If you find yourself with an afternoon to killad a magazine If, however, you need to occupy yourself on a voyage to Mars, pick up Insomnia It s long.It is, however, quite good Insomnia begins as Ralph Roberts, a pleasant, not too cantankerous gentleman in his 70s, watches his beloved wife taken from him by cancer Shortly after her death, he begins to experience early waking insomnia Each night, it seems, he wakes earlier than the one before Soon, he is awake all night.In the deepest throes of th [...]

This was an official Pantless group side read with those splendid cullys a big shout out to our newest member, baby Ryder of the Dark Tower Buddy read group and that was pretty much the only thing that got me through this labored read.This was a DNF the first time I tried to read it and it was almost a DNF the second time Yes, I made progress this time before I almost threw in the towel, but the anticipation of a tie in to the Dark Tower series kept me going And going.And going.A vague mention [...]

It was life, often unsatisfying, frequently cruel, usually boring, sometimes beautiful, once in a while exhilarating Following the death of his wife, Ralph Roberts has trouble sleeping He finds himself waking up earlier and earlier each night During his late night vigils, he observes weird goings on in his hometown of Derry, Maine Pretty quickly he realises that the strange things he is seeing are not the result of sleep deprived hallucinations, but something much significant.I got a lot of tho [...]

This book is not for everyone For one its over 700 pages long Another reason is that it deals with what some people say is uncomfortable topics abortion, mental illness, domestic abuse and the afterlife and possible alternate worlds.Another reason why this book is unique and different from other books is that the hero is a regular joe who happens to be in his 70 s I loved this book It took my mind to a place where few books can take me I was not here reading the book I was in Derry, Maine with R [...]

Weird book.Remind me to never visit Derry Maine This setting of a number of Stephen King s novels is again center stage in this 1994 book about not sleeping and going crazy because of it.I was drawn to this title as I have struggled off and on with insomnia most of my life I wonder how many readers have stayed up all night reading, I know I have I remember a haze of years when I averaged about 4 5 hours a sleep a night and recall visual hallucinations and waking dreams and just being tired all t [...]

Prefatory Matters I lost a twenty year old book during this reread Most of you have the seen the picture of my gutted hardcover copy of Insomnia If you haven t I ll include it at the end of this post as well Total loss of containment, folks About thirty pages loosed themselves from the glue and became individual souls I have a 284 page section, and another section of about 400 pages, and a little bit in the middle that just said Fuck it and struck out for the territories All in all, a sad day Lu [...]

It s crazy I know I mean I am over three quarters of the way through this book but if I am being honest, the chances of my ever going back to finish it are just about nil.Why you may ask and I guess the answer would be that I was never truly invested in the story or it s characters In fairness it started out reasonably well and I did enjoy the camaraderie between Ralph and Lois but once the little bald doctors started making their appearance my interest level began to diminish quickly.So way too [...]

A reread on the journey to the Dark TowerI read this a few years back and gave it a one star rating, I feel I may have been a bit harsh This book has a lot going for it and is quite important in the Stephen King universe The characters are great, it s nice to see older characters for a change and Ralph is awesome A unique concept with sprinklings of the Dark Tower throughout It was a bit lengthy though and there are huge parts of this book where it drags along, which is ultimately why it receive [...]

I saw somewhere that Insomnia is considered by some to be one of King s problem books I m not sure what s meant by that tag, though for me the problem eventually would become that I didn t think of the book as a horror novel It started out strongly, with a likable 70 year old everyman, Ralph Roberts, adjusting to life without his beloved wife King s focus on aging and loneliness is as good as anything I ve read by him And deftly slipped in, a hint of the supernatural and coming doom, as Roberts [...]

I HATED it Extremely long winded and convoluted Horrible, absolutely horrible Probably his most pointless story ever.This is when I knew Stephen King had lost his awesome writing powers and I can t really bring myself to read him again Bad enough I had to suffer through Black House, and then this He really should have quit while he ahead and still an icon in the writing world As for me, I d rather slit my own wrists than suffer through another one of his awful novels ever again.

You may not know it, but shape changing is a time honored custom in Derry Audiobook Narrated by Eli Wallach A good narration except for the background music At times I couldn t even hear Wallach s voice, so in the end I gave up Ebook When I read Insomnia the first time, many years ago, I hated it I hadn t read The Dark Tower novels and knew next to nothing about them, so I missed the connections This time, although I still haven t read the DT series except for The Gunslinger , I m not entirely i [...]

You either love it or hate it I m obviously of the earlier persuasion.Review soonish Maybe 5 ninja bunnehs with balloon strings

Group read with The Dark Tower Honk MahFahs.

It s a long way back to Eden, Sweetheart, so don t sweat the small stuff This book does a weird thing books generally don t do it starts well but keeps getting progressively worse as the length keeps unmercifully chugging away I was into it for the first 200 pages although little was happening and the build up stage was generous, but it kept letting out steam as it kept going, and when it came into weird territory and everything felt muddy and complex, I lost interest The last few hundred pages [...]

