A Feast for Crows

Written by: George RR Martin

First line: "Dragons," said Mollander.

Why you should read this book: In this aptly named fourth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, the bodies begin to pile up in seriously inconvenient ways, while religious mania and cannibalism are added to the atrocities being committed as winter draws nigh and the short-sighted game of thrones apparently requires that large quantities of resources be destroyed immediately prior to a prolonged period of privation and terror. More plots, some stupider than others, are conceived, hatched, brought to fruition, and proved to be either just foolhardy enough or far too foolhardy; many journeys are taken, drawing characters far from their comfort zones, into realms of great danger and even greater knowledge. Nothing whatsoever is resolved in this book.

Why you shouldn't read this book: When you get to the end, there's a note from Martin explaining that, due to the scope of the story, he realized he had to cut the book in two, and rather than giving his readers half the story for all the characters, he chose to give all the story for half the characters, so a lot of important protagonists don't even appear in this book, except when other people gossip about them.