Ice and Fire and Cold Comfort

Starks at Winterfell

I recently started reading the Game of Thrones books, or rather Song of Ice and Fire. I think I'm in the third book. I'm reading them on my Kindle, so when I finish one the next one pops up as a recommendation. It occurred to me to read them because of a frivolous conversation at work. My co-workers were speculating that I would be very good at Trivia, but I pointed out I don't know a lot of recent cultural references, like Game of Thrones characters. Those show up sometimes in the New York Times crossword puzzles. I don't subscribe to the NYT, but I do subscribe to their crossword. Anyway, the next time I was considering what to read, I thought, Why not? So I started them.

They're pretty good. They move very, very slowly. I think one year of narrative has gone by since the beginning of the first book, and they are long books. Each chapter or section is a third-person limited perspective of a different character. So when you go to the next chapter, you may not go forward in time from the last one, just to a different viewpoint and locale.

Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm

The story starts at a castle or fortress called Winterfell, belonging to the Stark family. Speaking of frivolity, that made me think of the Starkadder family at Cold Comfort Farm, in the amusing novel (and movie) of the same name. Later, when the Stark father left his son in charge of the place, he said something like, "There should be a Stark at Winterfell," which made me think: "There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm." I wonder if I'll come across something that will make me think, "I saw something nasty in the wood shed!" Funny only if you've read Cold Comfort Farm or watched the movie.