For the longest time (certainly for the lifetime of this blog, at a minimum), I have been anti-series. I talk about it in this post back in 2015 when I picked up Percy Jackson against my better judgment. Since then, I've picked up Game of Thrones (oh excuse me, A Song of Ice and Fire), the Jack Taylor novels, Bright Empires, and maybe one other? I forget now.
So I'm officially giving up on my anti-series postulating. Here, I lay it to rest.
Mostly because I've started two new series (and restarted an old one) and I don't need to hear about it!
I finally picked up The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. It has been on my list for a little while after seeing a friend put it on their list. I finished it in a few days, and I fell in love almost as soon as I opened it. Irene is a junior librarian at The Library, and most of her job involves going into alternate worlds to obtain specific books, either to preserve the link from The Library to that particular world or to prevent "inappropriate technology" from causing trouble in the world. I tried to beg, borrow, and anything else short of actually stealing to get my hands on the next book as soon as humanly possible. I ordered it from the public library, through interlibrary loan at the office, AND as an ebook through the public library's digital collection ALL at the same time. I've read the first three and have to wait until December for the fourth. THIS is the reason I used to despise reading series. The wait. The worst. Ugh.
On a whim (and in post-The Invisible Library slump), I picked up a book called Evil Librarian. After reading about librarians (mostly) being the good guys, let's get a baddie in the mix. It felt a bit sophomoric (I mean, it does take place in a high school, so totally appropriate), but the story was still very good. Recommend it to the theatre/book nerd/Buffy fan in your life. You won't be sorry (and neither will they). I didn't realize it was a series until a passage in the book made me think, "There's no way they are just going to end this after one book...Oh great. Well done. You've picked another series. What other life long rules can you break in a month?" It wasn't nearly as good as The Invisible Library (in my opinion), but I'm still probably going to go after book two when I have time.
In TV news, I've started The West Wing and holy crap. How have I not seen this show before now? It is GOLD. I mean, pure gold. It is smart, it is funny. It is quick and witty in a way I was not expecting. The characters are strong, and the story is good. I cry at least once a season, mostly during the Christmas episodes. I'm only at the beginning of season 3, but I've started trying to ration my episodes, so I don't finish too quickly. In an effort to keep the show from really ending, I've also started listening to The West Wing Weekly podcast. The guys (Josh Malina and Hrishi Hirway) go through each episode in exquisite nerdy detail. Josh will join the cast of TWW soon, but I haven't gotten to his part yet. They ask on actors from the show to guest and talk about their time on set. They also talk about some of the political points that are brought up on the show and have real life congressmen and people in the political world come on and speak to how things actually work.
I love love love it and the show and recommend y'all get moving on this so we can talk about it!
Believe it or not, that basically catches you up on the reading I've been doing this month. And will you believe it? I'm still ahead of my reading goal! Pro-series. Ahead of my reading goal. Look out. Something big is coming!
What are you guys reading? Anything so good you've lost sleep because of it?
Ya'll, I have been trying hard to meet my reading goals for the year. I promise! I accidentally started knitting earlier than usual this year, so that took away some of my prime summer reading time. I also tried a few audiobooks which were really unexpectedly wonderful, but took twice as long as actually reading, so I think that's the other reason I'm so behind. I looked at the stats and think it might be entirely possible that I won't reach my goal this year, and I'm kinda okay with it. Don't get me wrong, I love reading and I love reading more every year. I love having a goal to work toward and love that Goodreads sets up the challenge in the first place. But I end up putting so much pressure on myself to read MORE, and I noticed that this year it's less about good books and just about more books.
Anyway.
I finished a (one. single.) book this week and I thought I'd share. It's a cute little thing called "love in lowercase" and I think I fell in love with the title before I even had a chance to read the blurb on the back. However, upon further examination (and actually finishing the book) I think I fell out of love pretty quickly. It was a translation, so I was completely ready to give it all kinds of slack. I've had a mixed history with translations and now I try to approach them carefully, fully realizing that the translation could be the thing that sucks, rather than the story itself. Like most films of non-American origin, this book left me feeling empty and a little sad. But as Sally Sparrow says, sad is good because it's like happy for deep people. Love in Lowercase made me think about the little things that we do in life, the interactions we have with the people around us. Sometimes, we only hold the door or say hello to our fellow travelers. To the person receiving the gesture, though, it could have been the most human interaction they had in the day, therefore making it very meaningful. And sometimes people we meet by chance have more of an impact on us than the scores of family members and well wishing friends we have in our life daily.
A few years ago, I read Game of Thrones. I liked the first book a lot, but when I tried to get into the second, I didn't do so well. And then I let my friend borrow it and well...It dropped off my radar. This summer, I needed something to listen to on a long drive. It could be music or...well, maybe I could try that audio book thing. I grabbed Game of Thrones again. I knew it would be long enough and I liked it the first time. Well, I ended up LOVING it. The audio book was done so well that when I finished book 1, I knew I needed to get my hands on book 2. And I was not disappointed. The only drawback is that, while great for vacations, my daily commute is thirty minutes MAX round trip. It took me ages. That, coupled with the fact that the CD player in my car started to get tired, is why when I finished book 2, I reached for a physical brick sized book. On a good day, I could manage about 100 pages. It is still a huge commitment.
And every day I wake up and look at the book on my bedside table I think, "And this is why you swore off (most) series long ago, man." Sigh. I'm fairly committed to finishing now, though. I'm almost 400 pages into book 4 and then I only have one more to get through. I can do that, right?
Sigh.
I have two other books waiting for me (if I ever finish). I finally got my hands on a copy of Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. I'm maybe 10 pages in and I'm in love. The other is a recommendation from a friend, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald. Fingers crossed I get to at least one of them before the new year.
Tomorrow starts the final two months of the Goodreads challenge. Are you finishing strong? Or did you get stuck like me, not getting a count but determined to finish SOMETHING just the same?
You can do it! (And I mean, remember: there's always next year!)
Guys.
Guys.
I just finished season one of Game of Thrones.
IT WAS SO GOOD!
Excuse me for yelling, but seriously, I mean seriously. This show was done so well. Top marks.
The settings, the costumes, the map, the script--everything was fantastically done. And adapting a 900 odd page book into a miniseries? Probably the BEST choice they could have made. It would not have done well as a movie. It would have needed to be a 5 hour movie. Longer.
It made me wonder what would have happened if Peter Jackson had done the same with Lord of the Rings. That way instead of three hours, we could have gotten (if they held to GoT series) 10 hours and LOTS more details. Don't get me wrong, I love Lord of the Rings and am SO EXCITED to see The Hobbit. But it makes ya think, doesn't it?
I am now motivated to get back to reading Clash of Kings. I am already about 200 pages in, but that was...months ago. Also, so excited to see season 2!
If you haven't seen it, or read Game of Thrones, do it! I promise you won't be sorry!
