A Game of Thrones [spoilers]

 

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

I finally got around to reading George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.

>_>

<_<

Yes, I enjoyed the book. I totally fell in love with the Stark family, that's for sure. I despised the Lannisters. I thought the land that Martin had created was pretty cool. I was super interested in the lands beyond the Wall in the north.

But.

(By the way, this is not a book for kids. I would argue that even a lot of teenagers shouldn't read this...but that's just me.)

Most people may not care about this, but I was appalled and severely annoyed by all the sex. I felt like it wasn't even necessary. And it really wasn't, at least not the borderline pornographic descriptions. I can't stand it when authors include so many sexual scenes, especially when they could just as easily have been left out and the story not hurt one bit. (The exception here I suppose is what Bran sees before his fall, but that was disgusting, too, and I don't really know why Martin wanted to write about twins being incestuous...EW.) I'm sorry, but I've read too many fantasy books that give me the impression that authors seem to believe writing in a fantasy world gives them grounds to write about descriptive sexual situations...this is why I usually stick to children's fantasy books. They're just as good, if not better.

Martin is a good writer, but he's not great. At least that's how I feel from reading this first book in his series. I will read the rest of them; he's got me hooked, which says a lot. But I will not go so far as to compare him to J.R.R. Tolkien or even Ursula K. LeGuin. (I can't compare him to Robert Jordan because I haven't read the Wheel of Time series, and I probably won't...there are way too many of those.) No one, and I mean absolutely no one, can be compared to Tolkien as far as fantasy epics go. Martin has created believable characters, especially in the Stark family. I can't really say yet how I feel about Daenerys Targaryen, but I think that's Martin's fault. He didn't allow to come into her own until the very end of the book, so really I have to wait until the next book to get a better feeling about her.

My favorite characters were the Starks (obviously), but particularly Arya and her father, and his bastard son Jon Snow. I was incredibly upset and sad when Eddard Stark was murdered, but I thought that Martin did a wonderful job of showing how some children have to grow up far too fast.

I probably could write a lot more about this book and the things I didn't like, but I'll leave it at this and give it 3 1/2 stars. My apologies to anyone who thinks this is one of the best books ever, but I can't agree. I've read far better in the realm of high fantasy.

[another unexcused absence]

Who reads this blog anyway?
No one, just me.
So I don't know what the point is.
Currently I don't have any excuse not to update this blog regularly, though, so I suppose I'll do my best and hopefully get at least a few followers.
That last bit is unlikely. :/

***************

Guten tag, everyone! I realize that I never did get around to reviewing The Hunger Games trilogy, but time got away from me as I was planing my wedding and trying to move all my effects (mostly books...) to Wisconsin. That was quite a chore, whew! But, as this is not my personal blog, I will stick to books.
What I will say about The Hunger Games and its subsequent books is this: the first book was excellent and I couldn't put it down, so enthralled was I by the tale and Katniss' views on it. Actually, I just loved Katniss. What a strong female character! Her name was perfect, too. Catching Fire was equal to its prequel, but Mockingjay seemed to me to fall short by the end. I read all three books in rapid succession without putting them down except to continue normal life functions, but by the time I reached the end, I realized the ending just wasn't what I hoped would happen. I have felt this way before about other books, but I don't know. I probably should read the trilogy again, especially since I have yet to see the film (which I don't have high hopes for, but there's a post on my personal blog about that kind of thing).
Maybe once I've reread the books, I'll feel differently. At any rate, I'll be able to give more clear reasons as to why I felt this way, since I can't really remember why at this point.

****************

All right, so I obviously read more books between reading The Hunger Games last summer and now. I'm having difficulty remembering what I read, though I do remember reading The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, last December. But of course, that was after my wedding. My head has been a little clearer since then. I probably did some rereading of favorite books or something like that. I can't remember, though I wish I had kept a better record. That's what this blog was for, by the way.
Funny how that didn't work out.

This year, however, I have been blissfully reading almost nonstop. Seriously. Not being in college anymore has finally given me the time to "catch up" on missed reading opportunities from the last five years. Yep. I'm enjoying it immensely, especially since the weather hasn't been all that nice yet. When the weather does finally get nice, I might try some audiobooks so that I can still basically read while I do yardwork. (They work well for housework, too!)

Okay, so what have I been reading this year?
Well, here is the complete list of what I've read since 2012 began.

