I'm only on page 187, just a lot of other things to do this month.  I doubt I will finish by the 14th, so if you need more time, I'm game for that too.

I just started last night, been short of reading time the last couple weeks for some reason. Probably won't quite make the 14th either but I'm gonna try.

Mercy!!  Up to page 431, and there are so many characters in this bloody book I am having a hard time keeping it all straight.  It moves ponderously slow.  I am really afraid that it won't sit well as a stand-alone book and I'll be sucked into reading the whole damn trilogy just to see the end of the story.

Chris, get your copy yet?

If you haven't even got yours yet it's definitely going to have to be pushed back. My copy is like 830 pages, small type.

I'm about 120 pages in. The characters haven't been too big an issue so far but with the small type and one eye I keep losing my place, makes it take much longer. I end up reading half the sentences twice. That may be making it easier to keep the characters straight, lol. It's definitely an epic, no bathroom reading here. I have the rest of the books so that's no biggie but man what a time commitment to read the whole series. And the guy has a million other books! What the inside of his brain must look like.

I haven't started reading it yet, and I don't see any time to read it until after the new year so I probably will not be able to participate, but I wanted to share this with you guys.  I bet you will find it helpful!

http://gamesofthrones.com/2011/05/28/5-awesome-game-of-thrones-charts-maps-and-infographics-no-spoilers/

Char

I've read some of his other books and they aren't all huge like this one. I'm gonna say we move it to at least the first and maybe the 15th to give us all a holiday break from forced deadlines on reading. What say y'all?

Sounds good to me.

Thanks for the charts Char, that may help as I get further in. I'm only on the first area.

Thanks Charlene, that did help, a couple of the kids relationships were getting me confused.  But, the main difficulty is all the knights (Ser this and that), Masters of whatever, Black Brothers, and various servants along with ancillary families (Tully, Frey, Whent and others).  I cannot keep straight who is aligned with which of the primary families.  But, I am muddling through.

I'm with you, Chris, lets table the discussion to mid-January so we all have a chance to read it without pressure.

I ordered a second copy for a penny on Amazon hopefully I'll get it soon.

Still haven't received my copy. Penny books from amazon are apparently not real.

It shouldn't take this long, I would contact the seller. Is there any tracking info? Amazon usually requires it.

I finally got the second one in today. I don't know what happened to the first one. I might have done something to cancel the order because I don't even see it on my transactions.

Anyone else need a copy? I switched to the kindle version for the larger print and I thought I'd check before I posted my paperback.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through this one and I'm liking it so far. At this point I want the Lannister woman's head on a platter though.

Oh, the queen is quite the bitch!  Her plans will make you cringe later in the book.  I still have about 300 pages to go.

I finished a few days ago. There isn't much to like about a whole lot of people in this book, what a bunch of bastards. Not that I didn't like the book, bastards can be quite entertaining.

Yeah as Marcus Sakey says, "The best stories are about the worst people."

I'll be checking out the HBO series when I finish the book. Surprisingly when I read the description of Khal Drogo I had Jason Mamoa in mind and he really is the actor that plays that character, I usually never have the actor chosen in my head. The only other character I had an actor in mind for is Tyrion because I've seen Peter Dinklage in advertisements for the the show and thus far Tyrion is the only dwarf. I'm very warily liking him thus far but he is a Lannister so I don't know if I can trust him. I do like Dinklage though, he is hilarious.

I finished the book today, and now I am hooked.  I am first in line for the second book, but I have had it on hold for months because I didn't know if I would want to read any more after slogging through this one.  Boy was I surprised to find a list of characters at the back!  That would have helped me out before.  I recorded the HBO series last November when they had a free preview weekend.  I started watching it (as I read up to that episode) and it helped to define the characters for me, having an actor's face to assist with the highborn names and allegiances, and all the knights and their nicknames.  The series is great, Peter Dinklage is great in it.  So far, it has stayed fairly true to the book, but I still have three or four left to watch.  I'll save my comments about Tyrion until we actually start the discussion.  Just added the next books 3 (parts one and two) and 4 to my WL, but there are hundreds in line ahead of me, for all versions.  Oh, well, it will probably be a while before I want to dive into another 900+ page book anyway.  Looking forward to the discussion!

I am about halfway through the book, it's better than I hoped it would be.