Just finished the final book (of five) of the George R.R.Martin series 'A Song Of Ice & Fire' - it's been a marathon, but (mostly) enjoyable, task; as a huge Game of Thrones fan I was quite shocked at how different a lot of the characters are in the books as compared to the TV show. Any fans of the TV series who fancy reading these need to totally dismiss the TV series from their minds. The fifth book ends with so many loose ends I fear the sixth book may not actually be the last one - I do hope GRRM gets his finger out and puts the sixth book to print as I would like to finish the series before I shuffle from this mortal coil!
I read these almost at the perfect time, think it was between seasons 4 and 5 of the TV show so I knew a lot of what was going on as I read, but then got 'beyond' the show and had a spoiler free read of book five, then got to see it translated on screen. It's a shame but I doubt he's ever going to finish it.
Read the acclaimed James by Percival Everett on holiday. Picks up from Mark Twain with the story of Jim the runaway slave and it was as good as i thought it would be.
A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill. A memoir. Probably one of the best descriptive books I have read. Hamill was born to an Irish immigrant in Brooklyn, New York in the early 1930's. His father was an invalid having had a leg amputated after a football accident. His father was also a drunk. A path Hamill followed. He lived through the Depression and WW2 and learned early that drinking was an essential part of being a man, inseparable, from the rituals of celebration, mourning, friendship, romance, and religion. The description of life in Brooklyn, the bars, the streets and his upbringing are quite remarkable. Hamill is a fabulous author, a writer, a story teller, and a top journalist. This book is magnificent and highly recommended if you like a good, honest and truthful read. At times like looking into a mirror.
Not as good by any measure as 'Sing Backwards and Weep' .... One for the fans / purists, documenting his near death fight with Covid, interspersed (padded out) with poems and 'memories'... 140 odd pages, read in one go...
I've been waiting for the final books since 2011 but I doubt I'll ever see them I agree so many of the characters are very different from the TV show there are also so many more threads going on. I was at a tiny airport in the US, can't remember which one, but there was a single rack of books which were mostly Dan Brown **** and self help crap. One book had Sean Bean on the cover and I thought why not. I ripped through the series before even watching the show...and here I am waiting for the conclusion 15 years later. Even my Mrs doesn't take that long to "finish"...
Really? I think the majority have pretty poor adaptations. The way he writes involves a lot of internal monologue that typically translates poorly to the screen.
Recently started on a charity shop paperback find "The Scramble for Africa" by Thomas Packenham. Published 20 or 30 years ago. An account of all the colonial powers and their shenanigans in Africa towards the end of the 19th C & early 20th C. Not too far in (it's a sizeable tome) but is a page turner. Anyone read it?
There are supposed to be seven books in Martins magnus opus. Fifteen years and counting for the sixth, I do not hold much hope for the seventh. Though it does give me time to reinforce the bookshelf - and the floor supporting it. I could list the reasons I think the books will never be completed, but that would involve a lot of spoilers for those who are yet to read the books, or watch the series even. But, if the show ending was the one given to dumb and dumber (oooops spoiler there) by the author, the reception it received may have forced a re-think. And for all you budding authors out there - sit down and write the book narrative as to how Hodor got his name. Without either yourself or your readers having to resort to hallucinogenic substances to make sense of it.
Got it on the shelf/in a box as one of several hundred books i haven't read yet. My ancestor (great x3 or 4 grandfather) on my father's side was part of Rhodes' pioneer column up from South Africa into what was Matabeleland and worked to create Rhodesia. From billions of acres of wild grazing land into the bread basket of Africa and a bigger economy than Spain within 4 decades. Shame what happened and what could have been.
Just finishing off SS-GB by Len Deighton. Really good read. Detective/espionage set in a Britain occupied by The Nazis in 1941.
I hope they'd make some modern Harry Palmer films, or remakes, with say a James Norton playing the Michael Caine part..That would be cool.
Reading: The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice by Michael Krondl. About Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam, very interesting
I don't believe for one minute, nor could you convince me, that 3R had any input at all into the ending of the TV show - without wanting to put out spoilers. there's no way that the Jon Snow of the books finished up in the same place as the Jon Snow of the TV show - his story (in the show) became a thing of total farce.
