would definitely read them, the dialogue and history is so much richer in the books, not limited by time or budget
I read GoT after Season 1 and was shocked at well the series followed the book (theres always some exceptions though). I have already read CoK and it has only made me more anxious to see season two. I have already prepared myself for the fact that there will be some differences but thats OK. I definitely recomend reading the book now just because its so damn good and because it will give you a good point of reference to the new characters as they appear. My biggest issue with season one was that I did not always realize the importance of what I was watching until after the fact. After reading CoK I think I am better prepared to watch season 2 than I was to watch season 1.
I always read the books first. Look at it this way... the series is so fantastic that having read the novel won't signify. You'll still love it, in my opinion.
The audio books are really well done for Game of Thrones. I read the first 3 books around the release of Storm of Swords, then read Feast for Crows, but I decided to get the audio books as a refresher prior to the release of Dance with Dragons. Great listen when stuck in traffic on the way to work and home.
Roy Dotrice, the guy who reads for the audiobooks, has a roll on the show in season 2. He plays Hallyne the Pyromancer.
I have never encountered a situation where a well-written literary work didn't totally trash its film or TV counterpart by comparison. It's the amazing power of human imagination. I'll watch season 2 before reading the corresponding novel, same as I did with the first.
Speaking of exceptions, there were two things from the TV series that jumped out at me, for whatever reason, that I particularly didn't like. There's one minor one and one major one. I'll start with the major one. First, in the book, the Hound himself told Sansa the story of his facial scars while he was drunk, whereas in the show Littlefinger tells Sansa the story. I was really disappointed by this change. I'm sure it was done due to time constraints, but I think it was an injustice to the story. The Hound telling Sansa himself shows a greater intimacy between them, however disturbing it may be, and squares better with his protection of Sansa when she was thinking of shoving Joffrey off the wall. They have way more of a relationship in the book than they do in the show. Hopefully they'll have a chance to rectify this somewhat in season 2. Second, and this is a minor change, but a senseless one, in my estimation: in the book, Gared the ranger, who was a character in the prologue, and the Night's Watchmen who got his head cut off by Ned Stark, was "an old man, past fifty." I'm quoting this from literally page 1 of book 1. It also describes him as a forty-year veteran of the watch (page 2), and as having lost both ears, three toes, and a finger to frostbite (page 4). The point of all of this being that Gared was a grizzled veteran who was not easily spooked. But in the show, they inexplicably change it so that Gared is a young man. Huh? Why do that? I always thought it lent gravity to Gared's claim to have seen the white walkers that he was a vet who had been around the block and wasn't prone to exaggeration. When they changed it to a young guy in the show, it seemed to give more of an impression that he was just green and a coward. Anyway, as I said, a minor change in the big scheme of things, I just don't understand why they did it. Incidentally, one other thing: I saw an interview where Martin was asked what his least favorite scene from the show was. It's the sort of question that you expect a politically correct answer to, but Martin gave an honest one: he didn't like the short scene of Robert hunting in the forest. Reason being that when a king hunts, he's supposed to have dozens, or even hundreds, of retainers with him, whereas in the show it was just four guys walking in the woods. He admitted that he knew it was purely for budget reasons, that they couldn't outfit dozens of extras just to do that one short scene, but I still thought it was interesting that Martin pointed that out.
Yep there's no question that for what ever reason the show did not not delve into the relationship between Sansa and the Hound. Makes me wonder if they will leave out some of the scenes between Sansa and the Hound from CoK. The last scene between the two of them (in the book) was pretty huge IMO. They did not make Tyrion hideous at all and in the book they go into detail about how hideous looking he is. All I all though I thought the book was followed much more closely than most movies follow books. Even much of the dialog was strait out of the book.
It wasn't that they changed his character, it's that they changed the character who escaped. In the book it was Gared. In the show it was Will. You're confusing Gared and Will, Gared was there and looked 50ish but couldn't tell much about his deformities due to his wardrobe. They may have switched a few of the actions, but I think it's still fairly close to the prologue aside from Will being the one that lives.
Still doesn't explain why the change, though. Like I said, really not a big deal, but for whatever reason it just bothered me a bit.
From the interviews I have heard, they changed which one dies because you got more face time with Will, so it was easier for non-readers to recognize this is the same guy from the prologue, where they might not recognize Gared from the few brief shots he is in. Personally I thought the changes to Shae were much worse as she doesn't really act like the book version at all, as was the Littlefinger brothel scene which was extremely out of character monologue even if the content was true to his intentions. I was going to pick up the season 1 blu ray from the closest Best Buy at lunch time since it is on sale for $35, but they were sold out.
I ordered it last night off Amazon Prime for $35 and it was on my doorstep when I got home from work.
