I have had a lot of conversations about Game of Thrones recently, because I finally got around to watching it. (Only the first two seasons - no spoilers for season 3, please!) I have one friend who always reads the book before seeing the movie. She managed to read the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series before starting in on the television show. Although I'm not a big fan of pseudo-medieval fantasy in general, she and I tend to have the same literary tastes. And enough people have raved over the series that it has piqued my interest.
But man, what a commitment! The Song of Ice and Fire series is comprised of five books to date. Those five books alone - not counting future novels - add up to almost 4,000 pages of text. That's roughly the same number of pages as the entire Harry Potter series, and Martin isn't finished yet: he is currently working on book #6, and book #7 has already been announced.
Issue #1: Spoilers
Would you rather let the books spoil the TV show, or vice versa? Some degree of spoilerage is going to happen no matter what. If you want to keep pace with the show, its creators intend for it to be eight seasons long (ratings permitted) with roughly one season per book. Season 1 = A Game of Thrones, Season 2 = A Clash of Kings. Season 3 and 4 are the first and second half of A Storm of Swords.
Issue #2: Faithfulness to the Plot
This obviously is not a big concern here. By all accounts, the TV show has been meticulously faithful to the books.
Issue #3: Programming Your Brain
If you watch the TV show first, it affects your experience of reading the book. You won't be imagining Tyrion Lannister; you will be picturing Peter Dinklage. You will read the characters in the actors' voices, with the actors' inflections and accents.
This is probably the biggest argument in favor of reading the books first. And having thought of it, I'm sad I watched the first two seasons before thinking to pick up the books! Oh well.
Image courtesy Flickr/GOTSfile
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