Following the herd no more...

A while ago, I decided to take on a reading project I dubbed Following the Herd, the purpose of which was to read popular books I missed out on because 1) I have a natural tendency to be 'anti' anything popular 2) I'm sort of a book snob (I'm working on not being one) and 3) a lot of my friends seemed to only read books I hadn't read and never planned on reading, thus we could never compare notes or thoughts. So I took it upon myself to engage in the following (links to reviews posted below):

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

• A Game of Thrones

The Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

• The Hunger Games
• Catching Fire
• Mockingjay

Stand-alones:

• 1Q84
• Ready Player One
• The Night Circus

So what did I take from this experience?

Well...you'll notice I haven't finished two of the three book series. To sum it up simply, the Millennium Series bored me and each book in A Song of Ice and Fire is super long. In fact, I have read seven books since I cracked open A Clash of Kings (the second book) over a month ago...I did some math (beware) and that totals about 2,280 pages. Since I've only read 500 pages of A Clash of Kings, this means I read about 4.5 pages of something else for every one page of A Clash of Kings. I think that's right--if not, you get the point.

The thing is I'm a slow reader naturally. I get caught up on small details that I'll obsess over and that slows down the reading process substantially. On top of that, the books are huge and my attention span wavers. The combination makes for an extra-extended read, but the series is so interesting that I know I'll continue on.

If I have learned anything about reading popular series, it is never keep too high expectations because there's a good chance you'll be disappointed...also, I've reverted back to my first 'flaw'--I just don't care what's popular. If it's truly good, I'll get around to it eventually, right?

ps:..isn't that sheep wild?

Image:Flickr-Anita363

Following the Herd

What an interesting weekend...Thanks to AMC I got absolutely no reading done. Not even one page. I was glued to my television because of their The Walking Dead marathon. Saturday AND Sunday. I love that show. Season 2 was so good and I'm uber excited for season 3. C'mon October.

I did watch two movies based on books. I first was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). I felt this one and the older one (2009) were pretty evenly matched. I liked how they showed the clues being put together in the 2011 more than in the other. Also, being the vain person that I am, I thought the central cast was more attractive in the 2011 version. The woman who played Lisbeth from the 2009 was a pretty good fit, but the Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) in the 2011 was more of what I envisioned in my head....Daniel Craig is Daniel Craig (You can read my review of the book here)

The other movie was Battle Royale (2000). I was supposed to read the book and compare it to The Hunger Games, but I couldn't resist watching when I saw it on Netflix...I think everyone should watch it. It's just so damn entertaining. The cinematography is terrible, the acting is far from top notch, but the violence is pretty awesome. 

A brief update on the other books I'm reading to follow the herd:

1Q84 - can't put it down.

A Clash of Kings - very good. Not as far along into the story as I'd like to be. I blame the zombies.

Whenever I do finish these two monsters-of-a-book, I'll most likely be reading these next:

Following The Herd

I think the last time I posted on 'following the herd' I mentioned The Hunger Games and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mockingjay. I have Mockingjay in my Kindle and I finished the the first book of the popular Larsson trilogy. I think I'm going to leave that series alone for awhile. Oh yeah, the paperback of 1Q84 was released a few weeks ago, so I'll be picking that up soon.

Honestly, I don't even know what's trending at the moment...Fifty Shades of Grey? -- Hell to the no!

Here's what I'm thinking:

I don't remember where or when I discovered this...I just know it was a big deal at one point or another.





I think I'm ready to read this one. My goal is to read them all  before George R.R. Martin releases the next one... which is apparently titled The Winds of Winter.


That's it for now.

Following the Herd

I have one more book to read in order to finish the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, and I'm half way through A Game of Thrones (yes, I'm still on the first book) of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. But I'm already thinking about the next popular/trending books to read:



I'm a little late on this one. Oh well.

*European Reading Challenge 2012 - Sweden*

and probably...



My reasons for wanting to read this book: (1) A friend recommended it (2) My only hang-up about the Hunger Games so far, is the lack of violence and according to one review, this is Hunger Games for the "big-boys".... and (3) With this book, I hope to get all things related to survival/fighting to the death/last man standing of teenagers out of my system for awhile.

Following the Herd

Following the Herd: a minor attempt to reverse my 'anti' attitude to all books uber popular.

I've been thinking about reading some of the popular books and series that are currently trending. I was never really into reading trends (except Harry Potter). I completely missed the Steig Larsson boat and only partially dove into the Twilight series. I have nothing to contribute to any of the conversations on these books, but I wish I did (even if its just 'that book was garbage') I realize this sounds sort of uppity...but I guess you could say I'm getting off my high horse.

Anyways, I'll be reading the following two series in the upcoming weeks:

If all goes well, I'll keep this 'follow the herd' nonsense going...