The Wheel of Time

So you might remember when I read The Eye of the World a while ago. I was mildly surprised at my response to it; not love, but definitely not hate. I liked it, and thought I probably wanted to read the second one, but I found myself dragging my feet and decided I wouldn't force myself. Eventually, though, I did read The Great Hunt, and as I was reading that one I discovered that I was really growing to like the series. I'm now on book four, The Shadow Rising, which follows The Dragon Reborn, and I am really into the series. So if you're interested, I think I'd recommend them. However, a couple things to consider before you start.
1) There are eleven books, with the twelfth (allegedly) on the way. These are not small books. The Shadow Rising is the biggest one so far, and it's over 1000 pages, but all the others are at least 500. I made no commitments to the entire series when I started, and I'm still not entirely sure I can summon the courage for the remaining seven, but thus far I have been unable to stop myself in the middle of it. This is probably due to my weird perfectionism that won't allow me to leave something in the middle even if I want to. I do like the books, though, so that's a part of it too. I'm into the story. I'm just not excited about those ones in the middle of the series that have such a reputation for hundreds of pages where nothing happens. Ugh.
2) Robert Jordan is a really annoying writer, for more than one reason. First is that he doesn't appear to understand/care about the rules of letter sounds in the English language. He makes up names all the time that don't sound anything like what they look like they should sound like (there's a pronunciation guide in the back), and it's frustrating to me. Second is that he writes really irritating characters. The girls start off okay, but as the series goes on they start pining after some of the male characters and it just gets dumb. Also the male characters are SO annoying in that they will never accept anything that's happening. Also Robert Jordan's use of slangy-type language is soooo silly, and even four books into the series I still cringe every time.
However. That said, I am still reading the series, and liking it a lot. Every now and then I have to rant to Mike about the latest thing that's annoying the crap out of me, but thus far the books are interesting enough to keep me reading. If you're looking for something fun and frivolous to occupy your time (and if you have a lot of time that you would like occupied), go ahead. They're fun.