Winter is coming.....

Well I finished book 4 of the Game of Thrones - A Song of Fire and Ice Series. I thought there were only 5 in the series, but I was reading something the other day and I think there might be 7. Oh my...I love the story, and I am enjoying the television show on HBO as well. But man they are HUGE books. This last one was a little one...and it was 767 pages. The others have been over a thousand pages. George R.R. Martin wrote the books and I just cannot begin to wrap my head around how someone could write a book like this. There are so many characters and so much is happening now because of things that happened in "history" to the characters. It's like he's writing a book, but he has to have a whole back story so everyone understands why someone is doing what they are doing or acting a certain way. They are very good, but they are very involved as well. And I must say......they will kill anyone in those books. Some books you read and you think oh they wouldn't kill that character....and they don't....well....not so much in these books. So this should really be the book cover for all the books!!! ha ha The first book, A Game of Thrones, got me right involved with all the characters and wanting more. So on to the second book I went, which was A Clash of Kings. It too went deeper into the characters but it just kind of told more of the story. The third book A Storm of Swords - holy crap. My friend Rob was reading the book at the same time as I was, so every few days we would be talking about the book or I would text him with a "holy crap" text!! The stuff that was happening just left you wanting more and more and more. So I moved on to the fourth book, A Feast For Crows. It continued on with the story as well, but there were only a few "aha" moments in that one, so I am taking a break from them for right now. I just started Nicholas Sparks Best of Me. My mom just finished it and said it was good so I thought I would give it a read. It seems like a quick read so far. I just started it last night and I am into it pretty good so far. I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book before, but I have seen a few of the movies that were based on his books. One of my personal favourites was the Notebook. I watch it every time I see it on TV. And I cry in all the same places no matter how many times I watch that show. And I love that Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams are both Canadian and they both do FANTASTIC jobs of acting in the movie. I have also seen The Last Song which was very good as well and Dear John. I think those are all I have seen so far, although I do have A Walk to Remember and Nights in Rodanthe to watch as well. I'll see how I like this book and then maybe I'll read a few of his. I'm a little anal when it comes to reading books and I very much like to read the books in the order that the author wrote them. Some books it doesn't matter, but every once in a while, you find that even though they say it doesn't matter, there are crossover characters and to me it DOES matter!
I would highly suggest reading Game of Thrones - but know that they are big books and there are a lot of characters and they are set back in the days of castles and dragons and kings and queens and war, so there are graphic scenes and terrible behavior, but they are a good read.
Chow for now,
Jacqui
P.S....if you are wondering what the "winter is coming" title means....it's something that they say all the time in the Game of Thrones books. (and unfortunately....that season will be upon us before we know it.)