Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Life after Thrones
I’ve reached the last chapter of George R. R. Martin’s fifth Game of Thrones novel, A Plethora of Puppies, and after reading, what is it? Four thousand pages of this stuff? I’m wondering what to do next. Go back to book one, keep cycling through them until Martin releases the sixth book? Because that’s the only way I’ll ever remember who everyone is. Not that I could remember who everyone is even having read each book one right after the other. I lost track of how many times I would start a chapter and say to myself, “Who the hell is this?”
Give the guy credit, he created a world and populated it with a few billion people, every ten of whom have their own unique heraldic emblems, or whatever the hell they’re called. Somehow I feel inadequate, not having my own coat of arms, though I suspect the main device would be Parents Combatant.
Anyway, what to read next? I’ve downloaded Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six to my cell phone’s Nook app, but I’m not wedded to the idea of reading Clancy. Just thought I’d see what goes into making an author wildly successful. Suppose I could read King to that end, but I lost my taste for horror some twenty or thirty years ago.
So what are people reading?
D.
This summer I read probably a dozen detective novels by Robert Crais (LA noir style) and Harlan Coben (East Coast style) while riding airplanes, waiting for airplanes, and chilling out on vacation. I just read Nicole Krauss’ new novel Great House, http://nicolekrauss.com/greathouse_synopsis.html Loved it almost as much as The History of Love.
I FEEL INADEQUATE.
Not only are you working more than I am, you are playing computer games and reading much faster than me. I haven’t had time to play a computer game in ages, and I’m still 250 pages from the end of the Red Book (Feast of Yeasts or some such).
Also you are cooking more and better than I am.
I could send you the .doc file of my book that’s getting shopped around NY. Women’s Fic/Thriller.
Am I crazy or what? 😉
Lucie, LA noir sounds wonderful. Anyone who sets out to honor Chandler is worth a look, IMO.
Dean . . . oh, please. At the very least, I know I’m not cooking that well these days. I haven’t the energy.
Tam: by all means. (Although what I really want is the latest Dubric when you’re ready to let it see the light of day 🙂 Looks like there are ways to read a doc file on my smart phone, so if you email it to me, I shall read!
Doug, the email addy I have for you doesn’t work. Can you send me the new one to tambowrites AT gmail DOT com?
Doug, I finally got the file sent. Let me know what you think, good or bad. {{huggs}}
Kate (Rothwell) got me and Beth (Sum of Me) to read “The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks”. It’s YA, but pretty good. (No sparkly vampires or posturing werewolves, I promise.)
How about sparkly werewolves? Will no one crack the sparkly werewolf market?
I’ll look it up — thanks 🙂