Why did I read this book? Well, mostly because I'd read the previous six...and the fact that I'm writing a paper for a conference in March on the book. But this book takes some turns that the previous ones hadn't prepared me for.
The first three books of the series are very well integrated with each other (if you forgive the minor inconsistencies present in the first one that result from its original publication in serial form). The narrative follows Roland through his adventures, adding characters along the way. The first three books provide some of the best description of Roland and were all published within four (five?) years of each other. The fourth book was another six years coming (after the cliffhanging ending of the third book) and fills in back story. I remember when I first read it, I was disappointed by the amount of back story in it - this was when I first wrote about the series for my honors undergrad thesis.
Then there's a huge span of time till the fifth book, but the final three (V, VI, VII) are all published within two years of each other. I actually found V and VI rather dull, it seemed like King was trying to just fill pages and even though he kept me reading, I certainly had the sense that the books were very different from the earlier. Then came book seven.
All I can say is - Wow! I sure didn't expect the book to end that way. Though I suppose if I had thought about it, the ending of the book itself, or the end of the Coda were really the only possible ways out. They just weren't satisfying, at least at the moment I was ready to close the book. On retrospection, neither was bad, and I suppose I would've been disappointed had I actually gotten the end I wanted, but I must say, after seven books and twenty-odd years, it seems just a bit - just a tiny bit - like a lame attempt at injecting some kind of metaphysical grandeur into the text.
I'd read it again - actually, I'll be reading the first four again for a paper anyway, so this won't be the last time I think about the book.