Epic, the next one is FitzOsbornes in Exile, and the last one is FitzOsbornes at War.

To the Library website, away!

Thanks!

Epic, insent.

Epic, insent.

I'll have to wait until tonight to see it - work blocks emails and my phone's just a Dumbphone.

Abebooks is on Pinterest.

That exploding sound is Tim reaching the Big Revelation in the 6th Skulduggery Pleasant book (i.e., Skulduggery is Lord Vile, which I honestly still don't know if I like or not [but regardless of whether I like it, it's HUGE]).

I keep making shit up and telling it to him, like "Clarabelle is Mevolent. I mean it!" (Of course, I do that with baseball, too, since he knows nothing of baseball and its rules. I really tried to convince him that, in the 8th inning --and ONLY the 8th inning -- if a player comes up to bat when there's 2 outs, if he gets a full count, he's allowed to punch the catcher in the head. He didn't believe me.)

I would like to read the remaining skulduggery pleasant books, but hate to split series half ebook half real book. Why no ebook releases?

Finished A Dance With Dragons. A few quick, spoilery thoughts:

Where's Rickon? I'm going to bet on some kind of hiding in plain site situation, but I'm not yet sure where.

I think Coldhands is Benjen Stark.

Does Varys have a long-term plan? Get the kingdom into disorder so that everyone with welcome the new Targaryen king? That seems like not so much of a great plan, since disorder can lead to many unplanned things.

Jon will survive, right?

What's up with Brienne? Was that really her who got Jaime? If not, who was it? And why?

The Bastard of Bolton really is psycho. He even made me feel sorry for Theon, which I wouldn't have thought possible a few books ago.

I wonder what's happening with Sam.

Tyrion continues to be awesome.

So, Dany's back with the Dothraki. Is she ever going to get anywhere near Westeros? Her whole plotline is just annoying me.

I do, however, really like Barristan the Bold. And Ser Jorah Mormont, too.

There were something like three chapters in a row that contained the line, "That was the answer he'd expected, but not the one he'd hoped for," or something like it.

What happened to Jojen? I was confused.

Still trying to work out all the history stuff. I feel like I need to take notes to work out a timeline. Though I'm sure that someone on the internet has done that already.

Oh, also:

Arya! That whole bit was fascinating. I hope she doesn't totally learn how to be nobody, though.

Bran wearing Hodor's skin seems not right. I think Bran thinks so, too.

And here is my non-spoilery review of A Game of Thrones.

And here is my non-spoilery review of A Game of Thrones.

As is mentioned in comments over there, GRRM bases almost all of the courtly intrigue on real, historical events. And in many ways some of the more over-the-top parts of that (Joffrey's REDONKULOUS EEEEEEVIL, for example) are the most grounded. I forget exactly which people Joffrey is modeled after, but if his super-evilness seems unrealistic to you, you'll be needing to update and adjust your understanding of reality, because we've have more than one juvenile (or otherwise) monarch that was that evilly insanely evil.