I’ve already mentioned how the pandemic tanked my reading habit, and I’m slow to chastise myself for anything like that these days. I’ve been letting it come back in its own time. This weekend I’ve come back to it with a vengeance, reading Fire and Blood - George RR Martin’s history of the Targaryens thats the basis for the new House of the Dragon show.
I’m not going to rehash all the opinions on Game of Thrones. I really liked the books (mostly) and was disappointed with the end of the TV show, and further disappointed by the continual wait for the latest book in A Song of Ice and Fire. On the other hand, I really don’t think I could personally bring myself to continue a book series I started writing in the 90s so honestly, George, I get it! Last weekend I watched the first episode of House of the Dragon and missed having my smug bookreader knowledge, so I got myself a paperback and I’ve been reading it all weekend.
My superpower, or possibly superflaw, is that when I’m reading I’m a speedy and persistent reader. So the only reason I haven’t already finished it, is I had to do some pre-scheduled social interaction yesterday. I think I’m at about page 500 of 700 or so, so I expect to finish in the next few days.
Aside from wanting to be ahead of the show, there’s another urgency, because another fantasy juggernaut is about to land. The Rings of Power tv show starts next week and dammit if that isn’t going to push me to want to reread all of the Tolkien.
It’s not all sword and sorcery though, in recent weeks I’ve really loved Sandman as well…. here’s where I admit the other side of my superflaw: I can’t really read comics. I think it’s a stage I skipped in my reading development and so comics confuse the hell out of me. I persisted through a few of the classics my friends told me I’d love, but I just don’t get the enjoyment… and definitely part of it is the speed. I’ve been told to let it wash over me, and my brain is roaring “we could have read 20 pages in this time”. Not the world’s greatest tragedy, of course, but I really enjoyed Gaiman’s novels and I wanted to read this masterpiece that was Sandman. I even asked my friend to show me how to read comics, as I thought my confusion was based on not knowing whether to look at the pictures or read the words first. The question that broke me was when I asked “is it always left to right, top to bottom?” and she said “not always, sometimes it’s the opposite, or a spiral”. And that is when I gave up trying to read comics!
The netflix show presents a great opportunity for me to engage with the material. I loved the show and I got totally sucked into it. My distracted brain just settled right into it. And episode 11 made me smug that I had written 2 whole books, without having to kidnap anyone! Of course I asked my friend where it differs and we’ve had some great chats about it…. and you know, that itch is still there, I still want to be a smug book reader, so maybe I’ll go and get a complete set and sit with it until my brain adjusts.
Although I think it’s likely I’ll be just over here reading Tolkien until at least Christmas!