There are many varieties of Game of Thrones fans; read the books and then watched the show, watched the show and then read the books, read the books and won't watch the show, watched the show and won't read the books, etc. I fall into the second group which is rare for me but has worked out very well. That feels like blasphemy as a bookworm but really it is probably the more logical approach for me because I'm that Lord of the Rings fan that is still mad that Tom Bombadil wasn't in Fellowship. I read Jaws years after seeing it and loved the added nuance to a perfect film (highly recommend it). If I'd read the book first I know I would have been pissed that spoiler and spoiler didn't spoiler.
Back to Game of Thrones though. I had never read any of the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series but I was very interested in the show when it originally aired. The problem was, I didn't have HBO. Subsequent seasons continued to pique my interest but then, on top of not having HBO, I felt like it would be difficult to catch up. I finally binge watched seasons 1-5 earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. I had to wait months for season 6 so I decided to read the books to fill the void. I bought all of them and began to read very quickly at first, delighting in those moments that the show had taken directly from the page because they were perfect. My reason for reading was to see the scenes that made me punch the air or cry in greater detail, with the characters thoughts and emotions behind them and in the first and second book that occurred often and I ate it up.
