Why Dear, You Had A Facelift

            We take a break from your regularly scheduled reader ramblings to note that the Kelswitch has had a facelift! I’m hoping that it will function in much the same way that Weebly did, putting everything in one place for easy as you please access to my Internet home. Yes, it took me three years to master Blogger in all its glory, and there is probably still some awesome feature I haven’t found yet. I’ll get it eventually, but in the meantime, back to our regularly scheduled program.

            Last week, I finished A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin, putting me in at just barely under a month to read it. I must say, once I got past the part that HBO has caught up with, I enjoyed the book so much more. It’s put the excitement back in my blood tenfold for season four of Game of Thrones because of all that I now know is coming. I am counting down to see how they do certain characters from the book that will be introduced this season, especially the Red Viper of Dorne. I was taken with his character in a short period of time, after hearing whisperings of his name across the Facebook fan pages.

            That all being said, I’m still taking a break before I dive into A Feast for Crows. Call it a break for sanity.

            It seems that there always has been and always will be a debate regarding the genuineness of readers who come to a series after it has been made famous by movies or television. Are you a true fan if you didn’t read the books until after the movie? I can almost understand the sense of superiority for having read something before it ever went to the big screen, but in reality, it’s false superiority. Reading something after seeing the movie can change the experience, granted, but that can go either way. Some books were enhanced because of expectations I had based on the movie. Others were found lacking because of previous expectations. It’s a toss of the coin and Hollywood’s effort, but one thing is for sure, getting someone to read an author’s work is never a bad thing.

            I’ve said before that I feel  HBO’s Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire greatly complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City did not live up to expectations from the show, but her other books The Carrie Diaries and Summer and the City were fantastic and so far, the CW show The Carrie Diaries has not disappointed either. I could name off a few more examples of one way or the other, but that’s enough rambling for now.

            If you want to read George R. R. Martin’s work, I suggest doing it before the show completely catches up with him, so you can better appreciate his capabilities without already knowing what’s going to happen.