I finally finished A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin yesterday. I am glad it is finally over. I’m not going to do a full write-up of it because it is the fifth book in a series and frankly, I found it full of bloat and, while better than book four, still not great. In fact, I am not certain I will read the Winds of Winter when it finally comes out. Of course if people I trust read it and tell me how good it is I will probably cave in and read it, but otherwise, I’m burnt out. The thing has become so fragmented with a gazillion different storylines going on that it feels out of control and out of focus.
So there.
I know you have been wondering about my library hold situation and the resolution I made at the beginning of the year to keep my hold requests down to no more than five at a time. I had been doing so well and feeling so proud of myself. I got cocky. And of course I slipped.
Currently I have only one book checked out from the library, Lumberjanes, and one waiting for me to pick up, The House of Paper. But then there are eight hold requests. Only eight though, that’s not bad, right? One of them will be coming up to my turn very soon, When Mystical Creatures Attack! by Kathleen Founds. The rest I have a little wait for – I am 120 in line for The Buried Giant by Ishiguro but only third in line for Molecular Red by McKenzie Wark. There is a good time spread between the two. Granted the rest of my requests I am twenty-something in line, but still they won’t all arrive at once (Hahahaha!). So even though I went over my self-imposed five hold requests limit it isn’t terrible, not like when I had close to twenty hold requests out at once, right? And it’s not like I’ve gone completely crazy with new hold requests. I’m still in control. Yes, yes I am. I am absolutely certain of it. Yup. In complete control.
On a side note, I went on my first group bike ride last night. It is a women-only ride that leaves from a nearby bike shop. I was nervous, let me tell you. The route was to be rolling hills and since it is a no-drop ride (the group stops and waits for those falling behind) I was terrified I would be the one everyone was stopping to wait for. Since I had never ridden with other people before I had no idea how my fitness level would compare. Turns out I didn’t have a thing to worry about. My fitness level is just fine and I am not too bad on hills.
There were ten of us and I had a blast. Most of us had not gone on this particular group ride before so no one really knew anyone which meant no one got left out socially. And because of the hills I got to practice shifting on Astrid, something I haven’t done much of because I haven’t had to. And I discovered a lovely sound, the sound of a group of strong women on bikes coming up to a stoplight and all of us clipping out (unlocking our shoes from the pedals) and then clipping back in when we start again. I don’t know why I like the sound so much but I do. Maybe it’s because I am making it too as part of a group. At any rate, I will be riding out again next Wednesday so chances are good that unless the weather is bad and the ride gets cancelled, I will not be posting on Wednesday nights through the end of summer. I’ve got a bike to ride!
yesssss. Love that you are biking. I am a little jealous your bike has a name! I need to get my thinking cap on & name mine. Glad to hear you did well with the group ride, this is just awesome!!! Go Stef, ride like the wind!!!
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Helen, I’m having so much fun! Since I will be spending so much time with my bike she needed a name. I’m sure yours has one too just waiting for you to discover it 🙂
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Well glad to know I’m not the only one who felt that way about the fifth book. You did better than me- I quit reading it about a hundred pages in. I might give it another try when the next volume comes out, but I’m not sure. There were too many new characters I didn’t care about, and loss of ones I had wanted to follow further.
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Jeane, there were quite a few new characters and when thirty or so pages of the back of the book is dedicated to explaining who they all are it has reached the point of ridiculous. Plus some of the things that were supposed to be surprises in this book turned out to be so anticlimactic. By the end it was very hard to care about most of it. My husband had the same problem so you are definitely not alone!
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Sometimes a series can be exhausting and the more the episodes the more convoluted it gets, digressing from the main plot is sub and super sub branches…I think thats what happened with this series as well…Eight books on hold is not bad 😉 Even i am waiting to get my hands on The Buried Giant
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cirtnecce, yes, exactly! It for that reason I don’t really like to read series and if I do I stick to trilogies. And thank you for enabling my eight hold requests 🙂
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You’ve almost made me want to find a women’s riding group like that too … but I think I’ll just enjoy hearing about some of your adventures. There’s noting like finding a bunch of women to adventure with. I’m really thrilled for you.
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whisperinggums, it is so much fun! And in your part of the world you have a much longer season for riding than I do. There is definitely something to be said for finding a bunch of women to adventure with. It is such a confidence boost!
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We do … But I’ve never really been a bike rider. Never ad one as a child. We did buy bikes many moons ago. But then I always felt guilty that we were riding, not taking the dog for a walk, so somehow we didn’t ride much.
