I've said it in the other thread and may have said it in this one, but if I had it to do over again I would NOT have read the books. This show is so well done, the only thing that sucks is knowing what's going to happen.
Plus, IMO the books are overlong and overwrought. By it's very nature, the HBO series can't be like that, so I'm sure they'll trim away vast amounts of Martin's extraneous crap. Which suits me just fine.
Now I'm just stuck knowing everything that's going to happen for the next three seasons, waiting for that rotten old fart to finish book 6.