Writing this review is going to break my heart, so I m going to get it over with as quickly as possible Deal Okay.The most interesting thing about rereading Stephen King s works in chronological order is seeing how my opinions of them change in comparison to how I felt years ago Experiencing his releases one after the other in publication order puts them in a new light, and that new light can often shine previously unnoticed brilliance or bring dark shadows to my attention Insomnia is a novel I [...]

This was definitely a weird one RTC, after all or most or at least a few of my buddies finish up Or will they all DNF it Only time will tell.

I finished this one about an hour ago, so I m still trying to gather my thoughts on it Generally I ll finish a book and let it stew in my mind for a few days before attempting a review, but things are different with Stephen King.The one thing I love most about Stephen King s work is that his characters are real They re not superheroes they re just ordinary people with ordinary lives, generally from Maine, with weaknesses and insecurities like the rest of us Exciting plot lines aside, that s got [...]

Since I ve been on a bender writing reviews of books I didn t enjoy, I think I ll take a minute to write one about a book I enjoyed think happy thoughts Insomnia was a buddy read with my hostages lttle band of misfits that are reading the Dark Tower together I ve read the DTS several times and knew that Insomnia had a few tie ins with it, but this is the first time I had actually read it I m glad I did The character that comes into play in the DTS is mentioned in this book but there s not a whol [...]

This isn t my first time reading Insomnia, I think it may be my third or fourth time actually But I definitely enjoyed it the most this time around I gained a whole new love for this book on this read through and I m still stunned by all the Dark Tower references that I missed the other times I read this book I will admit that Insomnia is a bit slow at times and I did feel there was points were it dragged on a bit needlessly But when it did pick up, it MORE than made up for the slow bits More th [...]

Thouroughly enjoyable read BUT, as is sometimes the case with a King book, a little too wordy and over long Would have flowed better if the first half of the book had been condensed by 300 pages or so The second half if the book is where the story truly shines.This book featured some new powers These powers where used in interesting ways There was a bit of everything here, romance, action, horror and so on.Now to the GREAT parts of the book Those Dark Tower references Wow There are quite a few a [...]

Review to come

I liked Insomnia a lot I was quite surprised by the older protagonists, although of course there are things which compensate for their age It wasn t a bad surprise, either I thought it might be harder to relate to Ralph and Lois because of it, but it ended up not really being a problem at all The most fascinating character for me, though, was Ed Deepneau It was interesting how he kept the photo with him until the very end.I loved a lot of the imagery that ran throughout this the auras, the death [...]

I have now read this one three times, and I still love it It certainly is overlong, but that is one of the reasons I enjoy it so King s imagination was on fire, maybe so than at any other time I really dug all the literary references, and the completely insane hallucinatory adventures Ralph Roberts has Oh, and the way it ties in to the Dark Tower saga is a highlight as well.

Gift from Thomas Str mquist.

As someone who started reading King in the eighties, Insomnia was a book I have been meaning to get to for many a year So, was it worth the wait In short, yes.I thoroughly enjoyed ambling along with Ralph Roberts as a somewhat unconventional senior citizen protagonist that seemed to, at the same time, remain quintessentially King At the point where Ralph and his sidekick Lois Chasse team up to work out who the little bald men are and what their relationship was to the auras, I did feel a little [...]

Geez, where to begin Well, for starters, Ralph is one of my favorite Stephen King characters of all time Right from the first chapter, my heart ached for this guy and I was hooked Seriously, only King can get you that involved with a character that early on in a book Ralph is the main character and the first half revolves around the insomnia he experiences after the passing of his wife The second half is where the story gets trippy Having read some reviews from other buddies, I knew going in thi [...]

I admit that I did enjoy this book but finishing felt kinda like this Wow.Just Wow.Sitting here, trying to sum up the book which is unnecessary as I know you are fully capable of reading the summary on the book page , I find that there really wasn t much to the story at all The last hundred pages held all the action and the first 500 or so is filled with andand a little bit oI have to give it to King, really To keep me reading, that many pages, for so long sigh I have not read any of the Dark To [...]

WowjustWell, first of all SO many literary comparisons of various existing IRL, kiddies works are made in the dialogue between the main characters of this novel, especially near the conclusion this is awesome something I had not noticed the 1st time I read this one by King although, I was probably like, 12 when I read this book for the first time, now that I think about it.This was at least my 3rd time re reading this book, and another thing that will strike Constant Readers like myself is just [...]

Insomnia is about a number of old people who can t sleep However, none of them are aware the problem of sleeplessness is afflicting anyone else, until Ralph Roberts, the main character, decides to come out and mention it, cautiously, to a few friends who might be experiencing the same things he is, going by how they are acting He is afraid he might be going insane He is seeing things no one else appears to see Ralph did not like talking about it because he lives in the small town of Derry, Maine [...]

A for creativity But really, this is one weird story It s slow and the shit that s happening I don t get it.I like the idea that every person has a certain pre set goal in life or that whatever happens to them is fate and turning it into a story where strange tiny balled doctors control that makes it interesting, but I really do think it could have been done in at least 200 pages less I was expecting a story about a man who sleeps less and less and turns crazy, but it took a completely different [...]