Game of Thrones

I noted in my 2011 recap that I have started watching Game of Thrones sometime that year. However, I realized that I haven't made a post dedicated to that wonderful TV mini-series that made me read the dreadfully long but deliriously wonderful books.



I admit, the first time I saw a glimpse of the TV show, I recoiled from all the nudity and violence. But when I saw the trailer on HBO featuring the prologue which gave us an impression how the series really look like, I was hooked. The above is actually the opening credits of the show and it's just so awesome!

I love Sean Bean as Ned Stark. I don't care if he gets typecasted in historical/medieval/soldier roles (Lord of the Rings, Troy, Percy Jackson and now this) but he's just so effective. There's something about his face and performance that brings you back to the old ages where kings ruled.

The series made me search out the books and reading the novel while watching the show showed me are more in depth look on the wonderful world of Westeros and the intrigues played by the different lord and ladies of the realm. I'm a sucker for medieval stories as I grew up reading stories about knights and ladies and my favourite book ever is Jude Deveraux's "Knight in Shining Armor". When I was in third year high school, I got a perfect score in our World History quiz focusing on the medieval period. That's how much I'm into it.

My husband got me ebooks of all five existing books (2 are still yet to be released) which I downloaded into my Nook. I couldn't put the book down and hated it when I have to charge my device to be able to continue reading (that's maybe the drawback to shifting to electronic books. I have to plug it in when the battery runs out of juice).

The Game of Thrones mini-series is based on George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books. The first of which is A Game of Thrones (GOT, 1996)--where the show started. Next is a Clash of Kings (ACOK, 1999), then A Storm of Swords (ASOS, 2000), followed by A Feast for Crows (AFFC, 2005). The fifth book which was released last year was A Dance With Dragons (ADWD, 2011). Two books have yet to be issued which are The Winds of Winter (TWOW) and A Dream of Spring (ADOS). As the books are quite long, the show only focused on certain parts of the first novel. I just read out the parts to fill in the holes.

However, when I got to the second book, ACOK really dragged at first. It was just in the middle of the book which I was forced to read while waiting in line the half day to get my NBI clearance, that the action really started. I literally could not put my nook down and was hooked at what's going to happen next. I grieved for those who died and applauded when my favourite characters won their battles.

I'm already on the 3rd book and I'm still engrossed. I dread finishing the fifth book as it will be a long wait before the sixth and seventh book will be released. I surely hope Martin finishes the 6th book soon and I really pray he'll still be alive to finish the 7th one. Actually, he's only 64 but he looks old in his pictures (must be the beard).

Sesason 2 of GOT will start on April which is three months away. I can't wait to immerse myself in their fascinating world afain.

In the meantime, here's a teaser trailer for the next season.

Percy Jackson

I can't remember what made me buy the first book of the Percy Jackson series. After being disappointed by 39 clues, I was not too keen on reading books with a 12 yr old as the main character (Harry Potter was an exception), but with the film coming out, I was curious.

I remember reading the first book during our Holy Week vacation at Tagaytay. After speed-reading through it, I wanted to go home to Manila and buy the next books. When that happens, the book is good. When I started reading the 2nd book, I didn't stop to breathe until I finished the 5th book and I did this in 4 straight days. In fact, I finished The Olympian in a day--and a work day to boot. I started while waiting for the morning shuttle, read through lunch, read again while waiting for the evening shuttle, and finished it when I got home.

It's odd considering I am not that familiar with Greek mythology. I mean, I know who the gods are plus other trivia that I got from watching Hercules (the cartoons) but that's basically it. But I really love the series.

Percy Jackson is a demigod--the son of a god, Poseidon to be specific, and a mortal. The books talk about his quests and how he and his friends get to defeat Kronos--the father of the gods.

I love fantasy/adventure books, especially those that are adapted in the modern setting. The dialogue was also very witty and funny. There are times that I would suddenly laugh while reading drawing stares from people in the shuttle.

Though the Percy Jackson series looks like its written for an early teens audience, adults, like me, can still appreciate it. A good read if you're a fan of Greek mythology and quests.

Twilight

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author:	Stephenie Meyer

Leo persuaded me to buy this book a few months ago. Since I buy almost a new book or magazine each week, it sort of became part of my book backlog and was delegated to the bottom of the stack on my bedside table. Leo found the book for me while we browsing at Powerbooks. He pointed it out to me as it was at the Young Adult section. He told me that it's really good and that I should buy it.

However, I was beginning to catch up and started reading it early this week and after the first few pages, I was hooked. I was so mad at myself why I managed to put off reading it for so long.

Anyway, where should I start with the review?

When I knew that I would like the book, I immediately notified my rpg group and told them about it. Being the sci fi/fantasy lovers they are, I'm sure they would like this as well. One of them asked me to post a review and now that I'm done, I really don't know how to start it.

Well, first of all, the main character of the book is a 17-year old teenager named Bella Swan. She moved to a small town from Phoenix. She met a pale, "beautiful" boy named Edward Cullen in school and who she learned later on is a vampire; and they fell in love. I'll stop at that as I might give out spoilers.

Quite simple isn't it? Maybe that's why I liked it. The story is so clean and not like other typical vampire stories where they focus on the sensuality of the vampires and how they "turn" other people. This one focused on their relationship and with their respective families. Yes, Edward belongs to a family of vampires too and get this, the patriarch is a doctor. He works in the hospital and he's quite an old vampire to control his urge to drink blood when he attends to his patients.

