I heard of the books because I listen to the Cover to Cover podcast.  I heard about the TV series thanks to them as well, had to obtain it via alternate means, as I don't think it's ever been shown here in NZ.  I thought it was pretty good, but when I actually started reading the books, I quickly realised the TV show pales in comparison. If only they had decided to make each book into a season of the TV show, I think they would not have had to cut so much stuff out to fit the 42 minutes of each episode.  Perhaps if they were to have made it now that Game of Thrones has become popular and set the precedent for one season per book, it might have been different.