Most people are optimists, although they may claim they are not. People who call themselves realists are often the biggest optimists of all.” Smith tells a friend and a student about the Kindle. The three men try to connect to an issue of The New York Times from an alternate reality, but find to their horror that no papers are published on the day they requested. They learn that in this alternate reality, the world ended when the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated into World War III in November 1962. The delivery mechanism to my mind is secondary for me as a writer. [...] But I did this once before with a story called Riding the Bullet and I never had so many guys in suits come up to me and ask me questions. But they didn't want to know about the story, they didn't want to know about the process, they wanted to know about the delivery system, but to me that's secondary. [...] I think people will be more interested in the business aspect of [ Ur] than they will in the story. I would never have agreed to it if I didn't think it was a pretty good story. [4] I repent! I will make my upmost effort in reading my way through The Dark Tower series, one book a month minimum. I'm listening to this audio book and I have a knot in my stomach out of nervousness." This about sums up what I love about Stephen King. Even in his shortest stories, he is able to take me out of my world and transplant me into the one he's created. He's able to make me not only know his characters, but care about them and root for them and worry for their well-being.

The Kindle shilling and advertisements are shameless, which is all the more frustrating as one can only read the damn thing on a Kindle - why give us the infomercial at the same time? I attempted to read his story a few years ago and gave up in disgust before I was even halfway through. It didn’t make much sense and I was bored witless. I loved the concept of this book, and it thrilled me to no end seeing the King universe tied into the story. The connection didn't feel as unplanned as some of his other books do, more like he sought to write a book that tied in the Dark Tower series with a story about a Kindle, but even so it was pretty cool. I loved the concept of what the UR edition Kindle could do. I would absolutely be searching out more of King's works... I would have to cover the Kindle in plastic to avoid ruining it by drool, but still... I would be in heaven. I don't mean to harp on like this, but it always amazes me how much I fall in love with King's characters -- especially after I've read other books where the characters are flat, lifeless things that just move from scene to scene doing whatever the storyline requires without a personality or free will of their own. Alright... harping to stop..... Now. Smith's Kindle has a peculiar function called UR that can search multiple timelines for data. Interestingly enough, each time he uses this function, an enormous dark tower flashes across the screen as it loads data. Smith finds four books Ernest Hemingway wrote in an alternate universe where he lived for three more years. Further searches reveal written works by Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare from other timelines. Wesley also discovers yet another function concerning newspapers that were published in an alternate universe.King was one of the first to delve into publishing via the kindle from this genre. This novella will be looked upon in the future as the genesis of the kindle era. His talent is to turn anything into a craft from kindle to Riding the Bullet. Great creative story. While I was listening to this one, I said to a friend on Google Chat, "You know... it's crazy how much Stephen King affects me. Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums. I even listened to the same song that I associate TDT series with (which is Heaven & Earth by Two Steps From Hell if you’re interested).

I wish that this was something that more authors understood. It's not enough to tell me a story if I don't like or don't understand the characters in it. It's not enough to craft a complicated or ingenious plot if I can't identify with the people in the story enough to put myself in their place. I have never had an issue with identifying with a King character. I may not like them, but I don't have to like them, because, like real people, they have a life of their own and do with it what they will. What they do is organic and true to their characters, and isn't shaped by King into something fake to fit the storyline. He also dreamed. No images; only words. Titles! Endless lines of titles, many of them of undiscovered masterpieces. As many titles as there were stars in the sky.”

Surprise of surprises, I actually loved the ending to this little story. While there are elements of the concept that are undeniably scary, there was a level of happiness to the climax that left me feeling content. I just really wish I could find this magical Kindle. I think I could stay away from looking into the happenings of the other realities if I could just read new works from favorite authors. Isn’t that a literary daydream held by countless bookworms? This... this is something special. And by special I mean horrible. Not since Dan Brown have I wanted so badly to throw what I was reading across the room. I could not, of course, as I was reading on a Kindle.