I discovered the books when the paper ran an article about Jim and this new series that was going to be on tv based on his books. The premise sounded intriguing, so I went and bought the first book to check it out... then bought the second, and the third and fourth... and then gave up and just ordered the rest on amazon. Because they're paperbacks, and therefore affordable, I said (do not trouble me with pesky cumulative totals!). Oh, look, there's a new one coming out in hardcover, I said. Hardcover's more pricey, and less portable, so I'll just wait 'till it's out in paperback, I said. I'm almost through Proven Guilty now, and somewhere between starting PG and Tuesday, my sensible resolve to wait turned into "What do you mean no bookstores in Canada have it yet? Noooooooo!!!!!!!!" Sigh. (I have my copy now, all set for the long weekend. Or at least part of the Friday of the long weekend.)
Anyway, somewhere in the middle of book two the series started on tv, so I've kind of discovered both the book and tv-verses simultaneously. So basically, I can spot the differences between the book and tv versions, but I'm not quite invested enough to get annoyed by the differences (yet?). I do find that, while I like the show, it's the books that I tend to recommend to people - especially people I know who've seen the show and haven't read the books!