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You never had a bike as kid? That’s too bad. I have many happy childhood memories of riding my bike. As for the dog, you could be on your bike and let him/her pull you along! 😉
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No, for some reason my parents were always fearful. It’s a shame. Haha re the dog. She wasn’t quite big enough for that, though we did consider having her run alongside!
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Ah, well along with the happy memories are a few others that involved falling off my bike but it only ever resulted in skinned knees and elbows, no permanent damage 🙂 I’ve seen a few people here riding a bike alongside their rather small dog and I am never sure if the dog is having fun or desperately trying to keep up so it doesn’t get dragged along behind so I think you made a good call regarding your own pup!
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I love group bike rides… and library holds… and I could not get into even the second Game of Thrones books, but I assumed it was just my mood the last few weeks.
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I think the Martin series sounds more exhausting than your summer bike rides! I hope you have a great time with them.
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Ian, heh, I think you are right about the Martin series! 😀
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Anakalian Whims, group bike rides and library holds are two marvelous things. The second GoT book was great though it did take a few chapters to really get going. The third one was pretty good too. Then it’s been all downhill from there.
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Your library holds made me laugh. But hang on, eight is NOTHING, right? I mean that’s not even in double figures. No worries! It seems a law of physics that something bad happens to good series when they go past the trilogy mark. But hooray for bike rides! You are a superwoman, I never doubted it. 🙂
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Litlove, you are a lovely enabler and for that I thank you 🙂 I think you are right about book series going past the trilogy mark. Three is a magic number after all, why mess with it? Ah gosh, I wouldn’t say superwoman, but biking is turning out to be such great fun.
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I’ve just started using my library seriously again, and it’s been so wonderful. When I lived in Hoboken, I used the library all the time, and it was blissfully close to my apartment. When I moved to Brooklyn, the only BPL branch that was decently close to me was only open Monday – Friday, and only until 8 one evening a week. I tried to use it, but working full time meant there was one day a week I could go – and I was often busy that day. And for some reason BPL branches mostly don’t have after hours book drops! At my branch, you can only return books while they are open. It was not ideal, and I racked up overdue fees until I just stopped using it. Now though, the same branch is open Saturdays (huzzah!), and being currently unemployed certainly helps as well! But I’ll be able to go on weekends once I go back to work. It’s making me so happy, but I can definitely see my holds going out of control soon. I currently have 9 holds….eep.
The group bike ride sounds absolutely lovely!! Enjoy!
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Chowmeyow, hooray! I love my library so much I’d be lost without it. I am so glad you live near a good one now with Saturday hours. The hours really make a difference. A number of years ago my library’s hours were cut so they were only open four days a week and not even all day. Thank goodness some of those hours were on Saturday because it closed by 5 during the week. Nine holds? Be careful, once you hit ten you start thinking, what’s one more? And before you know it you have 20 holds and six of them all arrive at once and they have no renewals allowed and you are scrambling to read them before the due date but still placing more hold requests and — well, I have been there and it is not pretty! 🙂
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Yep, I’ve given up on the Game of Thrones books as well. I thought the first two, even the first three, were excellent, and they held my attention completely, and then things started to feel real unfocused. I’m wondering if the existence of the TV show will help him to organize his thinking a little bit for the sixth book, but I’m not holding my breath.
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Jenny, the TV show is so different from the books I don’t know how it will help Martin organize anything. I’ve stopped watching the show too. I’ve been putting up with the sexism because I enjoyed the books but after what they did to Sansa I have decided they crossed a line and I can’t pretend that it is ok.
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Ditto what Jenny said. Also: by the time the Winds of Winter comes out, I’m going to have to reread all the books to have a fucking clue what is going on, and am I really ready for that kind of committment? NO. Though, hey, I might get swept away by the hype once it comes out and read it after all. Time will tell.
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Nikki, heh, yeah my husband read the books as they were published and now he has not much recollection of anything that has happened and names and plotlines are starting to do funny things in his memory. Maybe Martin will provide a brief outline to help readers? Though I am not sure “brief” is in his vocabulary! I have no plans to continue either though I admit I might get swept up in the hype.
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Your bike group ride sounds like great fun! I could go for a group like that–maybe not biking but then who knows–I might surprise myself–I am not all that coordinated and can imagine myself falling off the bike or something else embarrassing. I pulled out the first Martin book to read a while ago but then thought better of it since I already have a couple of chunky books in mid-read. Maybe you need a little break from him–it sounds like you have a nice variety to choose from!
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Danielle, I bet you are more coordinated than you give yourself credit for. You are taking a yoga class after all and with biking all you have to do is pedal 🙂 Since there are no more Martin books I will get a break, but I suspect we may have broken up.
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