the dog, and the Brenin Llwyd. Fans of mythology and other mythic-themed stories such as the Prydain Chronicles will have a heyday.

Will is very much like he is in "Greenwitch" -- sometimes he's an ordinary preteen boy who starts yelling "Achtung!" at the top of his lungs, and sometimes he is the wise and ancient Old One, with knowledge he learned from the book of Gramarye. Bran is an instantly sympathetic character, a very ordinary boy with an extraordinay past; he, like Will in the second book, gradually grows into a unique and more powerful person. Caradog Pritchard will inspire disgust from his first appearance onward, while the tragic Owen Davies will gain the sympathy of the readers despite his insulated life.

Perhaps the worst thing about reading "Grey King" is the knowledge that there is only one more book in this series. But if that book is half as good as "Grey King," then it will be quite a ride before the end.

General reading. That is, unlike the last few books, this one is generally easy reading, witty, and requires only a passing
familiarity with the bare bones of European history. Good light reading for a rainy day, and full of interesting tidbits, Farquhar's not writing a 'formal' history, but one which giddily languishes in the world of sex, torture, death and madness.

Covering both the well known classics of the genre (Henry VIII gets some 39 pages worth of the author's attentions), the reader
is also greeted with the little known and perhaps better forgotten tidbits of royal and papal indignities and misdeeds. Anyone who would really like to know about Catherine the Great's sex life, why Edward VIII really grave up his throne, or the Spanish prince so inbred that he could be his own first cousin several times over should really read this book.

It is however, not scholarly, and the decided lack of a note's section leaves a lot to be desired for anyone who would like to cite Treasury in any academic medium. All in all, though, nice light lecherous reading.

Michael Farquhar's "A Treasury of Royal Scandals" will delight inveterate royal watchers! As he sniffs in the introduction, he covers not the current crop of royals, as none of them have provided anything worthy of the title of "scandalous," but he goes in-depth to provide us with (as the book is subtitled) "shocking true stories of history's wickedest, weirdest, most wanton kings, queens, tsars, popes, and emperors."

Farquhar provides a handy family tree for major royal families at the beginning--it's most helpful when the scandals reach a dizzying pitch and you need to sort out which royal is plotting to overthrow/marry for money/murder which other royal. He debunks an awful lot of incorrect gossip (like the oft-told tale of Catherine the Great's predilection for beastiality) and comes up with wonderful gems of dirt that will be deliciously unfamiliar to most readers. This is not a scholarly work by any means--it's kind of like a historical PEOPLE magazine, focusing on the faux pas, the foibles, and the fevered doings of all sorts of royals throughout history. Great good fun!

I loved this book! The author clearly enjoys his topic, and while humorously reveling in all the dirt, he manages to sympathetically bring out the humanity in some of the royals he writes about. I actually found myself feeling sorry for "Bloody" Mary, even if she did burn hundreds at the stake. The stories of royal misbehavior are crisp and concise, and add a wonderfully entertaining dimension to European history. If only our history teachers had provided a few of these anecdotal gems, I know the subject would not have been so dreaded. A truly fun and informative read!

One of the things you can assume when you write about Shakespeare--given the hundreds of thousands of pages that have already been written about him in countless books, essays, theses and term papers--is that whatever you say will have been said before, and then denounced, defended , revised and denounced again, ad infinitum. So I'm certain I'm not breaking any new ground here. King Lear, though many, including David Denby (see Orrin's review of Great Books) and Harold Bloom consider it the pinnacle of English Literature, has just never done much for me. I appreciate the power of the basic plot--an aging King divides his realm among his ungrateful children with disastrous results--which has resurfaced in works as varied as Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Thousand Acres (see Orrin's review), and Akira Kurosawa's last great film, Ran. But I've always found the play to be too busy, the characters to be too unsympathetic, the speeches to be unmemorable and the tragedy to be too shallow. By shallow, I mean that by the time we meet Lear he is already a petulant old man, we have to accept his greatness from the word of others. Then his first action in the play, the division of the kingdom, is so boneheaded and his reaction to Cordelia so selfishly blind, that we're unwilling to credit their word.

