Nerd Alert!

My siblings and I have always been voracious readers. As kids, we weren't really allowed to go play with friends (overprotective immigrant parents, but that's another story...), so we stuck together all the time during the long summers.What did we do? Play games, watch TV, and read books. My brother would take the lead and we'd walk to the library together. We'd read our books and then swap them if we thought the other would enjoy it. One time my brother and I did a book swap and were both surprised at how much we enjoyed each others' choice of novel. As a fiction fan (or rather, a fan of what would become "Oprah's Picks"), I gave him Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth. Stolen from my grade 6 class, I loved that novel to pieces. My brother is a fan of sci-fi and fantasy novels, so he introduced me to Margaret Weis' and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance series. I was initially apprehensive of the books, but after a few chapters I was hooked. That was my first foray into fantasy novels and although I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of them, I can say that I have an appreciation for the genre.

So is it a surprise that after a book swap with D (knowing his interest in India, I gave him Gregory David Robert's Shantaram but D couldn't get into the novel and never finished it!), I'm currently obsessed with the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin? This isn't the Dragonlance series filled with archetypal characters. There are various plots and twists and turns, and the antagonists are complicated characters with deep emotional issues. It's a study of people, of the way experiences can shape us, and it's often not pretty. There's heavy catharsis and times where you as a reader will want to close the book because it's just too sad, or you keep on going because you want to know what will happen.

HBO is in the process of filming a TV series based on A Song of Ice and Fire and being the nerdy nerdy nerdy person that I am, I have been checking the Winter is Coming website for current news, casting, etc. I won't write anymore about this because I think I've revealed enough of my own nerdy self, but I really recommend these books! Read them before the TV series airs. It looks like they're doing a good job of translating the the series to film, but I do anticipate that there will be changes...

Ok. Enough nerdiness for tonight.