One of My Greatest Accomplishments of 2012

One of my greatest accomplishments of 2012...well to be honest I started it at the end of 2011...was finishing up the Game of Thrones book series. If you've ever seen one of the books, almost all of them are around 1000 pages, you'll understand that this really is an accomplishment. To be honest, I really did like the series, but it was very dark compared to lots of things I normally read. As a matter of fact, I took a long break at the beginning of the year because I got irritated with the series (keep reading to see why) and the darkness can be overwheliming at times and then finished with a flourish over the summer. The characters were unique, which is probably why I kept reading...I wanted to find out what happened to them! I particularly enjoyed the characters of Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister. One thing I didn't like about the books was the way the author, Martin, kills off beloved characters with the stroke of a pen and those evil one's never really seem to get punished. People who have read the series will recall the Red Wedding as one of the worst/best examples of killing off characters. Some people say the killing off of beloved characters is what makes this series unique - nothing is sacred - but I say that's what makes it so annoying. I also would like to know where this whole thing with Arya is going, I'm really confused as to how her exploits at the moment have anything to do with anything, and if Daenerys finally gets on with this whole being queen thing. Apparently I'll need to wait a while for the next book because Martin is notorious for taking years to write a new book.

To answer your unspoken question, no I have not watched the HBO series. It apparently has a lot of graphic nudity for no good reason, so I've not watched it. Sure there's sex in the books, but I don't consider it graphic compared to some romance novels I've read. I just came to the conclusion a long time ago, that what you put in your head stays there for a long time and I don't want some of the book's exploits in my head like that. Plus I wouldn't want to buy the series and then have teenage Colby and Carter find it and think that's the way you treat women...yeah, that would be bad. Anyway, if you want a good read and enjoy well-crafted characters, try Game of Thrones, but don't expect to get it done any time soon!