Last fall I bought a boardgame called A Game of Thrones, which is based on a book of the same title (the first book in a series, actually). Both the game and book came recommended, and I decided to read the book before playing the game, for added flavor.

My bad.

Now I'm sucked in. The book started out with a shotgun blast of character and place names that seemed to come from someone's D&D campaign. And maybe they did. But about halfway through the 800 pages, I started to care about what happened to everyone. And so the author won. This is the first fiction book that I've read in a few years, and the first non-historical-fiction book that I've read since I can remember.

And it won't be the last. I blew through the second title in the series -- another 900 pages -- and am on to the third one now, which is even longer. The book fits neatly into my bike bag so I pop it out and read it while awaiting the train at the station, and while on the train. And during lunch hour. And sometimes when I get home at night.

Book 4 in the series isn't out yet, AFAIK, so there is some relief in sight. In the meanwhile, back to volume 3!