Welcome to Litsy!

Not ready to tackle this 1500 page behemoth novel yet but am enjoying reading the Introduction...

Used book score at the Book Exchange in Ashland. Been trying to find this book forever after it went OOP. Never heard of Shank‘s Mare but to intriguing to pass up.

"No glory for this sheep in tiger's hide."

Not the epitaph I would want, but it does seem fitting for Yuan Shao.

"Our troops, backed against the water, will fight to the death and defeat Yuan Shao."

Because what could go wrong?

"[Lü Bu] has no humanity, no honor. Why not leave him to his fate?" suggested Xian. "That's not a hero's part," replied Wei Xu. "Let's deliver him to Cao Cao instead."

Chapter 19, siege of Xiapi. A very different understanding of roles.

I just finished chapter 8. 6.67% of the way done. I have so far taken notes on 21 characters who seemed important enough to keep track of and have book marked a couple pages with lists of major generals. Of the 21, 6 have already died and I don't think Dong Zhuo is long for this world. He will not be missed. I wonder if Martin got his inspiration for Game of Thrones from Three Kingdoms. #threekingdoms

Gongsun Zan to Yuan Shao: "There was a time when I regarded you as loyal and just, and supported you as leader of the confederation. Today I see that you think like a wolf and act like a dog."

I have to admit I love the creative insults. #threekingdoms

Okay, I'm hooked. The challenge is going to be not dropping all my other reading goals. #threekingdoms

Zhang Fei to Lü Bu: "Bastard with three fathers!"

Now that's an insult.

"Better to wrong the world than have it wrong me."

I guess that tells us what we need to know about Cao Cao's character.

Lü Bu to Dong Zhuo: "If you will have me, I beg to honor you as a foster father."

Note to DZ, since he just murdered his last foster father, you might want to think about this.

@JenP 's discussion of how she is preparing to read infinite jest made me think of how I ought to prepare for #threekingdoms. Especially when I started chapter 2 and couldn't remember who the people were. So a notebook for key facts related to characters and some maps of Three Kingdoms China. Of course, it helps to figure out who to make notes of - the first three I noted all died in the first few pages of chapter 2.

Going to try a buddy read of this with Patrick. Anyone want to join us?

I expect to be able to read a chapter a day for the next week or so, then faster after that, aiming to finish mid-February. I'm reading the four volume version, so that would be Chapters 1 - 32.