Books, Booze and Bread

George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is an intricate, intriguing, immersive politico-historical epic fantasy series. Comprised of 4 currently published novels, there is one more set to be released July 12 of this year, with the final two books coming at a later date. Being a fan of fantasy novels (and books in general) and having worked in a book store for 7 years, I had heard about the series but had never read any of them. That is until I saw a copy of the first novel A Game of Thrones sitting in a used book shop that was working in conjunction with the Alpha Delta Phi Society, a co-ed Greek letter society of which I am a brother. I had recently heard inklings of a TV series to be made of the book on HBO and decided that I could justify spending two dollars on the book. I started reading over my winter break and was immediately hooked and bought the next two novels in the series. Unfortunately, my break ended before I was able to finish the second book, and I’ve been stuck in the middle ever since, as I can scarcely find a free moment to read.

Martin is an absolutely fantastic writer; in fact, he has been called the American Tolkien by Time Magazine. While I disagree with this assessment for the sole reason that Tolkien changed the literary landscape, I do feel that Martin is more accomplished in his characterization and plot structure. In Tolkien, everything is black vs. white, good vs. evil. In Martin’s world, people may take sides, but each and every person is painted in various shades of gray. At times it can get extremely frustrating, such as when a character you like does something despicable or a character you despise shows a quality that you admire.

As I said before, the series is a historical fantasy, but unlike many fantasy books, the action is not centered around a quest for some powerful item, it is centered around the politics of the Seven Kingdoms. Most political fantasies are far too dry to hold my interest, but Martin does a good job of creating characters and cultures that make me want to dig deeper into the series and learn more. Martin also makes it easier to keep track of the goings on by having each chapter narrated from an limited third person point of view centered on a rotating cast of characters. This makes following the political machinations of the various characters a great deal simpler. However, it also makes it rather difficult to refresh what has previously happened if there is too long a break between chapters relating that character’s storyline. For example, there is a character named Theon, who has, so far, been relatively minor. It has easily been three weeks to a month since I last read about Theon, so today when I read one of his chapters, I was exceedingly confused while I tried to remember all the characters with whom he was interacting and exactly what was going on. But those are my thoughts so far on this series. I am only one book and 546 pages into the seven book series, though, so things may change.

So, I sort of have this problem where I want to read voraciously, but I am too busy with schoolwork and then when I have a free moment, I just want to relax and let my brain shut off a bit, so reading is just a bit out of the question. Case in point, I went to Subway yesterday to grab some lunch (I had a coupon). As it turns out, I drive by my local library anytime I want to go anywhere, and there is rarely a time that I can resist stopping in to see what they have. Well, this time I left with two books and the first disc of the TV series Firefly on DVD. The first book, The Infinities by John Banville, is one that I’ve been looking at reading for a while because Banville’s prose is absolutely luminous and he’s got a rather dark sense of humor, something I take great pleasure in. The second is a new book and, honestly, I just picked it up because I liked the title: Skippy Dies. Of course I read the book flaps before I checked it out, but a great title is almost as effective a means for getting me to take interest in a book as a great cover is. I am also in the middle of reading A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. That’s the end of this rather weak first post, but I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully with something more interesting.

I know I’m late to the party but I do have a number of thoughts throughout the day that I could share with the world. That being said most of these posts will be about some form of art; while I will try to focus on literature, I am just too busy to read as much as I would like to. So, instead, I’ll write about visual art, music, even television and movies if I am so inclined. This may mean that you will be subjected to my awful attempts at literature, but those are the risks you take. Now you know the attempted focus of my Tumblr; let’s see how well I follow it.