Game of Thrones

I might as well admit it. I am addicted to Game of Thrones.

The books. Not the television series on HBO. That's really good too. But the books are taking me over.

I'm half way through the fourth book, A Feast For Crows, and have downloaded the fifth, A Dance With Dragons. I'm plowing through these novels faster than anything I've ever read.

Everywhere I go, people are talking about Game of Thrones. Getting a haircut the other day was like being on the HBO set: "Winter is coming." said a hair cutter. A client responded that she was seeing her "Sun and Stars" later for a drink.

Even the New York Times is getting into the act.

Verlyn Klinkenborg (of House Klinkenborg,) an editorial writer with the Times complains:

"Why do I keep reading? Because beneath Mr. Martin’s descriptive pyromancy, these are novels about characters bending under the force of worldly and unworldly circumstances, and Mr. Martin’s characters bend in interesting ways. I read to find out what happened to the heroine left behind a hundred pages ago. I read because if I don’t read, I’ll never get to the end, where real life resumes."

Ser Klinkenborg has obviously missed the point. Most of us don't want real life to resume. We want George R.R. Martin to write more books.

Faster.

© Patrick O’Neill 2011. All rights reserved.