Hellobee Boards

I love the show, only read the first book. The book was really good but to me, not an easy read. A ton of characters to keep track of and lots of story lines, and at this point in my life, it felt like too much work to try to keep them straight. And I usually love to read! I decided I just really enjoy watching the show more (and I don't think I have ever said that about another book/ movie/ show before).

Also they are super long.

It's confusing at first because there are a lot of characters to keep up with. If you can push through the first few chapters it gets really interesting! Watching the show helped me keep up with everyone in the books. I also would pull up the wiki page for the book if I got to a character I couldn't remember and would use that to refresh my memory.

The 5th book ends on a cliffhanger and there's no telling when book 6 will be published. There is supposed to be 7 books overall. The first was published in 1996.

Love the books, I have read the entire series multiple times (several of my friends have done the same). Takes a little bit to get into but it's an easy fast read once you do.

I think the first book starts a little slowly since you need time to understand who everyone is but overall I would say the whole series is an pretty easy read.

@lovehoneybee: @Bao: I feel like such a wimp or something saying it, but I have enough to keep track of. Maybe if I'd read them before I had kids. Now I'll just watch the show and thoroughly enjoy it.

But I will make my kids read Harry Potter before they can watch the movies. So that's something right?

I watched season 1 first then read the books and it helped to keep all the characters straight! Love books and the show!!

So great but I was only able to read 2 books because they got too intense! I couldn't handle it. But a lot of his writing has really stuck with me. They're great. But I'm super sensitive and can only watch comedies.

It definitely helps that they're so popular because there's tons of info online and I believe there's even a website where you can enter how far along in the books you are to prevent spoilers.

So I've read all the books, and I read them before the show (well, book 5 came out before season 5, so I read it after starting the show but before much of it was depicted on the show).

The first three books are AMAZING!!!!! But then they start to go down hill. I mean, does anything important even happen in book 5??? And book 4 is missing all the good characters (Jon, Tyrion, Daenerys). They start introducing more and more new characters, locations, and plot lines that I just DON'T CARE ABOUT! At this point, I'm excited to finish up the series through the show, which is hopefully going to stick to the important plot lines and leave out all the rest.

And I agree with the others - these are not an easy read. LOTS of characters and new ones introduced all the time. It's hard for me to keep track of who is who and what they are doing and how it's related to whatever. I would have to wait until the rest of the series is out before I could say whether I'd suggest them to someone or not.

@SugarplumsMom: Wheel of Time is soooooo good! But soooooooooo long! And like books 7-9 are kind of a drag... But at least that series is FINISHED! And it ends well!

I will also add had having read all of the books before seeing the show, it makes it easier to keep straight what is going on in the show haha.

@SugarplumsMom: I have also read the wheel of time (and I really enjoyed it even though some parts are better than others) but I feel like it has even more characters and storylines! Although, I still consider it easy to read. They have great internet resources for keeping storylines and people straight.