Posts tagged books

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Notes
Posted 4 months ago
I just frickin’ love books.  That is all. Zoom

I just frickin’ love books.  That is all.

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Posted 9 months ago
So I finished A Game of Thrones.  Not the TV series, the book.  A discerning eye could tell I mean the book because of the indefinite article which HBO decided to leave out.   HEY, INDEFINITEARTICLE IS MY USERNAME! Anyway, another book finished means that it’s Book Review Time!!! Reading this book was a mistake.   No, not because the book was bad.  Not even close.  This one is right up there as one of the best-written fantasy novels I’ve ever read.  And that puts it pretty darn high in my all-time list of books as well.  George R.R. Martin is a magnificent writer, and this has led me to discover that the secret to writing a good fantasy novel is to have the middle initials of R.R., which sadly eliminates me from contention.   The praise quote on the back cover from the Chicago Sun-Times calls this book “reminiscent of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King”.  While I can see where they draw the similarities, I have to say that A Game of Thrones delivered a much more entertaining read, one that kept me captivated for all 800+ pages.  Such a feat is especially impressive because I already knew how it ended.  I can’t say the same about The Once and Future King, since I gave it up sometime early into The Witch in the Wood.  Perhaps that’s more my fault than Terence White’s, but the point still stands regardless. Hey Neil, you mentioned a mistake? Right, mistake.  The mistake was that I hadn’t already read this a year ago.  The problem that I came across as I was perusing the pages of this masterpiece, was that I had already seen every scene that was being set before me.  HBO had already shown me what Winterfell, King’s Landing and Vaes Dothrak all look like.  I’d seen the Wall and the Red Keep, I’d met Tyrion Lannister and Catelyn Stark and Syrio Forel.  I no longer had to use my mind’s eye to picture these places or people or events, and that took away the magic of Westeros.  Half the fun of reading a fantasy novel is envisioning worlds that you can’t see for yourself.  But when I read A Game of Thrones and Eddard Stark walked into the scene, all I could picture was Sean Bean (magnificent bastard that he is).   It was an unfortunate detraction from the quality of the book, one that was purely my own fault and not Mr. Martin’s in any way.  Being the impatient and impulsive guy that I am, I’ve already started on A Clash of Kings.  The beauty of reading the sequel is that I have to start laying out scenes in my head again, so I’ll enjoy this one to its full potential. A Game of Thrones is one of the most engrossing novels I’ve ever read, and the entire series of A Song of Ice and Fire is full of fantastic potential.  I’m pretty excited to delve a little deeper and see what’s in store. Zoom

So I finished A Game of Thrones.  Not the TV series, the book.  A discerning eye could tell I mean the book because of the indefinite article which HBO decided to leave out.  

HEY, INDEFINITEARTICLE IS MY USERNAME!

Anyway, another book finished means that it’s

Book Review Time!!!

Reading this book was a mistake.  

No, not because the book was bad.  Not even close.  This one is right up there as one of the best-written fantasy novels I’ve ever read.  And that puts it pretty darn high in my all-time list of books as well.  George R.R. Martin is a magnificent writer, and this has led me to discover that the secret to writing a good fantasy novel is to have the middle initials of R.R., which sadly eliminates me from contention.  

The praise quote on the back cover from the Chicago Sun-Times calls this book “reminiscent of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King”.  While I can see where they draw the similarities, I have to say that A Game of Thrones delivered a much more entertaining read, one that kept me captivated for all 800+ pages.  Such a feat is especially impressive because I already knew how it ended.  I can’t say the same about The Once and Future King, since I gave it up sometime early into The Witch in the Wood.  Perhaps that’s more my fault than Terence White’s, but the point still stands regardless.

Hey Neil, you mentioned a mistake?

Right, mistake.  The mistake was that I hadn’t already read this a year ago.  The problem that I came across as I was perusing the pages of this masterpiece, was that I had already seen every scene that was being set before me.  HBO had already shown me what Winterfell, King’s Landing and Vaes Dothrak all look like.  I’d seen the Wall and the Red Keep, I’d met Tyrion Lannister and Catelyn Stark and Syrio Forel.  I no longer had to use my mind’s eye to picture these places or people or events, and that took away the magic of Westeros.  Half the fun of reading a fantasy novel is envisioning worlds that you can’t see for yourself.  But when I read A Game of Thrones and Eddard Stark walked into the scene, all I could picture was Sean Bean (magnificent bastard that he is).  

It was an unfortunate detraction from the quality of the book, one that was purely my own fault and not Mr. Martin’s in any way.  Being the impatient and impulsive guy that I am, I’ve already started on A Clash of Kings.  The beauty of reading the sequel is that I have to start laying out scenes in my head again, so I’ll enjoy this one to its full potential.

A Game of Thrones is one of the most engrossing novels I’ve ever read, and the entire series of A Song of Ice and Fire is full of fantastic potential.  I’m pretty excited to delve a little deeper and see what’s in store.