A Feast for Crows, page 226 hardcover
I did mention earlier that I'm a fan of science fiction and fantasy. I have called George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire my favorite fantasy series in the past. I have also reflected that this was a strange thing to say when I abandoned the fourth book A Feast for Crows about halfway through three years ago and never picked it back up.
At least until a few days ago, when my epic re-reading of the first three books was complete, and I started in again on A Feast for Crows. I am now on page 226 of my signed hardcover edition of the book, and I am enjoying it much more so this time around. The third book, A Storm of Swords is definitely my favorite of the series, and it was not a disappointment at all the second time through. I really do love this series, and right now the Feast is no disappointment either, but I know I haven't quite made it to the point where I gave up last time.
What do I like so much about this series? They are dynamic. So little is constant in the world Mr. Martin has created, and he always surprises me with terrible tragedies and also great fortunes when I didn't expect them. He forbids his characters from languishing in the same places for long, or in the same situations. He also turns the tables on you, taking those you least expect to sympathize with and making them your heroes.
I'm already nervous about finishing this book, pleased or otherwise, because then I know I'll be stuck waiting like all the other fans for the next book in the series, A Dance with Dragons. It has been many many months (years?) delayed from when it was originally expected to be released, and there is little information on when it will come out at this time.
The Element, purchased
After watching Ken Robinson's TED talk, I hopped over to Amazon and 1-click bought his recent book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.
I'll post updates when it arrives and I start reading it.
As an aside, Amazon Prime, in which you pay a flat fee for unlimited 2-day shipping, completely removes any previous consideration I might have had for actually leaving my apartment and walking down to the nearby Borders to buy books. Or leaving to go anywhere to several categories of items, for that matter. Two days is short enough that it satisfies my need for instant gratification, and the cost of shipping, being free once you decide to sink the yearly fee of $79 or something to that tune, certainly beats the cost of gas, sometimes parking, and the risk and hassle and time cost of driving around town. Take all that and throw in that my girlfriend's amazon account can share the privilege and I'm a big fan of Amazon Prime. On top of that, I recently enabled 1-click purchasing so now I find myself buying things with even less reasoned consideration than I would normally give.
TED: Ken Robinson
The TED talk I watched this evening is from 2006, and by Sir Ken Robinson.
I found his talk insightful and funny. I actually came away from it thinking about how often older people express their concern for how younger generations will dead with the world they've left them. I can't really sympathize with that because I neither feel burdened by the world I'm in nor do I feel (yet) significant concern for future generations. I am, however, eagerly considering in what ways my own education may have limited my own range of intellectual expression.
The Start of a Journey
Today I decided that I know what I want to be when I grow up.
An intellectual.
I intend to undertake a regimen of intellectual exercise which will grow my mind and expand my thinking. I don't yet know the entirely of what this will include--that's going to be part of the exercise. I do have a few ideas on places to start.
Books
Though I have read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, I want to branch out into more non-fiction. There is a whole world of... well... this world, right here, which can be so interesting and strange and complex when compared to fiction. I still love fiction and I will continue to read it and even write about it here, but its non-fiction I will place at the focus of my intellectual renaissance.
TED
This is a fantastic site which I only recently re-discovered. There is a wealth of mind-expanding talks on a huge wealth of interesting topics.
This blog
Writing about experiences will make them more concrete in my mind, as a public forum this will let me share them with others.
Here we go...