What order will you read the chapters of TWOW once it's out?

[StarksInTheNorth]

Yes I'm down to this kind of thought because there is only so many times I can re-read my favorite theories and speculations.

I originally read AFFC and ADWD straight-through when I first read them. This was well after they'd both been published, but I wasn't ingrained enough in fandom to know about the various FeastDance combined orders. What I've found since on my many read throughs is I prefer to read by character or geographic theater. Reading Sansa, Tyrion, and Davos as one re-read of ACOK makes it easier to follow and catch all the battle plans for the Blackwater. Especially for FeastDance, reading Tyrion/Daenerys/Barristan/Quentyn as one read through is easier to follow. By now, I know enough about the context that I can read all the Quentyn chapters without feeling lost about the context or missed events (like Dany flying away).

Reading by theater or by character will be the quickest way to figure out what happens to my favorites and the outcomes of the plots I've most speculated on (especially since Sansa is both her own character and theater at this point). But at the same time, I know GRRM and his editors put forth a lot of effort to order the chapters in the way they do. It might take longer to get through and to track all the moving pieces, but it's not like we'd have to read it fast to get to the next installment.

So, I'm curious: how do you think you'll end up reading The Winds of Winter once it's out?

[CamiloRP]

The first time I'll read it start to finish, and it'll probably take me a few days, butmediately after I finish it I will start over, paying much more attention, and depending how the story goes, this could mean altering the chapter order.

[Makk]

I don't think reading it out of order first of all will work very well. There will be times when the writer expects you to know something that has happened in a chapter you are supposed to have read but haven't. And at other times you will spoil tension by having read things you should not have.

[BlackLightning]

The first couple times I'll read it in the order it is in.

After that, I'll probably read it by geographic region. For example, if Tyrion, Victarion and Barristan all survive and stay in relatively the same area for the story, I'll read only their chapters because the likelihood of their POVs being one smaller part of a larger Slaver's Bay story will be high. But I won't know to do that until after I've read the book at least once. For all I know, Victarion can spend only a chapter in Slaver's Bay only for him to wind up in Sothryos or the Summer Islands as part of some plot twist.

 

Eventually, I'll read the chapters by character so I can pick up on any ongoing theme. The chapters of the major POVs (Tyrion, Jon, Dany, etc.) always have a larger theme and tone going throughout all their chapters. It's practically a novella so I try to read them like that. I read all of Bran's chapters from Storm and Dance back-to-back last week and it was both extremely entertaining and extremely enlightening.

[Kyll.Ing.]

Yeah, anything other than start-to-finish will set you up for a few potentially huge spoilers for the chapters you skip, letting you know their conclusion in a really anticlimactic way. For instance, you can have Sansa discussing the preparation for the Fuchsia Wedding in one chapter (Sansa 3, book chapter 14), and in the next (Sansa 4, book chapter 78) pine over the consequences of the massacre that occurred, mourning the loss of Littlefinger and Arya, but finding some solace in Ned's unexpected return from the dead, but at any rate they must hurry to Pyke to pledge fealty to Daenerys and Quentyn and discuss a strategy to fight the wights that came out of Dorne and laid King's Landing to waste. 

A lot can happen between character chapters, and the characters may discuss stuff you're intended to take in through other points of view. Going back to those characters later - some of whom you may even know will not survive - will be a bit anticlimactic.

[Nathan Stark]

Reading a book front to back is the best way to avoid confusion, so that's how I would read Winds in the unlikely event it gets published in our lifetimes.

[BlackLightning]

On 7/29/2021 at 3:34 PM, Nathan Stark said:

Reading a book front to back is the best way to avoid confusion, so that's how I would read Winds in the unlikely event it gets published in our lifetimes.

We're going to get The Winds of Winter...one way or another

A Dream of Spring is another discussion.

[PrettyLittlePsycho]

I´ve never read a book in another way than it was intended by the author (except for some shitty ones I had to read in school, talking about you Kafka and «The Metamorphosis»), but I might be tempted to go for Arya and relating characters if I ever get my hands on Winds.

[Dalinar]

In the same order, the author has published it: begining with chapter zero, then going to chapter zero, and from there following by zero and so on. Up until the last chapter: zero. 

[TheLastWolf]

On 7/23/2021 at 9:31 PM, StarksInTheNorth said:

So, I'm curious: how do you think you'll end up reading The Winds of Winter once it's out?

The order it's published in obv.... George knows better, resist the temptation...

[Aebram]

On 7/24/2021 at 9:30 AM, CamiloRP said:

The first time I'll read it start to finish, and it'll probably take me a few days, butmediately after I finish it I will start over, paying much more attention, and depending how the story goes, this could mean altering the chapter order.

My approach will be much like Camilo's. The first time, I will read it as fast as I can, because I'll be dying to find out what happens next. Then I'll go back and read it again, more slowly, so I can savor all the rich detail, and look for clues that may provide a solution to old mysteries, or start some new ones.

[Jaenara Belarys]

I'll most likely devour it within a day or two, if time permits. Then, I'll head back and reread it a few more times, all the while checking the TWOW forum, which will most likely explode. 

[Gravity Grave]

The sequencing clearly matters, so not sure why anyone for the first read through wouldn't read it in it's presented order? 

[Kyll.Ing.]

On 10/2/2021 at 2:11 AM, Jaenara Belarys said:

all the while checking the TWOW forum, which will most likely explode. 

That's actually my go-to way of checking whether the book is out soon. I figure the forums would go down under the traffic if Martin made an announcement. Conversely, if the forums open without problems, the status of the book remains unknown.