11 Reasons Why I Haven’t Read The Game Of Thrones Books Yet!

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Game Of Thrones.

I have been following the series since the past 1.5 years and I am crazy about it.

I must confess that the last time any series had so much of an impact on me was 15 years ago – and it was the Harry Potter series. But I had read the books first and then saw the movies during my Harry Potter stage. This time, it is completely different. I have NOT read the books of ASOIAF or A Song Of Ice And Fire series.

I know, I know. I can see some raised eyebrows there. I do have my reasons though.

1. I can visualize everything just the way the HBO series has made me visualisze. Lack of imagination makes every line a tad bit lengthy.
2. The pace. The pace. The series shows time passing in a whiff. But the books…not so much. This forms the base of my next point.
3. GRRM writes slow. I respect him and I understand it is not easy. However, it doesn’t help my cause. I can’t wait that long. When I start a series, I want to wrap it up soonish. This is not going to happen with ASIOAF.
4. If I purchase the books – physical books, I need to have the whole set. Buying five books in some edition and then the other two in “I Don’t Know What Happened To Good Cover Designers” is not something I am keen on.
5. The books and the series have major differences. I don’t want to cringe and get shocks every other day!
6. Every time I open the book, some or the other work comes up. I mean it. It is jinxed – the book. I have borrowed the first one from a friend.
7. If I do start reading the book, I bet I will not stop. It happened with Harry Potter. I stayed up all night with a torch and a blanket and completed 3 books in a row for 3 days straight. Eating was out of question as well. But that was student life. Now I have to juggle so many things such as a full-time job and this blog. I rarely have spare time.
8. I constantly keep comparing GOT to other fantasy series. I have called Ned Stark Boromir for a long long time. Walder Frey will always be Mr. Filch.
9. I know it in my bones that I will like a character immensely only to find that he/she is dead in the HBO series. (Alive and kicking in the books though)
10. Because of this guy – http://patricksponaugle.com/. He writes some freaking awesome GOT posts and I need no books for it. He is going to write posts on – Defense of Olly. AM EXCITED!
11. I am not affected by Spoilers so I have read a lot about the series and have at least some kind of knowledge.

Is there a famous book you have not read but want to read it desperately?

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30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 30

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Day 30: Which are some of the places from where you get your books from?

I usually purchase my books from:

Crossword Bookstore

Landmark Bookstore

Airports/Railway Stations

Order online from Flipkart and Amazon, Indiaplaza and Homeshop18

Book fairs that sell slightly damaged books at dirt cheap rates!

I also get books as gifts. The best gifts ever isn’t it 😀

I also used to borrow them from The British Library but have not renewed my membership this year.

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With this, the challenge comes to an end. 🙂 Tadaaaa.

 

 

 

 

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 29

 

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Day 29: A line that had immense impact on you as a person?

To be honest, I am forgetful. But this line, really had me captivated for the longest time:

“There is only one sin. and that is theft… when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth.” – Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner.

 

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 28

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Day 28: What book are you currently reading?

I am currently engrossed in Marley and Me. I am reading it since a week…and I have managed to reach page number 172/400+ (the fonts are HUGE). This is sort of my resolution…to read at least a couple of pages each day so that I can finish of a number of unread books on my shelf and get started with those suggested here on my blog 😀

Which book have you buried your nose into of late?

 

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 27

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Day 27: Best Horror Story Read Till Date?

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. It is a story in one of his books and I read it when I was as young as 8. The story still gives me shivers. You can read it here.

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 25 and Day 26

Again, because the questions are on the same lines, I am clubbing them.

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Day 25: A Book You Have Struggled To Read

That would be all those crappy work by authors I refuse to name. Especially the one about an Indian Vampire…it is the author’s first work and it might have a sequel to it. Gulp. It was gleefully donated away. With no trace of sorrow or longing on my face

Day 26: A Book That Was A Breeze

The Animal Farm. Short, simple and so much to learn from. Loved it to the core. 🙂

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 24

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Day 24: Best Fairytale You Have Read

I have literally grown up on fairytales. In Bengali, they are known as Roop Kotha. The kings and queens, the prince and princesses and so on…were so real that I started believing that they actually existed sometime in the recent past! Again, it is challenging to name just one of the fairytales that I have come across.

Thakumar Jhuli , which is a collection of folk and fairy tales in Bengali is my all-time favourite. I lost the original copy though … 😦 I just love, love, love the book. Feeling nostalgic already 😀

I am not marketing it…but the English translation is available on Amazon 😀

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 23

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Day 23: Best book that has been recommended to you

Almost a decade and two years ago, I was recommended a book.

It was by someone who was four years my junior and she was as nerdy/geeky as I was. We often discussed books, lived in the make believe world of Enid Blyton. As we lazed in an idyllic summer holiday, she mentioned that she is reading about this book, where they live in a completely different world. That of Magic. That they play this weird game called Quidditch. That they drink Butterbeer and get sorted into Houses.

As you might have guessed by now, I was recommended Harry Potter. 🙂

 

 

 

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 22

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Day 22: A book that was turned into a movie and you were appalled?

