On forgetting, on how to counter this before tWoW comes.

[theyoungwolf97]

This time last year I finished the series to date, and have read a whole lot of new and totally different material in the mean time. Coming back to the world of Westeros and Essos I find myself forgetting the little bitty bits of the series that I had an intrinsic knowledge of once before. It's not that I have no wish to do a complete and utter reread, I simply don't have the time. My question is for those rereaders out there, (you know who yous are), was it worth it? did you gain extensive knowledge? or just fill in the blanks your mind ceased to remember?

I want to go into Martin's new book with the knowledge I had before. This will be the first time I'm anticipating a new ASOIAF book, I only joined in on the series two years previous, so I'm no veteran, I just wanna know how you veterans out there manage to keep the fire burning before the next book?

P.S - you guys gonna watch the show before the book release? or wait? - but seriously, I mean who can resist the temptation...

[Hangover of the Morning]

I wouldn't be so hasty. The new book is nowhere near in sight so you'll likely forget much more stuff before if it comes out. 

[Victarion Chainbreaker]

You should be fine if you just reread Feast and Dance.

[TheWhiteWalker]

8 minutes ago, theyoungwolf97 said:

P.S - you guys gonna watch the show before the book release? or wait? - but seriously, I mean who can resist the temptation...

I can. I don't want D&D spoiling the story for me, and consequently ruining it. Especially after Season 5.

[kissdbyfire]

11 minutes ago, theyoungwolf97 said:

This time last year I finished the series to date, and have read a whole lot of new and totally different material in the mean time. Coming back to the world of Westeros and Essos I find myself forgetting the little bitty bits of the series that I had an intrinsic knowledge of once before. It's not that I have no wish to do a complete and utter reread, I simply don't have the time. My question is for those rereaders out there, (you know who yous are), was it worth it? did you gain extensive knowledge? or just fill in the blanks your mind ceased to remember?

I want to go into Martin's new book with the knowledge I had before. This will be the first time I'm anticipating a new ASOIAF book, I only joined in on the series two years previous, so I'm no veteran, I just wanna know how you veterans out there manage to keep the fire burning before the next book?

P.S - you guys gonna watch the show before the book release? or wait? - but seriously, I mean who can resist the temptation...

I've lost count of how many re-reads I've done... In fact, I've just started another one. And I can't recall a single one where I didn't discover something new, something I hadn't notice before. The text is so rich, and the subtext even richer. But even if just to remind yourself of [some of ] the details, it's totally worth it, imo.

[Macgregor of the North]

An idea is to Choose your topics you wish to be armed with complete knowledge on and browse over the forums and read the discussions between now and Winds release. Sometimes doing that can seem like a re-read as it refreshes your mind of all the knowledge you had and it floods back. This is what i'm doing. Im actually on a re-read but im stuck at the point in AGOT where Bronn is away to Mince Vardis in the Eyrie and haven't picked the book up for a bit as im busy but also away to finally read The Rogue Prince.

This way you approach Winds prepared for the big storylines your really wanting to remember about. As to the other bits and bobs when reading WoW your mind will refresh itself as you go along.

[LadyoftheNorth72]

I would guess that since I began reading the series just after DwD was released, I've done about 7-8 complete rereads, plus a few partial rereads of favorite sections. Personally I've found quite a few "how did I miss THIS?" moments, large and small, with each reading - of course they get smaller each time and the more time I spend here. 

My format is a bit weird (although I love it) - when I transitioned to an ereader a couple of years ago, I bought the entire series all together as one huge book. I love this because if I want to find something specific, it's very easy to use my Samsung tablet's search function and I don't even have to wrack my brain to figure out what book it was in. 

I definitely recommend rereads, at least of the sections you've become a little hazy on. For me, when I start to get the itch to be dropped back into Westeros for a while, it's always a pleasure with a little frisson of fear to realize I'm out beyond the Wall with only two more rangers, and a large group of dead people are moving around. 

[Walda]

Welcome, theyoungwolf97

This is the best place to be for that. Get the most searchable version of the book you have, pick a thread that raises an interesting question or makes you think (eg. something like "No Children in Asshai?" or "What's Connington's Endgame?" rather than threads like this, that are not likely to analyse or speculate on specific things in the books, or threads like  "Why Catelyn is a bad mother" that are likely to attract predictable opinions rather than thoughtful insights.)

Find yourself a tinfoil, or disprove one. Check out an analysis thread like A Game of Cyvasse or dip into a more miscellaneous one like Wow, I Never Noticed That Before

It is a bit of a timesink, but minute for minute,  far more productive when it comes to exercising your powers of recall than merely doing another re-read by yourself, and other people's posts can show you new aspects to things you have read several times before. 

No disrespect to re-reading - it is TOTALLY worth while. I missed virtually everything the first time around, and am doing a very slow chapter by chapter re-read taking notes on a whole heap of stuff (phases of the moon, ships, characters mentioned, food, weapons, etc, etc). But re-reading is much more time-consuming.

ETA: Agree with LadyoftheNorth72 about the mega e-book.

ETA: Don't mean to imply that I am a veteran reader or anything - only read it the first time two years ago. Read all the books at least twice, first two books three times, and some povs/ chapters more often than that.

