Should I read A Game Of Thrones even though I watched the TV show?

[Ryker]

I'm caught up with season 4 of the series, but I feel like I made a mistake choosing to watch it first without reading the books. I have a friend who read all of books so far and he obsesses over them, but I don't know if I will enjoy it since I know what happens in the show.

[Renee]

I think the tv series did a pretty good job of covering the books. I read the first book, then watched the first 3 seasons then re read the first book and continued to the 5th. I enjoyed the writing style and seeing the series helped me visualize and keep track of all the characters (the are a lot! ). Generally I find that reading the book first, I get annoyed with the movie/series, and vice versa. In this case I found both versions complex enough to complement each other.

I short, yes, but break them up or you will get overload.

[Paolo]

Yeah, I also have a problem with having already seen the film/TV adaptation before reading the source material.

In almost all cases, I lose interest in reading the book.

But I know some people who don't mind. These friends of mine concur that it's almost always better to read the book first; but if not, at least reading the source material can give one a better understanding of the adaptation especially considering that most adaptations aren't able to squeeze in all the details found in the books.

I read A Game of Thrones before the show came out, but I wasn't able to read the rest of the A Song of Ice and Fire books when the succeeding seasons came out. At this point, I'm not so excited to read them anymore having seen all the Seasons of GoT.

But in the end it's all up to you, which is probably no help :p but it is what it is :)

[Paulina]

Well I've seen the TV series, and I liked it. Also my dad and liked it so much that he began to read the books and he really enjoyed them. Now he is on the last one! So I tell you... go for it. :)

[Ankit]

Yes I think you should. At times TV show contains limited scene and doesn't describe the scene in details. On the other hand in a book, scenes are detailed and described beautifully so I think you should read.

[Stephanie]

The first couple of seasons cover the books pretty well (although the books go into WAY more detail), but once you get past them you find that the show and the books diverge quite a bit. So even if you read the books after having seen the show there will be things that are different. Entire characters are omitted completely. Hope that helps you decide.

[Angela]

You must read the books. They are genius! Loved them, love the show, but still prefer the books.

[Marion]

In my opinion, you should definitely read the books! I'm a little biased because after season 3, I completely lost interest in the show - mostly because it didn't treat the characters well, and in my opinion, completely ruined some of them. I know this might be an unpopular opinion, considering GoT is becoming a cult classic tv show, but in all honesty, I think past season 3 (and I would even argue season 2), it doesn't do the plot/characters/etc justice at all ! Just my two cents, I know a lot of people might disagree haha

[Angela]

no brainer. must read the books!

[Colleen]

Not very different in my suggestion to definitely read the books. I agree with Renee in breaking them up. My boss got me into them and threw each of the books at me as he finished them, and is always hoping that I'm further along than I am. I'm on book five, but these books are HEFTY! I love them to pieces, but they are a lot of info, going in all different directions at once. Not a light read, in my opinion.

But! I will say this about having started the show, and having heard about it from my boss: There is so much of the back story and the history and religions within the books that are completely lost in the show. I think that knowing the significance of why the characters do what they do and think they way they think actually make me more interested in the characters in the show. Even though they never rarely go into it in the show, I know their story and the thought processes that book narration allows, so it's a bit more meaningful to me when I watch the show.

[John]

I fell in love with the TV series The Game of Thrones and watched all the episodes.
This year, I decided to read the books.
I needed the TV series to help me visualize the many characters and places in the books. Otherwise, all those names would have been confusing to me.