The Books Thread

I also tend to avoid suspicious companies...but if my kids would ask me something from one of those companies...i would not hesitate and buy it.
We spoil our kids...

A book i wanted to "push" here for a long time is a biography about a very weird and peculiar man.: Shakey, the biography of Neil Young...somebody told me to read the book because it's a good book no matter if you like or not Neil Young's music...since reading that biography i've been buying lots of Neil Young music...
 
Can't believe I have missed this thread, I'll have to list some of my faves in here, you may even like one or two...

Just finished Justin Halperns - Shit my dad says.. It's a great loo book, it's short but fun...

Also just done Will Fergusons - Hokkaido Highway Blues and halfway through Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada.. Very good...
 
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The "Game Of Thrones" book arrived yesterday and it's ridiculous! Going to take me a decade to read 800+ pages, with the text being so small as well!

Hoping it lives up to the hype now.
 
Yes, Dags, it's worth it, just be patient the first 60 pages and don't get overwhelmed by the enormous world you'll be put at. With time, you'll get to know it quite well. And enjoy it!

Gerd: It's a fantasy series of books, but don't think of it as the usual "fantasy". In fact, I don't like usual fantasy, it's more like a political struggle in an inmense world with some (and only some) drops of magic. It's been defined as "Sopranos in the middle earth" and I'll say it's even more than that. It's the best entertaining fiction I've read and some of the moments in the series will really make you shout in anger/despair/joy/surprise.
 
Yes, exactly, this is the series of books. Anyone else than mjsmith has read this (and knows this thread exists)?
 
Read "Bondage of fear" by Fergal Keane, it's about South Africa and life during 1988-96 (when apartheid ended and Mandela took over) told as a series of news reports / individual stories. Well worth the read.
 
drekkard said:
Yes, Dags, it's worth it, just be patient the first 60 pages and don't get overwhelmed by the enormous world you'll be put at. With time, you'll get to know it quite well. And enjoy it!
Click to expand...

Only 23 pages in but it's a bit difficult to follow already. It's always going on about these different gods, different animals, different parts of the region, different religions and ceremonies.
Far too much to throw at you in my opinion, it just baffles you! :CONFUSE:

Interesting start story-wise though! :JAY:
 
I told you at the beginning you would be overwhelmed, but don't worry. All those names and religions will be as familiar as your brother in a month. At the start, simply get the overall idea and follow what seems to be the main storyarch. By page 100, you're already initiated to the world and can start focusing on other things/details.

And that said, George Martin is a sort of a genius, those first 30-40 pages keep inside a lot of things that, as you said, you can't just process at the beginning, and it's done on purpose, as there is important information hidden here and there about things that will unfold in the next 1.000 pages!!!!

Just follow the story, it will quickly go further...
 
Bizarre. The first 10-20 pages or so go into so much detail about things like religion and whatever, and it just hits you with so much that you think you need to remember.

I'm on page 99 now and it's settled right down, where it's mostly just carrying on the story without all of the backstory about them being part of X family and so on. Very good read so far though, the characters are really interesting and I can see myself enjoying it more as it goes on.

VERY shocked by Bran being pushed off the window ledge!! :SHOCK:

Already you get characters that you really dislike, characters you think are the "good" guys and a character that seems to be getting a really rough ride and have a lot of sympathy for.

Catelyn telling Jon Snow it should've been him who was injured and not Bran, made me quite angry :BRICK: :CENSOR: :LOL:
 
Well, as you may guess by now, there are no "heroes" and "evil" in this books. Just people trying to survive in hard conditions. You can never be sure of what's going to happen, as you quickly discovered the hard way with
Bran... two incestuous twin brothers throwing a kid by the window...

You're going to be really shocked for the next months, and scenes like that of Catelyn suddenly becoming a bitch are quite usual. Martin is a master pupetter, he plays a lot with the reader. You'll see why during your journey.

Keep writing your impressions whenever you feel likely, it's great to see people's reactions and remember things of the books (I'm going to read again book 1 in march, just before the TV show airs).
 
Not sure how far through I am in pages (about 13% on Kindle) but it's warming up nicely. Thanks for the mention in the TV thread and now here. Nice to get stuck into a new book/series. :)
 
Oh, great, another ocnversion! I should ask George R.R. MArtin for some shares of the pie! I already converted a lot of friend and family!

As I said to Dags, feel free to write now and then your impressions, just to know your reactions and if you like it! Enjoy!
 
I'm around 250 pages in now and the characters are really starting to develop more. I can imagine that some of the characters are going to really become instrumental in the future.

Very, very good book and well worth the hype. Once you get passed the initial hit of so much fantasy info to take in, you can just get used to the characters and it all tends to fit in.

In saying that, I still get confused about who's who and who some people are related to and how.
 
I was tempted to look and see if there was a good Wiki that would explain it, but then it'd probably have "Dies in book 2" or something next to names :(
 
Don't look around, spoilers may destroy the experience. Not only about deaths or connections, but a lot of other things.

In Spain, the books had a "family guide" at the end that was very very useful, as well as a map of the "Seven Kingdoms" at the beggining. Does your edition include that?

I didn't know until I finished the first book, but from then on, I always could see the previous book to remember some of the secondary characters. Though it isn't necessary to remember everyone. It's impossible and you can enjoy the books without knowing exactly who's who in all regions.
 
I bought the books separately in Spanish here at Barcelona, so don't know about Amazon. Anyway, I think these books are easily found in any big bookstore, if you have any near you.
 
Finished it earlier. What an amazing book, up there with the best I've read and possibly THE best. Can't remember wanting to keep going back and reading a book so much as this.

Love the characters and how you get attached to them and the storylines are pretty epic. I'm going to order the second book from Amazon now. I was planning on buying it later on and reading a few other books first but I can't wait to read more after how this book finished.

Amazing and epic, two words I've used that sum it up really. Cheers to Drekkard for the recommendation!
 
Glad you liked it! The 2nd one starts a little slow, but then towards the end it gets very intense. The 3rd one (split into 2 volumes) is the best one for me, the more intense fictional book I've read.

Thanks for the mention and enjoy!
 
Finally, after some years of waiting! Now let's hope they translate it to Spanish quickly and he has the next book half wrote already!

Where are you Dags? Finished the 2nd one?
 
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