Would be very interested in the hints that people who started reading before 2005 have, as they have personal knowledge of what kind of reading proved useful when the next book came out.

The longest I can remember having to wait for a sequel  before TWoW is about three months.

[Queen of Thornes]

There are many reasons to re-read. For me it was to refresh my memory, explore evidence for R+L=J and observe how GRRM crafted the story.

I started a re-read last year I believe, but got sidetracked with life towards the middle of AGOT. But I was enjoying the experience. I scruntinised a couple of things I hadn't known to pay attention to when I first read the book e.g. Ned's conversations with Robert in the first few chapters when the King visited Winterfell.

GRRM is a great writer. So in my re-read I was enjoying just admiring the man at his craft. He is especially good at character development- which is probably why his fandom has the puzzling habit of falling in love with minor characters that are, plot-wise, minor.

Twin your re-read with sometime on this forum. A lot of research and rich discussion is here that you can enjoy and learn more from. I agree with Walda's advice- look for the thoughtful threads with meaningful discussion. Intersperse that with some fun threads. I personally see little utility in speculating on what would have happened if some dead character was still alive or if other random things had happened that obviously the writer didn't intend. No need to re-write GRRM's book for him. That's my opinion.

I won't be watching season 6. I prefer to read a book first then watch its show anyway. Plus it seems that season 6 will spoil the rest if the series and further, I think the producers have some liberty to deviate from the storyline in the books. I don't care for some of their shifts.

I have only watched seasons 4 and 5. I avoided the show at first because I usually don't have a lot of faith attempts to bring fantasy/sci-fi epics to the big screen. There have been more misses (Ender's Game) that hits (LOTR). But GOT turned out to be entertaining, albeit a purist's nightmare. Even so it was not so marvellous as to make me want to watch further knowing that it might spoil the books.

(Updated to insert a missing word.)

[RobOsevens]

2 hours ago, TheWhiteWalker said:

I can. I don't want D&D spoiling the story for me, and consequently ruining it. Especially after Season 5.

How do you plan on avoiding all the pop culture references of the big spoilers?

To the OP, 

I've done numerous re-reads but I tend to take my time more on the later reads. You probably have some favourite theories of your own or that you have found on here on. When you do your reread keep an eye out for evidence of those. 

As to not remembering things for Winds just wait til there is a release date and reread Feast and Dance.

[King Viserys Targaryen IV]

3 hours ago, theyoungwolf97 said:

This time last year I finished the series to date, and have read a whole lot of new and totally different material in the mean time. Coming back to the world of Westeros and Essos I find myself forgetting the little bitty bits of the series that I had an intrinsic knowledge of once before. It's not that I have no wish to do a complete and utter reread, I simply don't have the time. My question is for those rereaders out there, (you know who yous are), was it worth it? did you gain extensive knowledge? or just fill in the blanks your mind ceased to remember?

I want to go into Martin's new book with the knowledge I had before. This will be the first time I'm anticipating a new ASOIAF book, I only joined in on the series two years previous, so I'm no veteran, I just wanna know how you veterans out there manage to keep the fire burning before the next book?

P.S - you guys gonna watch the show before the book release? or wait? - but seriously, I mean who can resist the temptation...

You can do re-reads of just one character at a time to focus on that character and it takes a lot less time.

For example, just read all of the Jon chapters, or just the Tyrion chapters, etc...

Do that like once a month and you would be mostly caught back up and catch stuff you did not before

[Balerion's Whiskers]

I highly recommend re-reads. I've read the whole series at least a dozen times and selected parts even more. Every time, I find something else that jumps out at me. I m a voracious reader and am always working on a book....not just Martin's stuff. I finished a re-read of aSoIaF just before Christmas and have told myself that I intend to wait on another one till tWoW publishing date is announced (although, I promised myself that same thing 2 re-reads ago) The richness of the text and the interwoven hints and foreshadowing is worth revisiting at least once a year. I guarantee you'll find something that you didn't know each time.

[slant]

keep re-reading. Get into structured and scheduled re-reads if you want, focus on the bits that you find fun, that is one of the most rewarding ways to engage in the meta-discussion of this series.

if you must read anything else, just make sure it is something that increases your understanding of ASOIAF  

hope this helps

[Eden-Mackenzie]

The audiobooks are another option for rereads, and they don't require as much of an "active" commitment as reading the physical books. They're especially handy if you have a hellish commute to work or a day-long drive home for the holidays. You may not get all the details that you would by reading, depending on your learning/retention style, but you will still get the story as a whole, and the you can go back to the books for more details should you need/want them.

Also, anytime I need a refresher on a character or incident mentioned on the forum, I'll look it up on the wiki, which provides book/chapter references, so I can just reread the pertinent portion. 

Once a release date is announced, I will definitely do a full reread, whether it is the actual books or the audiobooks I'm not sure yet, and I will still be watching season 6, because morbid curiosity and lack of impulse control are an unbeatable combination. The show has diverged so far from the books on so many storylines that anything spoilery will be taken with a big fat grain of salt. 

[Walda]

Also, don't forget Sporcle