Vikas Swarup’s Q and A, which was made into Slumdog Millionaire. The movie is great on its own but I liked the book more. The plot also changes a lot in the movie and that made me cringe, a lot.

The next would be The Princess Diaries. Nope Nope Nope. Utter disappointment. All the best parts were gone just like that. Poof.

 

 

 

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 20 and Day 21

Note: Just because the tone of both these challenge questions are quite similar in nature, I have clubbed them into one. Brace yourself, winter is coming this post will be a tad bit lengthy. 😉

While I was scouting for the best ones to put forth, I was literally drooling by merely going through Pinterest book posts. If only I could do that all day long 😀

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Day 20: Your favorite quotes about books

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child. – Dr. Seuss

No two persons ever read the same book. –Edmund Wilson

 A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. – GRRM, A Game Of Thrones/A Song Of Ice And Fire Series

What you don’t know would make a great book. –Sydney Smith

Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood. –John Green

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Day 21: Your favorite quotes from books

I know it is a bad thing to break a promise, but I think now that it is a worse thing to let a promise break you. – Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

Neighbours bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbour. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good luck pennies, and our lives. – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

There are few people whom I really love and still fewer of whom I think well. – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Always. -J.K.Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Learn this now and learn it well. Like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam. – Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

 

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 19

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Day 19: Books that smell of your childhood?

Enid Blyton. Her books smell of my childhood. Here is a write-up about her, which I did sometime back 🙂

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 18

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Day 18: Which book do you believe can be quite a challenge to read?

That would be LOTR – Lord Of The Rings for me. The language might not be a constraint, but the names in the movies have baffled me. I still do not know who is called what 😦 This is why when I will read the series, I will read The Hobbit before anything else and at a slow pace so as to know which character is what. Taking notes will be helpful I guess! 🙂

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 17

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Day 17: The Type Of Book That You Read The Most

Well, as much as I try to find variations in my reading patterns, it often boils down to works by authors who infuse culture (from any part of the world) in their fiction based book.  Want me to cite some examples?

• The Good Earth – Pearl S Buck
• The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Japanese Wife – Kunal Basu
• A Golden Age – Tahmima Anam (the second part is avoidable)
• Khaled Hosseini’s works. Who else 🙂

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 16

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Day 16: Favourite title

The title of a book is always alluring, at least to me. It is the title that makes me notice the blurb of the book  and decide to put in in the shopping cart ! 😛 Some books have simple title, some have complex ones and others have quirky ones. There are ghastly titles as well, which literally chokes me on the spot with horror.

Anyway, the point here is to share my favourite book title with you. That would be – Chokher Bali. It is a book by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, written in Bengali (my mother tongue). It translates to – Grit of sand in the eye. It is an allegory to the friction between its characters, just like a tiny grain of sand in our eyes causing constant irritation. This is all I can reveal without giving away the plot. The book is also translated in English, in case you want to have a go through historical fiction set in India.

P.S. I would also love to mention – And Then Like My Dreams which is by a fellow blogger MR. Isn’t it an apt title for a memoir? Warm and inviting 🙂

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 15

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Day 15: A book character you want to know more about?

In Harry Potter:

Severus Snape. Period.

I want to know his backstory, his upbringing, his days in the Muggle world with Lily Potter. This also reminds me, I want to know more about Aunt Petunia as well. J.K. Rowling, if you are reading this, then please please please have a back story in Pottermore 😀

In Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants:

Bree’s mother. Without a doubt in the world. I wanted to know her perspective and what were her thoughts.

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 14

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Day 14: What Does A Perfect Reading Nook Look Like?

Something like the ones shown here in this post 😉

I often wonder what other people’s reading spaces look like. It is after all, our comfort zone isn’t it 😀

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 13

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Day 13: How Do You Decide What To Read Next?

This is where the challenge gets challenging for me! Well, I will be honest with you. See, I have the time but not the energy to keep the eyes open after a full-time ‘staring at the screen’ job 😦 This affects my decision to read the books – light ones on weekdays and anything on weekends, when I can spare some of the energy.

So, no…there is no hard and fast rule as to how I decide what to read next. I make a queue of five books at a row and pick the one I am in the mood to read and go ahead. That explains my incomplete reading lists 😉

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 12

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Day 12: A Book You Will Never Outgrow

Well, we booklovers and readers never outgrow any book…do we? For me, it will be Harry Potter Series. Although a number of adults also love the book, for many parents it is a “kid’s book” and why are we so obsessed with it 😛 Sample this, I sent my bestie the three-book library set of Harry Potter books on her birthday!!

No. We will never outgrow the world of HP. EVER!!! 😀 😛

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 11

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Day 11: A book that you have reread the most of the times?

A Gathering Light (also published as A Northern Light) by Jennifer Donnelly is one book that has been reread the maximum number of times. Even more than the Harry Potter series! I fall short of words when it comes to describing the brilliance that the book has. Give it a try, will you? 😀

30 Day BOOKS Challenge – Day 10

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Day 10: A book you were excited about reading, only to find that it wasn’t what you were expecting

I would rephrase this as – a book I was excited about reading and found out that it wasn’t what I was expecting, but was way better. And the book would be…

The Bridge to Terabithia. Wonderful coming of age novel about friendship 🙂