After finishing the book, I immediately rushed to Powerbooks to buy the next two books, "New Moon" and "Eclipse". Much to my disappointment, I was told that all books are out of stock. I asked if there are any available copies in other branches and they're ALL OUT OF STOCK! That's how popular the books are!

I quickly emailed my in-laws who are currently in the US to look for the books and bring them home for me as pasalubong. I still haven't heard from my father-in-law and I do hope that he finds them.

I hope there is more I can say about it. I definitely recommend it to my friends and I hope they can still find copies where I have failed.

Check out the author's website: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

According to the site, the series will be made into a movie! I can't wait how that will turn out.

Sold!

I sold a portion of my book collection today. Several thin volumes and thick volumes as well. Books whose stories were not particularly memorable. I got P2,300 for them. Not bad.

Gigi (the buyer), wanted to buy my Judith McNaught, Jude Deveraux and Linda Lael Miller collection. I initially said that I'll think about it. Actually, I was partially sold already. However, when I was trying to pack them this morning, I can't seem to part with them--even if I haven't read most of them for quite some time. I began collecting them when I was in High School and it's like parting with my childhood friends. I can't just give them away like that (even if I'm being paid for them).

Anyway, she was quite understanding and asked me to give her a call once I decide to sell them.

Harry Potter

Okay, I'm such a fangirl. I can't wait for the movie to come out next week and for the book to come out of the 21st. I already persuaded Leo to reserve tickets at the Imax theater although we only got tickets for the 21st/22nd. Tickets for this coming weekend is already sold out. The version showing in MOA IMax has the last 20 minutes in 3d. Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!

I wish Transformers has an Imax version. I was literally blown out of my seat when we watched it at Greenbelt 3. Like a typical Michael Bay film, there were a lot of explosions. As GB3's THX is really good, you could literally feel your chair shaking everytime something explodes onscreen.

Anyway, back to Harry Potter. I also just finished watching Harry Potter 4 on DVD and I can't wait how HP5 the movie will turn out. Looking forward to a lot of things--the confrontation of Voldemort and Harry Potter in the end for one.

As for the book, I don't think I'll be able to sleep once I get the copy. I'll no doubt stay awake all night going through it. I really wonder who's going to die.

PS. Leo's defense will be on Wed, July 11. As a requirement for his MBA degree, he needs to defend his STRAMA paper. Buti pa siya, tapos na. I hope to go back to school by January next year.

Sunshine's Dragonlance Collection

http://sunshinesobsession.blogspot.com/
List of Dragonlance books I wish to collect

A New (probably Old) Obsession

Okay, I know that I'm a late bloomer but I think this takes the cake.

Ever since College, the Dragonlance series is something that my friends have influenced me to read. I managed to read 6 books from the series back then written by the duo of Hickman and Weiss. I managed to rediscover the series a few months back and now that I have the means to acquire these books, I'm hooked.

Unfortunately, this is going to get quite expensive. A paperback nowadays costs P349. A big jump from P125 when I was in College. The Dragonlance series started in the 1980's and we're talking about more than 150 books and most of them are out of print already. Some of my friends are telling me to just get the ebooks, but I want the printed version dammit. I hate reading onscreen.

I have a very extensive collection of series. From the fantasy genre, I have Harry Potter (well, it's children's actually but I prefer to rate it as fantasy) all 6 hardbound and waiting for the 7th to be released on July, Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind (but I've stopped at book 6 as I've grown tired of the series), Death Gate Cycle (7 books) by the dynamic duo of Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman (the principal authors of Dragonlance), Artemis Fowl (got only the first 3 books), The Chronicles of Narnia (all 7), all paperback books of Neil Gaiman (including collections), The Sandman graphic novels (10 of them), Legend of the 5 Rings Clan Wars (7 books) and I'll probably include here my complete collection of Pugad Baboy Comics (all 19 of them).  

Of course, there's the fiction series. My family have helped me collect the following authors: Jude Deveraux (her new books are not that good as her old ones), Judith McNaught, Linda Lael Miller, Linda Howard, Catherine Coulter, Julie Garwood (her new books rock!). Deveraux, McNaught, Coulter and Garwood are known for their family sagas. Among the four, Garwood is the only one who writes nowadays. She at least has one new book a year and they're good. However, I would like to think that Deveraux (I maybe wrong) pioneered family sagas. She managed to churn out books of the Montgomery family. Heck, I think all her books are based on this very prolific family.

Recently, I discovered Dan Brown (a few years ago actually. Before The Da Vinci Code came out), Mary Janice Davidson (her Undead series are very humorous), Cecilia Ahern (gives you a different perspective of Scotland. I just realized that I haven't read a book with Scotland as a setting) and Arnold Arre (I have his 3 graphic novels--After Eden, the award-winning The Mythology Class and the recently released Andong Agimat. I used to have his Trip to Tagaytay comic but someone borrowed it from me and hasn't returned it. Unfortunately, I forgot who borrowed it from me).

Back to Dragonlance. I'll be setting up a website which will contain the list of all Dragonlance books. I'll be crossing off books from that list from time to time. To those who would want to give me gifts or whatever, you're welcome to check out the list. Hehe.

I think I have more than 500 books now. Last time I did an inventory two years ago, I have 450+. My problem now is what books I will be bringing with me when I move to Leo's house when we get married. I also need to find a way to preserve them. I hate the way they turn brown and get all dusty and musty. Going back to read an old book can be difficult especially if I have to sneeze and cough my way through it.