UR

[fljoe0]

Here's a tip for anyone who downloads an app like kindle on their pc.

Get a trackball mouse (cordless works great). That way you can lean back in your chair as far away from the screen as you wish and use the trackball mouse in your lap to change pages and navigate. You are in a more comfortable position than sitting upright with your hand on a mouse that is stationary on your desk.

[randallFlaggfan1]

That's assuming everyone's able to actually get some reading done at home..

[kingricefan]

I just finished this story last night. I thought it was a good King story, told the only way that he can tell a story. I liked that it is another Dark Tower related tale! The Low Men were creepy but I think King didn't quite do them the justice that they deserve, could've been a little creepier, IMHO. Overall, another good story with fleshed out characters doing what they do best in a King Tale: try to make sense of an extraordinary situation. I don't like reading things on my pc (I downloaded the Kindle app) but it's the only way right now, besides the audio, to have this story. Also, Mile 81 is coming out soon so I figured it was time to move another rung up the technology ladder and try Kindle.

[randallFlaggfan1]

Also, Mile 81 is coming out soon so I figured it was time to move another rung up the technology ladder and try Kindle.

Sadly, this seems to be the direction the publishing industry is going..


("All things serve the Beam")

[OldDarth]

Lilja and I reviewed Ur in our latest podcast over at Lilja's Library. Really enjoyed this story. Especially the Dark Towers. Upon re-reading this story, it struck that in some ways this seemed like an early version of 11/22/63.

[xkittyx]

Just finished this one today. Loved it. Especially the whole DT connection and all. I would never have read it until it was collected in a real book (along with Mile 81, and many others I was missing, but I got a Kindle for Christmas, and then had the luck to win a $10 Amazon card in a book group, so I used it to get this one, Mile 81, Throttle, and Face in the Crowd). Very happy I finally had a chance to read these shorts. This one was fantastic though. I liked the hinting at 11/22/63 that was done, and seeing the alternate levels of the Tower through the newspapers... and of course who wouldn't like the amazing collection of never before seen books by all the authors? If I had a Ur book reader, and could access so many books like that... Unbelievable. It'd be great. I did think the Low Men were a little too... friendly(?) perhaps? I was thinking they were gonna come in there and raise hell, but they didn't seem too bad. All in all though, it was awesome, and made me grin

[Phil Dark, No Stars]

I have never listened to an audiobook before, but as my S.K. withdrawals progress from a shaky sense of discomfort to slight foaming at the mouth, I came across UR at one of the few remaining bookstores in this country. "I will listen to this on the way to work," I told myself. Though the adhesive circles keeping the top and bottom flaps closed were not flush against the box, I decided to buy. On the drive home, I suggested to my fiance that I should upload it to iTunes and then return it. (I would never do something like that. That same sense of humor allowed me to scream "Hold on!" as we approached a yellow light from more than a block away or to sarcastically blame all of the world's problems on the United States government.)

I haven't fallen in line on the e-book trend yet (Though I did read the "Hunger Games" trilogy in .pdf format on my computer.) and was surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to UR read aloud. (I was disappointed that the voice of Uncle Steve was conspicuously absent from the recording, but I will simply demand that he read it to me if I run into him on the street.)

Two downsides: I often drift off mentally while I am reading: nursing an idea for a story of my own, wondering what Sophia Vergara is eating for dinner, etc, and when I return to my senses, I am not far from where I left off on the page. However, with the audiobook, after I drifted off and returned, it is not as easy to "rewind" as you can a book - especially since when I regained myself the car was in the oncoming traffic lane. The other downside: Holter Graham, an excellent speaker, creeped me out when he spoke in Wesley's ex-girlfriend's voice. It called up the image of a literate transvestite in my mind.

On an positive note about the audio version, every time I read this title in print, I read it "you are," assuming the novella would be instropective for its main character. It wasn't until I started listening to it that I realized it was pronounced "urrrr," the same as the noise coming from that thing under my bed. Creepy. It was also nice to have read (heard?) this after my last King novel 11/22/63, with the time-travel paradox themes.

At the end of the first disc, the audio garbled and started skipping. I tried to steel my patience and "listen through," but the problem worsened. I fished the discs back out of the box and noticed a large, greasy fingerprint on the underside of Disc 1. Someone had taken my terrible idea to heart, copied the CDs and returned them to the store! (No fears, I took an impression of the finger smudge with Scotch tape and sent it off to the FBI.) I cleaned the disc, re-uploaded and finished listening the same day I started. So much for a lasting King fix or a more enjoyable commute to work!

Whoa, I better get my eyes back on the road.

[Walter Oobleck]

Lilja and I reviewed Ur in our latest podcast over at Lilja's Library. Really enjoyed this story. Especially the Dark Towers. Upon re-reading this story, it struck that in some ways this seemed like an early version of 11/22/63.

I read Ur after reading 11/22/63 and yes, there are elements in Ur that brought 11/22/63 to mind.
All of those...what if kind of things. A good read.
And for those w/o a Kindle, there's a post at #29...I think it was...that tells how one might read
this if you do not have a Kindle. If your Kindle is pink...I'll trade you a brass doorknob, a dead rat, and a knife handle for it...
or an Indian arrowhead...a pink one.