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I planned to get myself a kindle for my birthday, but what's the point to wait for it? This is the fourth kindle I bought and finally it is for myself. Apparently I have reached a life stage that reading is relaxing to both my eyes and mind.

As the new season and book coming soon, I decide to reopen the series of A Song of Ice and Fire. I got the kindle on the end of March and now I get to 30% of the first book. I don't know if I can finish all in time before the new book's release.

Anyway, knowing plots from later of the timeline gives me a new perspective, which makes rereading quite interesting. Some seemingly trivial dialogues and details become meaningful.

Here I'm going to keep records of my progress and favorite quotes.

A Game of Thrones: 2017-03-27 ~ 2017-05-21

• Bran thought about it. "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?" "That is the only time a man can be brave," his father told him. (Bran Stark and Eddard Stark)
• "Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you." (Tyrion Lannister to Jon Snow)
• A man could not always be where he belonged, though.
• "A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge." (Tyrion Lannister to Jon Snow)
• Every flight begins with a fall. (Bran Stark's dream)
• "As I wa saying...why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know that's on the other side?" (Tyrion Lannister to Jon Snow)
• "Let them see that their words can cut you, and you'll never be free of the mockery." (Tyrion Lannister to Jon Snow)
• "If a man paints a target on his chest, he should expect that sooner of later someone will loose an arrow at him." (Tyrion Lannister commenting)
• "We all need to be mocked from time to time, Lord Mormont, lest we start to take ourselves too seriously." (Tyrion Lannister to Lord Mormont)
• Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, the dwarf had told him, grinning. The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit to cowardice as Samwell Tarly had.
• He had found over the years that silence sometimes yielded more than questions.
• No doubt he was smiling. He smiled a lot, as if th world were a secret joke that only he was clever enough to understand. (Bran's observation on Theon)
• Folly and desperation are ofttimes hard to tell apart.
• "Myrish. 'The Seasons of My Love.' Sweet and sad, if you understand the words. The first girl I ever bedded used to sing it, and I've never been able to put it out of my head." (Tyrion told Bronn about the music he was whistling.)
• "Go ahead, call me all the names you want," Sansa said airily. "You won't dare when I'm married to Joffrey. You'll have to bow to me and call me Your Grace." She shrieked as Arya flung the orange across the table. It caught her in the middle of the forehead with a wet squish and plopped down into her lap. "You have juice on your face, Your Grace," Arya said.
• "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." (Cersei's response to Eddard's advice of her leaving the city with her children)
• "Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow," they recited, their voices filling the twilit grove. "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I amd the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."
• "Watching is not seeing, dead girl." (Syrio Forel to Arya)
• "Hear me. The ships of Braavos sail as far as the winds blow, to lands strange and wonderful, and when they return their captains fetch queer animals to the Sealord's menagerie. Such animals as you have never seen, striped horses, great spotted things with necks as long as stilts, hairy mouse-pigs as big as cows, stinging manticores, tigers that carry their cubs in a pouch, terrible walking lizards with scythes for claws. Syrio Forel has seen these things. On the day I am speaking of, the first sword was newly dead, and the Sealord sent for me. Many bravos had come to him, and as many had been sent away, none could say why. When I came into his presence, he was seated, and in his lap was a fat yellow cat. He told me that one of his captains had brought the beast to him, from an island beyond the sunrise. 'Have you ever seen her like?' he asked of me. And to him I said, 'Each night in the alleys of Braavos I see a thousand like him,' and the Sealord laughed, and that day I was named the first sword." Arya screwed up her face. "I don't understand." Syrio clicked his teeth together. "The cat was an ordinary cat, no more. The others expected a fabulous beast, so that is what they saw. How large it was, they said. It was no larger than any other cat, only fat from indolence, for the Sealord fed it from his own table. What curious small ears, they said. Its ears had been chewed away in kitten fights. And it was plainly a tomcat, yet the Sealord said 'her,' and that is what the others saw. Are you hearing?"
• In the songs, the knights never screamed nor begged for mercy.
• "They say the king loved to hunt. The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that. My son loved that young wife of his. Vain woman. If not for her, he would never have thought to sell those poachers." (Commander Mormont talking about his son, Jorah Mormont)
• "In the north, only a few of the great houses worship the Seven. The rest honor the old gods, and name no knights... but those lords and their sons and sworn swords are no less fierce or loyal or honorable. A man's worth is not marked by a ser before his name." (Maester Luwin told Bran)
• She did not realized that Ser Jorah had returned until she heard the knight say, "No." His voice was strange, brusque. (Afterwards) He seemed to know what had happened without a word being spoken. (Jorah just got back from the captain for messages. It is possible that Varys had sent a message to undo the previous one.)
• "Your father is not fearless," Catelyn pointed out. "He is brave, but that is very different."
• The thought of Jon filled Ned with a sense of shame, and a sorrow too deep for words. (On Eddard's last POV chapter)
• "The High Septon once told me that as we sin, so do we suffer. If that's true, Lord Eddard, tell me... why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?" (Varys to Eddard)
• "So they will not love," the old man answered, "for love is the bane of honor, the death of duty. ... Most of us are not so strong. What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms... or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy. ... A craven can be as brave as any man, when there is nothing to fear. And we all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then, to walk the path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man's life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose." (Maester Aemon answered why the Night's Watch take no wives and father no children)