It’s such fun as a cord-cutter, having HBONow, watching GoT like a real show, instead of bingeing it a year later.

It’s also sort of fun as a book-reader, now that small divergences are leading to major divergences. Pretty much all of Brienne and Podrick’s current arc did not happen in the books, and this is largely due to a certain character no longer being present. Jaime and Bronn’s current show arc didn’t happen in the books. Sansa and Littlefinger’s arc may bear some rough estimate to what happens in TWOW, but I’ll have to wait until next year to know. I’ve stopped minding this and decided to enjoy the surprise of it.

So we’ve got stuff from the fourth book and stuff from the fifth book, which are supposed to run concurrently, getting possibly overtaken by stuff from the sixth book, which isn’t published yet.

It’s also fun to completely nerd out with deep, New Criticism-level readings of the existing books. If you’re the sort of person who’s ever thought the words “Game of Thrones? You Mean ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’?” then you should definitely check out A Winterfell Huis Clos, which analyzes the Winterfell scenes from A Dance With Dragons.  Just be prepared to hand in your nerd card, because this guy has out-nerded us all. The layers of meaning and the significance of minor characters we don’t even recall will Keanu your mind.