Then there's the fact that Shakespeare essentially uses the action of the play as a springboard for an examination of madness. The play was written during the period when Shakespeare was experimenting with obscure meanings anyway; add in the demented babble of several of the central characters, including Lear, and you've got a drama whose language is just about impossible to follow. Plus you've got seemingly random occurrences like the disappearance of the Fool and Edgar's pretending to help his father commit suicide. I am as enamored of the Bard as anyone, but it's just too much work for an author to ask of his audience trying to figure out what the heck they are all saying and what their actions are supposed to convey. So I long ago gave up trying to decipher the whole thing and I simply group it with the series of non-tragic tragedies (along with MacBeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar), which I think taken together can be considered to make a unified political statement about the importance of the regular transfer of power in a state. Think about it for a moment; there's no real tragedy in what happens to Caesar, MacBeth, Hamlet or Lear; they've all proven themselves unfit for rule. Nor are the fates of those who usurp power from Caesar, Hamlet and Lear at all tragic, with the possible exception of Brutus, they pretty much get what they have coming to them. Instead, the real tragedy lies in the bloody chain of events that each illegitimate claiming of power unleashes. The implied message of these works, when considered as a unified whole, is that deviance from the orderly transfer of power leads to disaster for all concerned. (Of particular significance to this analysis in regards to King Lear is the fact that it was written in 1605, the year of the Gunpowder Plot.)

In fact, looking at Lear from this perspective offers some potential insight into several aspects of the play that have always bothered me. For instance, take the rapidity with which Lear slides into insanity. This transition has never made much sense to me. But now suppose that Lear is insane before the action of the play begins and that the clearest expression of his loss of reason is his decision to shatter his own kingdom. Seen in this light, there is no precipitous decline into madness; the very act of splitting up the central authority of his throne, of transferring power improperly, is shown to be a sign of craziness.

Next, consider the significance of Edgar's pretense of insanity and of Lear's genuine dementia. What is the possible meaning of their wanderings and their reduction to the status of common fools, stripped of luxury and station? And what does it tell us that it is after they are so reduced that Lear's reason (i.e. his fitness to rule) is restored and that Edgar ultimately takes the throne. It is probably too much to impute this meaning to Shakespeare, but the text will certainly bear the interpretation that they are made fit to rule by gaining an understanding of the lives of common folk. This is too democratic a reading for the time, but I like it, and it is emblematic of Shakespeare's genius that his plays will withstand even such idiosyncratic interpretations.

To me, the real saving grace of the play lies not in the portrayal of the fathers, Lear and Gloucester, nor of the daughters, but rather in that of the sons. First, Edmund, who ranks with Richard III and Iago in sheer joyous malevolence. Second, Edgar, whose ultimate ascent to the throne makes all that has gone before worthwhile. He strikes me as one of the truly heroic characters in all of Shakespeare, as exemplified by his loyalty to his father and to the King. I've said I don't consider the play to be particularly tragic; in good part this is because it seems the nation is better off with Edgar on the throne than with Lear or one of his vile daughters.

Even a disappointing, and often bewildering, tragedy by Shakespeare is better than the best of many other authors (though I'd not say the same of his comedies.) So of course I recommend it, but I don't think as highly of it as do many of the critics.

GRADE : B-

This star-rating system has one important flaw: you have to rank books only in relation to its peers, its genre. So you must put five stars in a great light-humor book, as compared to other ones of those. Well, I am giving this book four stars in relation to other Shakespeare's works and similar great books.

Of course, it's all in the writing. Shakespeare has this genius to come up with magnificent, superb sentences as well as wise utterings even if the plot is not that good.

This is the case with Lear. I would read it again only to recreate the pleasure of simply reading it, but quite frankly the story is very strange. It is hard to call it a tragedy when you foolishly bring it about on yourself. Here, Lear stupidly and unnecessarily divides his kingdom among his three daughters, at least two of them spectacularly treacherous and mean, and then behaves exactly in the way that will make them mad and give them an excuse to dispose of him. What follows is, of course, a mess, with people showing their worst, except for poor Edgar, who suffers a lot while being innocent.

Don't get me wrong: the play is excellent and the literary quality of Shakespeare is well beyond praise. If you have never read him, do it and you'll see that people do not praise him only because everybody else does, but because he was truly good.

The plot is well known: Lear divides the kingdom, then puts up a stupid contest to see which one of his daughters expresses more love for him, and when Cordelia refuses to play the game, a set of horrible treasons and violent acts begins, until in the end bad guys die and good guys get some prize, at a terrible cost.

As a reading experience, it's one of the strongest you may find, and the plot is just an excuse for great writing.

