The Sunday Salon: An epic saga affair

It has been a while since I did a Sunday Salon. I would like to say that I was busier than usual, but really, there was nothing major happening for me to report. I've been reading some, listening some, watching some, and knitting some, for the most of the past few weeks. Just as with every beginning of the year so far, my reading has been going very slow. I know it will pick up soon, if the past years were any indication.

The husband and I started watching Game of Thrones this past week. We are late to the bandwagon but not having any major TV to watch right now, we decided to start watching it. I'm a little more hooked into the show now than when I first started watching it. I don't really watch too many epic sagas - since almost every character has some meaty story arc, it takes me a while to remember everyone. I have to read a few recaps before I get the story straight. But, I LOVE reading epic sagas. There is usually a lot to love in them - strong characters with everyone getting a lot of page presence; a wide variety of emotions and motifs - happiness, sadness, triumph, disappointment, betrayals, complicated relationships, and others; a lot of growing up, coming of age, and decay into nothingness; engrossing plots; and cliffhangers. You can't really agree or disagree with anything. Stuff happens, just like in life, so move on. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are the only two sagas I remember reading. And after watching a few episodes of Game of Thrones, I'm finally convinced about reading the books. But Holy Mygodly, how much sex and curses this show has! (And I'm remembering not to get attached to any character, I know how Martin loves to kill them all.)

Much as I like reading epic sagas, I'm also picky about them. Most epic sagas tend to be fantasy-driven and not all fantasy worlds appeal to me. I almost detest reading anything supernatural, and the fantasy needs to be appetizing and not gross. It's usually a thin line and a very subjective experience. So it takes me longer to pick an epic series and dive in - I usually need some strong impetus to get there.

Last week, we got hit by a big snowstorm, like much of the US East. That was our big one for the season, and the biggest in the last few years. I worked from home two days last week and loved watching out my office window at all the happy kids sledding in the snow. We have a lot of slopes in this part of the country and the kids had so much fun picking a hill. While the roads and driveways are cleared, there is still a lot of snow everywhere else and it's not going to go anywhere anytime soon. After checking the weather forecasts, this does seem to be the last snow of the season, and it has been slightly warmer since. So are y'all ready for Spring?