literary installment plan
I have managed to make slow but steady progress on my reading list at the rate of exactly one chapter per night abed. So far, this plan seems to work quite well. I have enough discipline not to sacrifice sleep to read ahead, and I don't have larger blocks of time free to allocate to reading. I worried that I might have difficulty maintaining context at this granularity, but so far I haven't really had any problems. It probably helps that the novel I just finished, George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows, switches viewpoints with each chapter break anyway.
Although many people have reported not liking the fourth book as much as previous entries in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Admittedly it's not as good as A Storm of Swords, but I suppose the pattern of improving with every book had to end at some point. I enjoyed the glimpses into the major players that we hadn't before seen: the Greyjoys and the Martells. These houses have been part of the story from the beginning, but only now do we see them growing into larger roles. I wish that the Martin had similarly sown seeds for the Sparrows and the rise of the church. (Please let me know if I simply missed all the foreshadowing.) However, my biggest disappointment is Cersei. I considered the addition of Jaime as a point-of-view character in the last book a stroke of genius. I never expected to sympathize with the incestuous Kingslayer, but Martin made it work, in part by revealing the backstory that made Jaime who he is. Now, I'm as morally relativistic as anybody I know, but I find it very hard to sympathize with Cersei's selfishness and shortsightedness. I mean, I love stories that play with perspective, since everybody believes they're the hero of the story, not the villain. Especially since Cersei received more screen time than any other character, I expected to understand her better. Instead, she simply seems more contemptible. Additionally, too many threads seemed to end in cliffhangers. Did Brienne hang, and what did she say at the last moment? What will happen to Cersei? Is Arya's blindness permanent? Will we really not learn any of the answers to these questions until the book after next?
What's next? The copy of Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra that I order from Amazon several months ago finally shipped, but perhaps I should get around to reading that sixth Harry Potter book.
Although many people have reported not liking the fourth book as much as previous entries in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Admittedly it's not as good as A Storm of Swords, but I suppose the pattern of improving with every book had to end at some point. I enjoyed the glimpses into the major players that we hadn't before seen: the Greyjoys and the Martells. These houses have been part of the story from the beginning, but only now do we see them growing into larger roles. I wish that the Martin had similarly sown seeds for the Sparrows and the rise of the church. (Please let me know if I simply missed all the foreshadowing.) However, my biggest disappointment is Cersei. I considered the addition of Jaime as a point-of-view character in the last book a stroke of genius. I never expected to sympathize with the incestuous Kingslayer, but Martin made it work, in part by revealing the backstory that made Jaime who he is. Now, I'm as morally relativistic as anybody I know, but I find it very hard to sympathize with Cersei's selfishness and shortsightedness. I mean, I love stories that play with perspective, since everybody believes they're the hero of the story, not the villain. Especially since Cersei received more screen time than any other character, I expected to understand her better. Instead, she simply seems more contemptible. Additionally, too many threads seemed to end in cliffhangers. Did Brienne hang, and what did she say at the last moment? What will happen to Cersei? Is Arya's blindness permanent? Will we really not learn any of the answers to these questions until the book after next?
What's next? The copy of Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra that I order from Amazon several months ago finally shipped, but perhaps I should get around to reading that sixth Harry Potter book.