One of literature's classic dysfunctional families shows itself in King Lear by William Shakespeare. King Lear implicity trusts his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, but when the third wishes to marry for love rather than money, he banishes her. The two elder ones never felt Lear as a father; they simply did his bidding in an attempt to win his favor to get the kingdom upon his death. Cordelia, on the other hand, always cared for him, but tried to be honest, doing what she felt was right. As Lear realizes this through one betrayal after another, he loses his kingdom -- and what's more, his sanity...

The New Folger Library edition has to be among the best representations of Shakespeare I've seen. The text is printed as it should be on the right page of each two-page set, while footnotes, translations, and explanations are on the left page. Also, many drawings and illustrations from other period books help the reader to understand exactly what is meant with each word and hidden between each line.

This is the first installment of THE DARK TOWER series, begun when King was a student, and finished 12 years later. Until recently, I hadn't realized King was a fantasy author, in addition to his other accomplishments. I was a kid who grew up reading THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA and THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and spending hours searching attics & basements for a gateway to another world. So I decided I might like The Dark Tower.

After reading customer reviews, and A Dark Tower Primer, A List By Elena, I expected this book to be inaccessible. I thought it would take time and background reading for me to get into it, and that perhaps I never would.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I was hooked before I had finished reading the first page.

Why? The first 16 pages describe a lone figure crossing an absolutely barren landscape in pursuit of another lone figure. What made those 16 pages so compelling?

Mostly, it's the descriptions. King describes the desert so you can see it, hear it, even smell it. As the narrative continues and the lone figure begins to interact with other characters, a vivid individual is revealed - so gradually, so slowly - behind the archetypal "gunslinger".

I didn't find the book as puzzling as I expected from the customer reviews. It seemed clear to me it was taking place in some sort of post-apocalyptic future which exists in a parallel universe or dimension to our own. It's not true that it answers none of its own questions, it just doesn't answer all of them, as befits the first chapter of a series.

My only criticism is that the prose falters at a few points. Surprisingly, not in the part of the book written when King was very young (the beginning) but later, when he was already an experienced published author. I'm only referring to a few phrases where my absorption in the book was broken by a thought such as "eew, why did he choose those words?" The only example I can find or think of is a phrase such as "the boy threw up his hands" (he did? How had he managed to swallow his own hands?) I only mention it because normally this never happens when I am reading a King novel.

In this book, there are long scenes in which nothing very much happens, or only dialogue and description, punctuated by 2 scenes of extreme violence. Usually people who like "action" and people who like dialogue and description can never agree on a book. Usually people who like reading violent scenes don't like long descriptive passages, and people who do like them can't bear reading about violence. But this is not your usual book.

If you like fantasy, or if you like King but have never read his fantasy work, definitely check it out. Dark Tower fans need no recommendation, of course. If you like descriptive narrative prose, you probably look down on King, but overcome your prejudice long enough to take a look at this book.

"The Gunslinger" was one of the first books I ever read by Stephen King (sometime in the early 90s), and even though it's not one of my favorites, it's still worth reading if you like King's fantasy novels. It takes place in another world where Roland, the gunslinger, pursues The Man in Black across dry, dangerous terrain, entering town after town and stumbling across various characters who will ultimately lead him to a mortal battle with The Man in Black.

This series/book isn't like King's typical horror fare (i.e., "Cujo" or "Carrie"); it has more of a western/sci-fi feel to it. That's probably why I didn't like it as much. But if you're into this type of genre, then you'll more than likely enjoy the Dark Tower series--"The Gunslinger" (#1), "The Drawing of the Three" (#2), "The Waste Lands" (#3), and "Wizard and Glass" (#4).

Most of Stephen King's books fall into the category of horror, but he has also touch on fantasy elements. In addition, many of his works have an epic quality to them; The Stand is one of the best examples of this. The Gunslinger is the first volume of Stephen King's Dark Tower. The book first appeared as stories in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction before being collected in a limited edition by Donald M. Grant. The book eventually appeared as a trade paperback available to all. The series is ongoing, with the latest volume to appear in either 1997 or 1998. The story takes place in a strange world that contains familiar elements (patrons in a bar at one point sing Hey Jude). The focal point of the tale is Roland, the last of the gunslingers. His quest for the Dark Tower becomes his reason for living. Stephen King is the reader of this audiobook. I have also felt that Stephen King writes as if he was talking out loud. This makes his reading more interesting and illuminating. While his voice is not trained, he more than anyone else is able to illustrate the world he created. He also is the reader on the other two volumes. I enjoy listening to audiobooks, but I normally don't buy them. Stephen King's unabridged works are exceptions and his own readings are at the top of my list and the Dark Tower series is his most interesting work.