I need to know how many of you are watching/reading Game of Thrones

[andrewducker]

Poll

Context being that the internet seems to be awash with GoT, despite there only being around 5 million viewers in the US and 700,000 in the UK. I'm guessing that "my friends list" and "people who watch Game of Thrones" has a large crossover, but I'm curious as to how large it is...

Comments

[hawkida]

Isn't it said to be the most pirated show ever? Thus, viewing figures may well be distorted.

[pigwotflies]

Watching and reading, though deliberately not reading the books until I've seen the tv version. This is unusual for me but I'm enjoying watching with no feeling of knowing what's coming next or preconceptions of what characters look like/how things happen and then reading the book afterwards as a way to deepen the experience and spend more time in the GoT world.

[andrewducker]

I'm doing the same. Having seen too many occasions (across multiple books/conversions) where people who had read and loved the books encountered the movie/TV series and spent the whole thing complaining that it wasn't as good, I decided to do the TV series first, and read the books to get the expanded view. It's worked well so far!

Oh, and I'm _awful_ with big casts in books. More than three characters introduced in quick succession leaves me unable to remember who any of them are. I bounced off the first book twice, over a decade a go. Once I know what everyone looks like, and the general arc of the plot, I have a much easier time with the books.

[woodpijn]

Oh, I'm the other way round with big casts. I cope much better with them in books than in films/TV (comes of being a bit prosopagnosic and having trouble telling them apart on screen).

I read the Harry Potter books before seeing the films, and I really think if I'd tried to watch the films first I'd have been lost. Too many characters appearing too briefly without much introduction.

[bart_calendar]

Your strategy is going to be difficult with Season Five since the events in Dance with Dragons take place before the events in Feast for Crows but the show is going to stick with a linear time progression.

[gonzo21]

I think I'm in a slightly odd group where I tried to read the most recent book, after being distinctly underwhelmed by the last book, and gave up on it half way through because I was sick and tired of yet another nine million pages of prose where Nothing Much Happens and basically each character walks/runs/sails/rides from A to B to C to D.

Which is to say I prefer the TV show now because at least it has to obey the dictates of TV and have stuff happen. Although, rather too much of the TV show is also centred around various characters walking/running/sailing/riding from A to B to C, etc.

... or in other words, I think Game Of Thrones had an absolutely amazing first book, a pretty decent second book, and then just went off the cliff.

[steer]

Heh... you're condemning game of thrones for not having enough memorable events? Really?

[gonzo21]

I don't want to post any spoilers because I don't think Andrew has read them all yet. But I had a particular problem with A Feast For Crows. I gave up about half way through and just went and read the wiki article to catch up on the few important plot developments.

And by the time I gave up on A Dance With Dragons, about half way, nothing much had happened.

(Though in truth what made me throw down Dance With Dragons in disgust was when I reached breaking point with all the rape.)

[steer]

Let me recommend you never to touch Moby Dick or anything by Salman Rushdie.

[lil_shepherd]

No option for "Jumped on the first book with glee because I love GRRM's other work. Felt 'Meh' about it. Read the second and hated it. Flipped through the third and felt that was even worse. Not interested, therefore, in the TV series."

Dreadful world building. Unlikeable characters. Character assassination of some half-recognisable figures from history... Overlong and overblown.

[andrewducker]

I'd categorise that as "neither" in the first question and "I have tried it, but did not like it enough to watch/read all of it." in the second. You tried for a fair while, but eventually bounced off.

[lil_shepherd]

Which is what I put, actually. But I thought those options were simply too kind...

[gonzo21]

I think the tv show addresses a lot of the problems of the books, and is, in my opinion, a far superior product.

[woodpijn]

SEWIWEIC: Not tried it and not decided whether I'd like to or not. I've heard very mixed things about it. I get the impression either reading or watching it would be quite a big time investment.

[andrewducker]

I find it odd to think of movies/books as an investment. It's not like you get to the end and the final five seconds is the fun bit that you have to wade through the rest for*. I've enjoyed all of Game Of Thrones so far, so I don't feel that I've invested anything, I've just had 30-odd hours of fun!

*Although the first half of Season 1 of Babylon 5 does work this way, sadly.

[lil_shepherd]

What? You've never watched something to the end and thought "That's 50/90/120/650/1000 hours of my life I won't get back." (If you've watched all 24/26 episodes of an American series in the hope it might get better then go on to a second season you've only yourself to blame.)

[andrewducker]

I've done lots of things like that - but that didn't feel like an investment - investments make payouts at the end, you don't enjoy the journey. Watching things is all about the journey.

Edit: Actually, no. Not like that. I've stopped watching/reading things I didn't enjoy. I've walked out of a cinema twice because movies weren't worth staying for.

I've had a fair number of occasions where I trusted that the author/creator would make everything make sense at the end, and this would make the show _better_, but if I wasn't enjoying it most of the way through, I wouldn't be bothering.