This didn't work well as a single book. Stephen King appeared to make no changes to the book from the six-volume version of the book. I didn't appreciate reading entire chapters again over just because King needed to summarize the previous happenings in each book.

That aside, I still didn't like it. The back-story of the main character at the retirement complex was played down in the movie. It played a much larger roll in the book, and I didn't feel it was that appropriate. The movie also toned down some of the language, undoubtedly for standard Hollywood reasons, but I was too distracted by the language and imagery to enjoy the story much.

All in all, a good read, but I felt the movie is much better.