2013 Book 1: A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin

I'm declaring now that re-reading books is definitely fair game for my 2013 book list. I read the entire series of Game of Thrones books last year, in pretty quick succession. It was my first serious experience with fantasy books, and it was awesome.

Anyone who has read fantasy knows the differences between fantasy and other fiction. I tend to be pretty introspective, and as a result I love character-driven pieces (although, to be honest, I don't think anyone really dislikes character-driven stuff). Anyways, I get so caught up in characters, and these books are definitely not an exception. Within the first few chapters of the first book, I had my favorite characters picked out. As the series progresses, my perception of certain characters has changed a lot. My favorites and least favorites (by definition) haven't changed, but my appreciation and intrigue with specific characters has changed a lot which has been really exciting.

Because I read this book before I decided to write about what I was reading, I don't really have any specific thoughts about this one. Plus, I'm already halfway through the next book, and so everything is blurred together, and I'm completely focused on the plot of book 4.

I'd definitely recommend these books to anyone who is willing to take on a challenge - they are beefy books, and there are a ton of characters (I still kind of wish I would have done a character map), but the storyline and the characters are extremely well-crafted. Its one of those series that is very easy to get into - within a sentence or two, I'm completely immersed into this other world.

One down, forty-nine to go!