This audiobook is on my shelf of greats. The music is like that for a reason. Its supposed to jangle your nerves like a 70 year old who can't sleep. It ties

Mr Wallach is a great narrator as well as a veteran actor.

I am on the road a lot so I CAN listen almost all of it in one go. Its a page turner for me even though I've read it before. I sat up up all night reading it when I first got the hardcover

This is a book written for Stephen King fans, if you don't know who Stephen King is then I have an old well I'd like to show you...... come alone.......

I could not finish. I read the first half and the epilogue. It was so boring. Too much description, ramblings, dreams, visions. The guy sees auras and things other people don’t see. The epilogue explained some major events. That was somewhat interesting, but not enough to make me want to read more. One of the things I love about King is his characters. I didn’t care about these characters. My favorite King books are Carrie, The Stand, and Rose Madder.

The narrator Eli Wallach was painful and hard to listen to. He sounded like he had laryngitis. He has a soft, whispering, gravely voice. At times it felt like he was reading as opposed to acting. My mind kept wandering.

Genre: paranormal mystery

very good book

It is a little bit of a slow starter, but well worth the initial bump.

I heard a preview and didn't think I was going to like his reading. However it didn't take long for me to discover he could BE Ralph Roberts.

Insomnia. Perfect title.

I love the Stephen King books that are a little weird, not entirely plausabile but not way out there. Bag of Bones is my all time favorite book of any genre.

I waited 15 years to read a Stephen King novel. I think I avoided his novels because I'm suspicious of hype, the popularity was unattractive. Insomnia was my first King experience and beginning from an objective point, it became one of the most beautiful stories I've ever digested. I regret having waited for so long but I couldn't have asked for more from an author. The imagery is stunning, coupled with what I can only call physical que's which are King's opportunities to mentally place yourself within the frame of his story. Parts of it are tactile, visual and poetic simultaneously. I don't know if King is usually this good because this is my first but I'm frankly, a little surprised... Every now and then I download a book that keeps me dragging my mac around the house, listening at every opportune moment; this was the first to book to resemble a crack habit in a while. Of course its not perfect, a book this long is fundamentally repetitive but it wasn't so in bad taste or to excess, more just for the sake of being worth it. I strongly recommend.

I love Stephen King and right now, THIS is the story that I return to the most. Great ideas concerning the worlds beyond our five senses. There is a dissonant music score that I feel is tastefully done and completely appropriate to the story. I LOVE IT!

Yeah, everyone is right about the music. They need to reissue this book. The music is loud, random, and sometimes drowns out the words. It suddenly flairs to a crescendo at times, so if you are listening quietly it disturbs others. It adds nothing to the reading except a headache when it occurs.

The book is a good one. King gets you involved in the mystery right away, then leaves it for a while to develop his characters, with his usual magic of keeping the reader charmed and intrigued. The story goes places you don't fully expect, and keeps you listening.

A few flaws. Some of the political arguments might upset some people, even though King covers all sides somewhat neutrally. A couple of deaths seemed not only gratuitous, but somehow vengeful on King's part--maybe that was just me. And King's usual way of digressing to maximize the suspense gets way too carried away near the end of this one. One of the ways King loses me is when he seems to be intruding into the story--I like my novels to have distance between the writer and the narrator. This one has a little too much of that sloppiness.

But not enough to ruin it. It's a good, suspenseful, and at times impressive novel. It's not a groundbreaker for King, but it's not derivative of his other works, either. Enjoyable novel.

The reader is good. The music is horrible, and it was enough to almost make me stop listening. That's unusual for me, too, so for some, I imagine it will be too much.

The story started off strong and interesting but quickly fell into a seemingly repetitive pattern. This book truly bored me to sleep and other activities. It was very difficult to even finish. If you truly are an insomniac, however, this book may get you some shut eye. Either that or just anger you that it cant even keep your long nights interesting.

What mental patient put that music in this audio book??? You would have to be riding the short bus to think that makes a book better or more interesting. It is annoying to the fifth power. Please stop it, please don't suffer us with any more audio enhanced books!!!!

Other than that, good book and goes right along with the rest of the King's books.

Eli Wallach does an excellent job reading - I'd heard the first couple of chapters through a "share" site and bought the audio book as - as an avid fiction reader who has to spend 2+ hours in the car, this is a new experience for me...I hadn't read this King book (one of the very few) and thought it fairly consistent with his work in the last 15 years (lots of "Dark Tower" stuff). I like unabridged stuff, probably 'cause I like books. I also like the pseudo-first person narration, though I dislike the "hints" of future events. One criticism of Wallach - he changes Ralph's late wife from "Caroline" to "Carol" half way through the book, then back to "Caroline" at the end - I assume this was an audio script error.

The story is good, but the caustic dysharmonious noise between chapter is distracting. The main character is Ralph Roberts - old codger in his retirement years who becomes an insomiac after his wifes difficult cancer death. This allows him to reach a "hyper-reality" where he see's aura's (life force) and discovers the cause of death(s). He and a codger-ette frient Lois with the same probem have to save the future from "random" events planned by the "Crimson King" which the "Dark Tower" around which all worlds exist. In the end, it works out.

The epilogue is good, but a little long and highly projected (again, too many hints in the body of the story).

All and all, pretty good.

This book is one of King's more bizarre works. I bought it as a joke for my son who was experiencing a rather bad case of insomnia. I ended up reading the book since I am a fan of Stephen King. What I got out of the story took me completely by surprise and was nothing like I expected. It was a good read but bizarre to the extreme. This book reminded me that you never know what you will get when you read a Stephen King book. I enjoyed reading the book and couldn't put it down, but it is not the type of book I will read again and again. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of King, Koontz, or their type of genre. The only way I can describe the story is if my 63 year old dad were to take acid and tell me the story of what he saw.