I'm currently reading Stephen King and Peter Straub's latest collaborative effort, "Black House". It's very good (and weighty; I love weighty novels), but there's one irritating thing about it, something that's bothered me with a few of King's recent novels: It constantly alludes to his "Dark Tower" series, which I haven't read. You'd think a sequel to "The Talisman" (the first King/Straub collaboration) would suffice with referencing that book, which was published in 1984 and has already become part of the hazy tapestry of my past fictional love-affairs. But, no. They had to throw in a whole bucket-load of references that I cannot perceivably understand, forcing me to begin reading a new series of I-don't-know-how-many books in an effort to understand one, lousy story.

Life can be quite cruel sometimes, can't it?

One of these days I'll start reading a simpler, easier novel; something by Tolstoy, perhaps, or Dickens; something that doesn't require trawling through the entire backlog of the author(s) just to understand the signficance of a single name or a made-up word. "Hearts in Atlantis" had the same problem, to a lesser degree, with the low men in yellow coats and the Crimson King. Again with the obscure references.

I did try to read the first "Dark Tower" novel ages and ages ago, but I never got past the beginning. Which is weird, because I usually like King -- especially his early novels. And I almost never give up on books; no matter how awful they are, I struggle through them. So. All right. I admit defeat. I hate not understanding obscure references. I'll go back and read every single "Dark Tower" novel.

There's a New Year's resolution for you. Forget about losing the weight, learning to speak Japanese or teaching myself to play guitar. Instead I'm going to dig into another epic fantasy-series. Like that's what I really need; more time away from reality. Hah.  ¶ 00:43