Hi Westeros, glad to be here. I recently retired and have started up on my love of reading. I have an addictive personality and won't stop reading once I start (if it's good) so I stayed away from large books as much as possible while I was working. Helicopter pilots should not be reading while flying. I made a HUGE mistake of not picking up a series I enjoyed as a child and catching up on the books I missed........ I simply assumed they were as good as I thought when I was 14. NOT TRUE. Holy cow. I have never been more angry at the drivel I downloaded on my kindle as I was when I began "catching up" on this series. What a waste of money. Thankfully I was able to sell a collector edition that I had from that series and recoup my losses, and also pay for part of my roof repair. Luckily, I googled "books that don't suck" and "books as far from -------- as possible". I was whisked to this wonderful place, as well as Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. Thank you Pat and everyone on Westeros for gifting me with lists and lists of wonderful reading material. My finished novels include Brent Weeks, Mark Lawrence, Robin Hobb, Anthony Ryan, Will Wight, and Robert Redick, to name a few. I found Game Of Thrones while in Iraq and quickly caught up on George RR Martin's series. Oddly enough, I discovered the Red Wolf Conspiracy in Afghanistan and caught up on that series while there. (Slight derailment: my trip to Iraq was before the Kindle....and it was a heavy book heaving trip. My subsequent trips were post-kindle and more back friendly. Hey, I said I stayed away as much as possible, not that I was good at staying away) My to do list includes Joe Abercrombie, Jim Butcher, and catching the newest books out by the previous authors. Once again, glad to be here, I will try to add more than I take away.
