I had avoided the entire fantasy genre my entire life until somebody made me read this book, and I hate myself for having shut myself off from it (and others like it) for years. I shunned books with maps in teh front and dragons on the cover, but I am now making my way through the Song of Ice and Fire series, relishing the fact that each book has more maps than the last, and lamenting the lack of dragons on the covers.

It had been years since I spent hours at a time reading, not wanting to do anything else but read and read, but this book brought me back to that. I agree with the person below, that it is frustrating having to wait hundreds of pages to get back to the best character plot things. But this book.. I love this book. :D