Thank You Pat ⚓
03 Jan 2015I’m a lazy reader. I’ll often start books and leave them halfway, often juggling 3-4 books at the same time. I read in sprints, often spending a few days just finishing lots of books followed by reading nothing for the next few weeks, perhaps. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate good books. This is the story of how I found my favorite writer, and how I discovered the wonderful books that I enjoy so deeply.
I don’t write a journal regularly, but if I did, one of my favorite things to do with it is to figure out the little things that matter; to separate out the strands and understand the connections and the motivations behind where I am today
It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
- Albus Dumbledore
What I love to do is figure out those tiny choices, and the reasoning behind them that led me to today.
I read Patrick Rothfuss’s “Name of the Wind” a long time back. It was an amazing book, which I found on a site called bestfantasybooks.com. In my defense, I was an avid Harry Potter fan at the time, looking for similar books, and I’d decided that reading the best fantasy would be good preparation before I could write my own.
As it so happens, “Name of the Wind” was a superb book. The kind that made me squirm in delight when I saw that the sequel was already out. So I did what any self-respecting book-lover would do: read it in a single stretch, screwing up my exams in the process. I didn’t sleep much for those few days (its a pretty long book), but I enjoyed every bit of it.
I started following Pat’s (hilarious) blog, where he often posted tidbits of his life, and came across his review of “The Alloy of Law” by Brandon Sanderson:
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My last point is that Sanderson has now been added to a very short list of authors. Specifically, the list authors whom I wish to kill so that I might eat their livers and thereby gain their power.
Any author that Patrick wanted to kill sounded like a great one to read, so I started “The Alloy of Law”. I finished the book in a few short hours. Its paced excellently, and the action keeps on coming. I’d never really read much urban fantasy before, and despite me never having read Mistborn (Alloy is a sequel to the Mistborn trilogy) I was sucked in.
And here I am, counting down the next few days, waiting for the release of Firefight, Sanderson’s next book.
So, thank you Pat. Thanks for introducing me to my favorite writer. Thank you for writing those wonderful books, and keep on reviewing all that you love (I’m reading “Through the Woods” next).
If you are looking for a nice fat book to read next, I heartily recommend “The Name of the Wind” and “The Way of Kings”.
Published on January 03, 2015