April 28th

Day 119
14.247 read, -1.137
A Game of Thrones 43-124

So, I started Game of Thrones yesterday but that was mostly catch-up, because originally, last year, I'd already read a "preview" of it from B&N (back when I had a nook, my first e-reader; I now have a Sony) that lasted through the first few chapters.

It'd been long enough that I thought I better start from scratch, especially since I hadn't read that much to begin with.  So today I finally passed the point I had already read to.

I'm not usually a fantasy person, but what originally interested me in it (and I only ever first heard of it early last year) was the idea that seasons only change once every several years.  That's a fantastic idea.  Could you imagine living in a world where it's summer for years or winter for years?  It's so cool to try and imagine, and imagine how life would be different in those circumstances.  And then, I knew the book also had great reviews and (at the time) was just being made into a new tv show for the premium channel HBO which is often known for quality series.

But last year I read less the entire year than I've already read in four months this year and I was always trying to catch up with the book club selections, so I never got to Game of Thrones.  And it was ONE VOTE away from winning the fantasy vote last year, but I'm glad it didn't.  Because the Name of the Wind beat it, and I ended up loving that one; it was really a fantastic book.

So here we are then, I'm finally to it, finally caught up past where I got to.  And it still took me a little while to get into it.  As always, I read slow at first, really wrapping my mind around the world and situations.  And spending a lot of time referencing the map.  It's at the beginning of the book, but because of damn e-readers limitations and the same limitations I suppose on my Sony reader library software on my computer, the maps show up too fuzzy to read.  It's happened on almost all pdfs.  It's a pain in the ass and I can't wait until I finally get around to getting a new e-reader.  The Sony 950 is really a top of the line e-reader but a nook tablet or Kindle Fire would hopefully read pdfs better and less fuzzy (and they'll be faster which is another pet peeve I have about the 950).  Oh, and before you wonder, yes of course I tried zooming; it zooms bigger and then you just see the same fuzzy unreadable words, only bigger.  And it's happened on many books with maps, not just this one (for instance, also the Lattimore Iliad which had maps of Ancient Greek cities and that was a real pita also)

Anyway...so I had to use my smartphone and find the same maps online and then I bookmarked it and kept referring back to it, and did that a lot since wow this Martin guy is nothing if not expansive.  I don't think he can go a page without managing to somehow mention a brand new place or person in passing.  I suppose it's not necessary to find all the place names on the map, but I like to.

What's funny is, you're reading, sort of waiting for the real story to begin, as you start to realise that this is all just the set-up happening now at Winterfell, that the real story begins once they get back to King's Landing, and then bam, the real story was already happening.  *spoiler*  I can't believe Bran got pushed off the ledge and is possibly dying now!  Unexpected.

So that bodes well for the book.  I like books that can surprise in a well-written way.  His writing isn't perfect, but his world-building so far is pretty superb.  And I get why they call Jon Snow "bastard" all the time (different world where it's more accepted) but still, come on, I think Martin overdoes it.  I was just picturing some comedy skit, such as on Saturday Night Live, making fun of Game of Thrones, where everyone calls Jon Snow bastard too much and at the wrong times.  Because in the book it does verge on excessive.

If I were to guess about the tv show, I'd say the first or second episode ends with Bran being pushed out the window, as that's the most surprising thing so far.