I was never sure if there were spoilers in those charts, so I never used them.

It's so very worth it. Truly. I don't read a lot of sprawling high fantasy series, but this one absolutely hooked me.

Here's the ProfessorSara guarantee: There are a lot of characters, and it's daunting to keep track of all of them at first. But by the second chapter with Bran's POV, you'll either be a fan for life or ready to put it down and never pick it up again.

I was browsing io9 in a silent classroom while my students where working on an assignment. My audible gasp at reading this headline caused several of them to look up in concern at what had me so upset. How do you go about explaining the magnitude of this to non-fan 19-year-olds?

So your avatar would indicate. :)

Chop chop! That's one per month ...

Alice is such an important character in the books, even though she's dead. She's what drives Stark to do what he does, but it also seems as if her memory holds him back at the same time. He can't move on, he can't truly be happy, he can't ever rest. Will he ever be able to come to terms with her death? And how will…

@MrGOH: I imagine it would be predominantly peasant. Heeeeeyooo!

Funny, I thought all the journals I've submitted my research to followed those guidelines.

Good to know! I just finished book 1, and book 2 will be mine once my husband finishes it.

My husband has long wanted a pet fox, and this article and picture have not discouraged his dream in any way. I'm just not sure what our four cats would think.

@MrTripps: Close enough!

@Tamírki: And a ladder on wheels that rolls around a track to reach the top shelves!

@Tamírki: Well, the problem is that we have an overwhelming amount of books, and not nearly enough bookcases. Someday ... some distant day ... we're going to finish the basement and build a huge wall of shelves. But until then, our poor books languish.

@Lin-Z [linguist on duty]: I don't want to turn this into a GRRM gripe-fest, but ... I'll believe it when I see it!

@Tamírki: Some blabbermouth stranger in a bookstore spoiled what I assume is a big death in the Assassin books. We were chatting in the sci fi/fantasy aisle, and I was saying that I hadn't read them but was hoping to, and she said, "Oh, I was so sad when Character X died!" And I stood there stunned and open-mouthed.…

@MrLebowski: OK, you're talking me into a reread before the fifth book ... whenever that may appear.

@Lin-Z [linguist on duty]: This is exactly the problem I wrestle with.

@Tamírki: I read Hobb's Forest Mage series, and I quite liked it. I hear that's not even her best effort, so I look forward to picking up her other trilogies. Hello, time suck!