Obligatory Initial Introduction Post Hi Folks, I just wanted to make a brief introductory post saying hello. I am so glad to have found the Westeros.org site and the subsequent volumes of information that the site has made available to further the lore and learning of those folks who have become as captivated by the GoT as I have. Initially I was only a fan by way of the HBO series. Recently though, while waiting impatiently for the 4th season to begin (Winter may be coming, but the Spring season of HBO always follows eventually lol), I decided to pick up the books and read them. I love to read and I read a wide variety of genres, fantasy being much loved ever since I first picked up a Patricia McKillip paperback at the age of 13 (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld). Now in my early 50's I find my reading often mirrors the way I watch Netflix, in absolute marathon sessions. To give an example, I enjoyed the Starz series the White Queen and delved headfirst into the novels by Phillipa Gregory. I read all the novels in the War of the Cousins series and then followed up with the tales of the Tudors. I was immersed in the world that Phillipa wrote about morning, noon and night. I've done the same deep immersion technique with other authors, and find that it is very enjoyable for me personally, but your mileage may vary. And so I followed suit for the GoT books, I started with the first and read straight through to the most recent over the last 6 weeks. I have to admit that I am glad I hadn't read them earlier when they were first published as when I found out that it had taken 4 to 5 years between some of the books being written I don't think I could have withstood the anticipation of waiting lol! Not to mention that the time lapse between books would have caused me to have to re-read the earlier books just to reacqauint myself with the various plethora of characters and plotlines (that happened with the reading of the Stephen King DT series). I finished ADWD a few days ago and look forward to the release of the final 2 (or 3?) volumes as does everyone here I am sure. Now I find I am in desperate need of the balm of Westeros in the form of additional materials to read and was happy to find links to chapters made available for the upcoming book as well as have asked Santa for Dangerous Women to read the short story there about the early years. I am planning on doing a marathon re-watch of seasons 1-3 a few weeks before the new season begins on HBO. I want to rewatch the series as I think that having read the novels now I will better understand elements of the series I missed the first time around. I'll better appreciate subtle plotline points and more as I missed bits and pieces here and there while doing things around the house. With a husband, three dogs, a cat, and aquarium at home there were many things to steal my attention away from focusing on the series at the time it aired. One of things I really enjoyed about reading the books were the insights given by the internal dialogue of various characters which is near impossible to translate to the screen. Long after I put the books down key phrases would come unbidden to me during the day. If I look back, I am lost... Reek, reek, it rhymes with bleak... I should mention that I do most of my reading on a Kindle now. I held out for as long as possible, swearing that nothing could hold a candle to feeling the weight of an actual book in your hand, hearing the crack of the spine as a new book is opened for the first time or the timeless scent that arises from the pages of some dusty tome pulled from some long forgotten shelf. Having recieved the Kindle as a gift, I had no choice but to at least give it a try and I found much to my delight that I now prefer to use the Kindle as my primary reader now. Options such as being able to customize font size and many other little perks like the built-in dictionary have made it an invaluable tool for me. Books I truly treasure will still be purchased in hard-cover format to take their hallowed place on the bookshelf though and ASoIaF will be there for certain! Well, I said this was going to be a brief introduction...apologies in advance to those I've offended for not being brief lol and many thanks to those who have read thus far. I look forward to being a part of Westeros. -Aletheia *** Draconem Aeternum
