"A Game of Thrones" by George R.R.Martin

Dear reader, I read it - finally.

Why on earth have I not read this in 1996. when it was originally published? Difficult to say, who knows where my head was 19 years ago. Looking back, yes I do see my 27 year old self enjoying London, its museums, galleries, bookshops, nightlife, excitement of big city and just roaming the streets, but strangely I don't remember this novel at all. Add to it my suspicion towards the whole Fantasy genre that lined sequels and prequels way above my comprehension but on the other hand I was reading because I remember following annual lists of best-of novels and what critics considered worth recommending, this is how I discovered "Alias Grace" by Margaret Attwood and "Every Man for Himself" by Beryl Bainbridge. And tons of celebrity biographies, of course. 

It took 19 years and the whole phenomenon of now-world famous TV serial that I decided to face the first of the planned seven novels in the saga titled "A Song of Ice and Fire". So how is the novel compared to the TV serial? Honestly, I feel a little bit sorry that I had not read the novel first because it would give me freedom to create my own vision of characters and places as books mostly do - I would imagine these people, lands and clothes in my own head instead having them now firmly established in the way actors portray them on the screen. I simply can't really enjoy any of it now when I have already seen it on TV and it kind of makes the whole reading experience a bit pointless, specially as I already know what will happen in the next chapter and in the next several books. Yes, the novel gives you far more space and details (George R.R.Martin knows how to write, he is skilled and clearly enjoys creating his own universe) but you enjoy it only up to the point, reading it now after the TV serial feels more like exercise, more like self-given task than real pleasure in reading. TV serial follows the novel pretty close, even going so far that roams trough different lands from point of view of various characters just as novel does. Maybe I enjoyed TV serial more because most of this was condensed - very skillfully - so we didn't bother with supporting characters the way novel burst with them. On the other hand, novel gives you insight about the way characters feel and what they think, which is something TV simply can't do. In any case, I just finished first of the books in the saga and for various reasons it took me much longer than I usually read (for one thing, I was way too busy with other things than to relax and read) but now when I finally started to enjoy my vacation, reading continued - I am not sure that I really want to continue with other four books (published so far) because I have seen every TV episode and already know what will happen. I would probably read them if I was stranded on deserted island with nothing else to do, but in the meantime its time to turn my attention to something completely different.