I have been a fan of the Mark Reads and Mark Watches websites for several months now, and recently I've been wanting to try out his process of reading books one chapter at a time and then posting a reaction after each one. My problem was that I couldn't think of many popular books that a) I hadn't read and b) I hadn't learned everything about already because of TVTropes. Today, however, I passed through the bookstore and, deciding to give into the crazy amounts of hype, picked up a copy of Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I know exactly five things about the Song of Ice and Fire series:
1) It has been made into a show called Game of Thrones that people gush about all the time on my Facebook wall. I think Boromir (Sean Bean) is in it. Don't confirm or deny that.
2) The series is ongoing.
3) There is some really super-special-awesome dwarf involved. Like seriously, I can't appreciate how many ways this dwarf is the most badass person ever.
4) The back cover mentioned something about decade-long summers and really long winters, and I think I've heard this is a really complex plot involving cross-kingdom romance. Don't tell me if I'm right or wrong.
5) The chapters are really short.
So here's the deal I'm making with you. I am going to strictly avoid any further knowledge about this series other than what each chapter tells me as I read it. I will then post my reactions to said chapter, and you will get to feel superior and laugh at how wrong/naive/shocked I am about everything. In return, you are encouraged to comment all you wish, but you are not allowed to spoil me in any way, shape, or form. Please click the link under the blog title for a full explanation of what this means. Remember, if it has anything to do with something I haven't read yet, it's a spoiler, even if it's just, "Oh, I love this next chapter so much!" because that builds my expecations and doesn't let me have the full experience. Also, nothing like "X is my favorite character, he gets especially good in the third book," because not only might that tell me that X has hidden depths I hadn't suspected, but it also tells me that he doesn't die before that point. So please, think before you comment! Thank you very much.
I hope you'll be joining me for the ride. If you haven't read Game of Thrones yet, now might be a good time to visit the library and read along. I can't promise a regular update time, but I can promise frequent updates (if this book is as good as it is supposed to be) so I would recommend following along either by using Google Reader directly or subscribing via blogspot, which should also make it show up in your Google Reader.
That's about it! First post should go up today (Friday), so be ready!
1) It has been made into a show called Game of Thrones that people gush about all the time on my Facebook wall. I think Boromir (Sean Bean) is in it. Don't confirm or deny that.
2) The series is ongoing.
3) There is some really super-special-awesome dwarf involved. Like seriously, I can't appreciate how many ways this dwarf is the most badass person ever.
4) The back cover mentioned something about decade-long summers and really long winters, and I think I've heard this is a really complex plot involving cross-kingdom romance. Don't tell me if I'm right or wrong.
5) The chapters are really short.
So here's the deal I'm making with you. I am going to strictly avoid any further knowledge about this series other than what each chapter tells me as I read it. I will then post my reactions to said chapter, and you will get to feel superior and laugh at how wrong/naive/shocked I am about everything. In return, you are encouraged to comment all you wish, but you are not allowed to spoil me in any way, shape, or form. Please click the link under the blog title for a full explanation of what this means. Remember, if it has anything to do with something I haven't read yet, it's a spoiler, even if it's just, "Oh, I love this next chapter so much!" because that builds my expecations and doesn't let me have the full experience. Also, nothing like "X is my favorite character, he gets especially good in the third book," because not only might that tell me that X has hidden depths I hadn't suspected, but it also tells me that he doesn't die before that point. So please, think before you comment! Thank you very much.
I hope you'll be joining me for the ride. If you haven't read Game of Thrones yet, now might be a good time to visit the library and read along. I can't promise a regular update time, but I can promise frequent updates (if this book is as good as it is supposed to be) so I would recommend following along either by using Google Reader directly or subscribing via blogspot, which should also make it show up in your Google Reader.
That's about it! First post should go up today (Friday), so be ready!
I'll be following this with interest. It's a fantastic series, I'll be surprised if you don't like it. And good call on the spoilers, it's definitely a series where not knowing makes it that much better. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteRainbow Dash gets her cutie mark by winning a race.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading this! ASoIaF is a wonderful series.
ReplyDeleteAlso: The link to the spoiler policy (on top of the page) appears to be broken.
Thanks, Flask! Because of you, I ended up doing a general check and finding another incorrect link. So now it looks like all of my links are live and correct.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you spend time on TVtropes but have managed to avoid spoilers on this one. You are either very conscientious or very lucky.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very good series.
The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure I spent a decent amount of time looking at the TVTropes page for this series about a year ago. That's how I got the impression of tangled inter-kingdom romance and backstabbing. But somehow specific details of any kind simply did not stick. I am very lucky indeed.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, many of us who have actually read the books have trouble keeping the specific details straight. There are a great many of them.
ReplyDelete