I've read the books and I feel they are better than the series, even though the series is the best viewing I've ever seen. I read the books years before the series came out and could not believe that the characters looked not just similar, but exactly as imagined in the books. If you don't read books...the song of ice and fire is by far the best place to start. Let's just hope that George r martin, being such a fat ass, doesn't die before he finishes the whole story, like that idiot Robert Jordan did.