The Glade 4.0

With less than two weeks to go until the series begins on HBO, I started thinking, perhaps I should read the books first. There are advantages to waiting until during or after the series is over as well.

I'm leaning towards starting the books a few weeks into the series but I'm also sure I'll start reading by the next night after the pilot episode. Hahahahah

What to do? What to do...

(oh, and I made the mistake of handing the book over to my brother so I probably can rule out trying to cram it all in before the 17th. Heck it took me a whole summer to read the Lord of the Rings... a chapter every night before retiring for the night made me dream all day while sun tanning on the beach. Was a beautiful summer indeed... lost in the corners of my memories of long days gone by.... ahhhhhh)

Odom Leah

Read the first book, the first season shouldn't go far beyond it.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

If I'm not mistaken, Michael's suggestion is about spot on. The series technically goes a tiny bit beyond the first book for at least one of the plotlines, but by and large reading only the first book will be fine for this entire season.

For that matter, you don't even have to read the whole book before the first episode. There are... 10 or 12 episodes or something like that. While each episode is not arranged exactly like the book would be if you chopped the book up into 10 or 12 consecutive sections, the show's progression ultimately can't deviate all that much from the book. So even if you only get 200 pages done you'd probably be ahead of the first two episodes, for example. The information is actually out there somewhere on which chapters are seen in each episode so you could technically piece together exactly how much needs to be read, but that would be a lot of work! Especially cause the TV show adds some scenes that in the book were only talked about happening... which is actually one of the cool things about the series, IMO, and is done so intentionally I believe, but I digress. :p

Don't read the book just watch the series that way you can ignore all the minute faults that will annoy the hardcores.

It worked for LOTR. Tom who? No problem.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Heathen!

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Strongly recommend reading the books when you can.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

See, if I hadn't read the books, I wouldn't make any special effort to do so before the series. That way you can enjoy the series, then enjoy the books. The series won't lessen your enjoyment of the books, while the books might make you less appreciative of the series.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Honestly, this. As much as I love the books.

It would probably be pretty neat to go through, and read the internal monologues (well, not actual internal monologue, as it's not set up as dialogue, but whatever) and motivations and such to go "oh, so that's why he did this" as just a little more explicit information than the acting conveyed...

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Thanks for all the replies and thoughts!

I had read about 50 or so pages a few years ago when someone (or more likely a bunch of you) on the Glade recommended the series (I did recognized the 15 minute sneak preview from Sunday night).

I never went beyond that because I just wasn't getting into the brother/sister part... I did enjoy the very beginning. I think it is fair to say I am more attracted to the whole ice wall, what lies beyond it, the men serving as the Night Watch, some hope of magical type creatures existing in the world, the Stark family dynamics than I am about the politics part. So I started reading something else. Having said that, I think I will enjoy the political 'side' of the story more so while watching the series rather than reading it.

I think I figured what I am going to do... read after each episode or along with the series. Seriously, I will have my brother and nephews in a room, have them turn off the sound... and I will read from the book even if I have to play it in slow motion to keep things in sync.

You know as well as I do that very soon the Internet will be full if threads crying about how HBO ruined their beloved series.

It's why you don't see me pushing for a Drizzt movie: I'm afraid I'll become one of those people.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Yeah they need to get on that before Bloom gets too old.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

No.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I would rip my eyes out before I watched a movie with Driz

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Raell Kromwell

Well that's all fine and good. I'd have to watch just on the off chance they'd get it right, then i'd become a slathering geek of the lowest form pointing out it's every flaw.

This is why I don't want to see one made.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

NF is forcing me to watch this and I know absolutely jack diddly squat about it. He even canceled my fav channel to swap it out for HBO so we could see this. (It better be good.) Seriously, I haven't even googled it yet. I don't know if its about donkeys or unicorns or hairy yeti or what.
Let me know how the book is. In my experience, if I read the book first, I absolutely cannot enjoy the movie but maybe that is just me...I read The Godfather cover to cover without putting it down and was only able to watch the first 15 min of the movie before I was disgusted and turned it off. Same way with pretty much every other movie, including the Harry Potter series, that was based on a book that I had read first.
Odom Leah, keep us updated....love to hear what you decide and how it works out for you.
I'm going into this blindly so we'll see.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Wow, there were no other cancellation options other than your Favorite channel? That's some serious commitment to an unseen show!

It is mostly about a family squabble on the scale of the first world war - but set in a medieval time with some magic involved. The characterization is part of the magic of the series, and do not get too fond of anyone in the series.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I know! NF doesn't do anything half-assed. To be fair, he had no idea that the National Geographic Channel was my current favorite and he has promised to restore it after this Game of Thrones thing is over....it better be worth it.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

I just moved down a plan with the Dish Network and it doesn't have NatGeo to save a few bucks.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

I started reading this a week or so ago. It is pretty good.

I thought about getting HBO to see this cause it looks awesome...

But DirecTV wants $17 a month for HBO.

Ridiculous.

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Holy shitsnacks!

The way I figure it, that's $4 an episode. Given the production values, I'm okay with $4 for 60 minutes of entertainment (no commercial breaks on HBO to eat into the hour-long programming).

Hell, that's movie prices.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Versus the completely reasonable $15/month for a MMORPG?

Well, to be fair, the MMORPG gives you way more than 4 hours a month.

Though, now that I type that, I suppose HBO does, too. Just not necessarily more than 4 of stuff you wanted to buy HBO for.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Huh. Sean Bean is in this? Never got into the books, but I may have to check it out.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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