One trip to the library found me checking out these:

• Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (Strange, but good. I like his writing style quite a lot.)
• The Camel Bookmobile, by Masha Hamilton (Excellent novel about introducing literacy to African bush tribes. I seriously loved this book. It only took me a day to read.)
• Island of Wings, by Karin Altenburg (I can't say enough about this book! So I won't say much. It's historical fiction, based on true life missionaries that went to the outermost part of the Hebrides, St. Kilda, in the 1830s. Of course, now there is yet another place on my travel list!)
• The Girl With No Shadow, by Joanne Harris. (This is the sequel to Chocolat, which I adored, so of course I had to pick this up! It takes place in Paris and is as lovely a modern fairytale as anyone could ask for. I want so badly to visit Paris, and this book reinforced that feeling....)
• Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. (Lyrical, beautiful, and compelling. This book took me almost a week to read, since it's rather long, but I was in love with it the entire time. It has made me want to learn more about the life of geisha in Japan. Also, the film does not do it justice. It's choppy and doesn't make much sense.)

 The above books were all really good; the only one I had planned on checking out that day was Lolita, the rest were just really lucky finds!

I went to the library again last week and here are the books I will be reading next:

• A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin (Already started this, and so far I'm not super enthralled or anything, but it is definitely promising. Besides, fantasy is my first love when it comes to reading.)
• The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (I feel like this was inspired by Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, so I'm probably going to have a lot of preconceived ideas about this particular novel, since I love, love, love, Bradbury. Anyway. It looks good.)
• City of Bones and City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare. (I haven't read any YA supernatural fiction in kind of a while, other than The Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer which almost doesn't count because it's Twilight related, so...yeah. People on Tumblr love Cassandra Clare, and these were in at the library, so I guess that's reason enough.)
• The Host, by Stephenie Meyer. (Okay, yeah, I know. But this isn't Twilight related, and it's technically an adult novel. I want to see if she's actually a good writer, since Twilight isn't that great, story or writing. [Yes, I liked them, but they're my "fluff" reading.] The premise of this one is intriguing, too.)

Apparently I was on a historical fiction kick during my first visit to the library and the second time it was back to fantasy. Interesting. I suppose the first book I pick up will always have some bearing on what else I check out.

I am also reading through the Bible, which sadly fell by the wayside...I need to keep up on this!!! I have no excuses. At least not good ones. The other book I am slogging my way through is The German Genius, by Peter Watson. I'm only maybe 150 pages in, and it's almost 1000 pages long. But I figured maybe I should try reading some nonfiction again, and my husband had bought this last year sometime. After he bought it, it sat on the shelf in the living room looking all enticing and interesting and since he wasn't reading it yet, I decided to.
Then, of course, I got a Kindle.
And went to the library.
Don't get me wrong, going to the library wasn't a mistake or anything, but I have so many books to read already!!!!! Speaking of which, I just bought a signed copy of The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, which is another wildly popular YA novel about dealing with cancer, so I will probably read that after A Game of Thrones. It will probably only take a day anyway.

Whew, that was a loooooonnnnnnnng post. Sorry about that.
Now, I will positively try to remember to review A Game of Thrones when I finish it.
Thank you and have a good day.

[~an unexcused absence]

Obviously, I haven't written anything on this blog in a long time. I apologize for this, for my own sake and for anyone who reads it. I was rather busy, as my main blog entries will attest to. And by this point, I have read a number of books that I simply did not think to blog about here. Unfortunately. I would highly recommend them all, though.

The Kingdom of Ohio


Eat, Pray, Love (The film is good, as well.)


The Hungry City Chronicles (This is a quartet.)


A Girl of the Limberlost


I've read some short stories, too, especially ones by H.P. Lovecraft.

And, to be honest, I did want to blog about each and every one of these books or stories. But I did not. Hopefully now I will be better about it. My next post is going to be on The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan

This is another reread; the first time that I read The Pilgrim's Progress was probably 8th grade or so. I enjoyed it then, and I enjoyed it now. What impresses me most about this book is the myriad Biblical references that are in the margins of the pages. Bunyan wrote all these in himself. His knowledge of the Bible is astounding. His poetry isn't bad, either. I love when authors begin their stories with a poem or two, and he does this spectacularly.

The life of a pilgrim is not supposed to be easy, and Christian's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City clearly illustrates this. Pilgrim's Progress is one of those books that every believer in Christ ought to read. I know it gives me strength to see the struggles that Christian (and in the second part of the book, his wife Christiana) goes through.

I guess there's not much more I can say about this book other than READ IT! It can be clunky and hard to follow, because there are no quotation marks for those people speaking. The first time I read it, I had to follow it kind of like I was reading a play. That seems the best way to describe it.

All in all, a wonderful book. :)