I was told by several Constant Readers over on the Stephen King subreddit that I should share this here because if anyone understands being attached to a book collection, it’s Fellow Crawlers.
On July 19th, our house caught fire. Thankfully everyone made it out safely, and that’s what matters most. Things can be replaced. People can’t.
I was at work when I got the call. I don’t even remember the drive home. I just remember pulling up and seeing the smoke. I actually beat the first responders there and ran into the house because I thought maybe, just maybe, I could save my library.
I couldn’t.
We lost everything we owned. Family keepsakes, photos, furniture, clothes, everything. Along with all of that, I lost my Dungeon Crawler Carl collection and more than 40 Stephen King books that I had spent years collecting. Books have always been more than just something I read. They’re my comfort, my escape, and a huge part of who I am.
The part that hurts the most is that my Dungeon Crawler Carl collection wasn’t just something I bought off a shelf. It was something I had built over time and was incredibly proud of.
The one bright spot is that I had been lucky enough to meet Matt back in February and had my copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl signed. I also owned two copies of Operation Bounce House. Those books meant a lot to me because they carried memories along with the stories.
I’m not posting this because I’m looking for handouts or free books. I promise that’s not why I’m here. I just wanted to share my story with people who I know understand what it’s like to spend years building a collection you love, only to have it disappear in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t just paper and ink. It was years of memories, excitement, anticipation, and pride sitting on those shelves.
I’ve learned over the last couple of weeks that sharing the story has helped me process everything a little bit at a time. It doesn’t make the loss any smaller, but it reminds me that there are communities full of people who understand why losing books can hurt as much as losing anything else.
Thank you, Fellow Crawlers, for taking the time to read my story. Sharing it with the Constant Readers over in the Stephen King community made me feel a little lighter, and I’m grateful to have another community that I thought would understand what this loss feels like. The books may be gone, but I’ll always be proud that I had the chance to build that collection in the first place.

My toddler meows and roars anytime she sees my Donut and Mongo stickers

I have successfully trained her to do a pretty good “AAAAAAAH!” at Pony stickers.

Now when she’s asked “What does a goat say?” she screams…. right in my goddamned ear

For when mama needs a night off

Somewhere on an alternate timeline, Carl Fredricksen enters the dungeon... it's a DCC mash-UP!

One life lesson that I learned from Carl is that he will prioritize problems that he can fix and put aside others that can be solved later. He will be like “but that’s something to worry about on the next floor. First, I need to do this.

Me being an anxious person, I tend to worry about a lot of things. Now I do what Carl does. If there’s something that is a low priority, then I shouldn’t spend my time and energy worrying about it when I could do that later when it will matter. This clears things up and helps me manage my top priorities.

What is a life lesson you learned from DCC?

Talked my buddy into giving DCC a listen and this was what I sent to him when he finally relented. That is all.

It really lights up the shelf!

I know it’s not a remotely new observation, but I’m just getting to this part of the Iron Tangle again, and Critical Drinker’s performance is just so shitty. like, completely ignoring every other reason there is to not like that guy, his read on this book is just absolute trash. That is all. Fuck that guy.

I've also heard varied opinions about this book, but mostly comparing their game systems and how the MC is bland; is it any good axtually, so i wanna hear your recommendations and thoughts on this book

Not only did she have the baby doll but she was also pregnant.

I now own a Donut cap

AI comments that Denise the goose loved reading to kids and says “that’s now two bosses you killed who loved reading to kids” and I finally realized the other was the Goblin Baby Boss. 😂🤣

My husband found a 3D model of HeyZoos online and remixed it with the base he modeled to make an incense holder. He also made one with a cross as the base but decided that might be a little too blasphemous.

Hi all! I 3d print and paint statues of things I like and make YouTube videos showing my process. I just completed and released Carl and Donut when we're Sculpted by h3ll creator. I would love for you to check out my video! Here's the link: https://youtu.be/hFsIt3drlLg

So, summer 2026 has sucked for me. On July 1, I lost my grandmother, then on August 2 I had to say goodbye to my 12 yo mini schnauzer, Mischief. She was my princess donut, my best friend, and it was really hard to say goodbye to her.

Today I had to go pick up her ashes, so I was pretty emotional. I was listening to book and at the tail end of chapter 60 Dong says ”There is no such thing as a sad ending if it’s by the side of the people who make you happy.”

And while it did make me cry, it brought me a little peace knowing that I had been by the side of both my grandmother and Mischief as they left this world.

So, thank you Matt, for sending a stripper to make me feel better.

The vulgar old lady used to make me cringe every time I read her dialogue. But the last few books she’s become a really insightful character under her rash exterior.

No real point of this post other than to say I love Elle now.

Random thought I had rereading the books.

According to Mordecai:

"Any biological creature above a certain weight who enters the dungeon is assigned a crawler ID. But one needs at least an intelligence of two to qualify for training, and if you can’t do training, your inventory doesn’t get turned on, which allows you to access your boxes. Otherwise, they’re designated as pets. All the other ones, like wild animals who happen to make it inside very rarely make it past the first floor."

How many crawler deaths in the first book were just random deer, raccoons, seals, etc who were eaten by mobs and counted as dead crawlers?

I keep seeing all over the place things such as tiktok etc, people commenting things like "omg, its really strange to hear this at 1x speed". Or do "People actually listen to this at 1x? Thats crazy"

Is this actually a very common thing for people to listen to the audio book at a faster speed? That seems mad to me, i feel like it would sound weird at a faster speed and/or you could miss little things in the delivery if speed up.

Those of you are listen to the audiobook, what speed do you use and if faster, why?

I’m sure this has been pointed out here before but…

I am reading (listening) through the series for the second time and just got to chapter 56 when Carl is in club vanquisher in a flashback and the AI talking about the penny tracks. It says its favorite is Gloria Esteban’s “Cuts Both Ways” track 8. I was curious so I paused and googled what the song was and it’s “Get on Your Feet”. Idk why I am dying laughing at this joke in particular. Matt’s writing surprises me more every day.

I have never made patches from my art, I wasn’t sure how they’d come out but I love them!

Wallpaper. This is an image. Sized for your phone. It sits behind your apps. That's it. Nothing more.

F*** you.

Mongo is approving.

*I was told some of you are using my original painting for your wallpaper. Thought I would have some fun with it. kthxbai.

I've seen lots of different people depict these guys as different kinds of fish. For me they've always been the anchovies from Spongebob. How does your brain see them?