After a Storm, Before a Feast

I have just completed A Storm Of Swords, book three of George R R Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series, and it ends with a very nerve wrecking suspense. Some of the major characters are killed and some have even been brought back from the dead and all the other major characters are in a very critical situation.

However before starting the fourth book A Feast For Crows I have been reading Fragile Things, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. I must say that I am not impressed by the stories. They seem to be very ordinary and feels like ghost stories told around a campfire.

Books, movies and the weather

I have finally completed A Clash of Kings, book 2 of the A Song of Ice and Fire series and can now hopefully move on in life (it was very hard to put down such an un-put-down-able book and do other things). A very strange thing about the book is that the author doesn't seem to show any qualms in killing off well developed characters. While I was reading the book, I began noticing some changes. I never used to notice such things as hot food or warm clothes, but as I read more about sleeping in the open and eating dried meat, I began appreciating things more. Maybe I should stop reading fiction and spend more time on news and things that are actually happening!

I also watched a very interesting movie called Brick recently. It is a teen-druggie-school-mob-detective story, but what was interesting about it was the don't care attitude of the main character, even when he is beaten near death, he just seems to get up and says the first thing that comes to his mind. That and the strange camera work and the overcast-about-to-rain sky when it can get really windy and interesting. That is the weather I like the best, just before the rain when the sky is overcast and it gets very windy. I remember imagining as if we were on a ship caught in a storm and running around on the terrace of the house when it gets like that. Maybe that's the real reason I liked the movie.

A low trick

I was given A Game of Thrones as a gift by my friend and I feel that it was a very low and dastardly thing he did. I mean, this humongous (around 800 pages), un-put-down-able, compelling fantasy fiction is just part 1 of a 4 part series, and now that I've finished reading it (now I have all of last week's work to be completed), I just have to have the rest. The best thing I liked about the book is that it is strangely a story about men and not about elves and orcs and the rest, like the usual fantasy fiction.

In other news, a new bookstore has been started in campus and now I don't have to go outside campus anymore. Guess given a couple more years, I won't even be able to find my way back from Adyar.

One more thing, if you have time to read all this, then you should definitely read this. It is one of the funniest blogs I've come across.