Bringing books to life

THREE weeks ago, on a warm evening in July, it seemed as if all of New York City was awaiting something tremendous. There was a palpable excitement in the air, urgency in the steps of those rushing to get to a television screen at home or a bar by 9pm. The reason? To watch the first episode of the latest season of Game of Thrones.

While all of this could, of course, have been entirely a figment of my Game of Thrones-addled imagination, there's no refuting the fact that this show is the most popular TV series of all time.

For the uninitiated, Game of Thrones is a multi-award-winning show on HBO that is now into its seventh season. There are Game of Thrones groups that meet every week to discuss the show and its outcomes. Most news organisations carry a weekly recap of the latest episode, writers cannot resist projecting plotlines into the future, and everyone is keeping score. The New York Times even has a newsletter dedicated to it. (To the non-followers: I'm guessing it feels both lonely and empowering all at once, to not partake in the sharing and yet be free of the upheavals brought on by medieval fiction writ large on a screen).