I've started reading George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series, and I intend to watch HBO's television series based on it at some point. I wonder about two things:
The point is obviously avoiding spoilers.
The 100% guaranteed way to ensure the show doesn't spoil anything from the books is to read them all first. That should go without saying, and that's the path I recommend. But if you insist on jumping into the show while you're still reading, here's a rough guide.
There's a pretty strong correlation between the first two books and the first two seasons. Season One, in particular, is almost a word-for-word adaptation in many parts. You could probably start watching those immediately after reading the respective books.
Season 3 is where things get tricky. Individual storylines differ in pacing. For example, Bran's Storm of Swords storyline is completely finished by the end of Season 3, while Jon Snow's only ends up about 1/3 completed. Things get even murkier in Season 4, when several characters start to make significant inroads to their Feast for Crows/Dance with Dragons storylines.
I'd recommend at least reading all the way through Storm of Swords before tacking Season Three, since Bran and Jaime's entire arc is in Season Three. In addition, episode one reveals something crucial about the character Arstan Whitebeard that is a mystery throughout the book.
But I strongly recommend reading all the books before starting Season Three. Season Three immediately reveals the fate of a major character whose fate is a mystery for two whole books.
Theon
But I definitely, definitely recommend reading all the books before Season Four. Dany, Bran, Brienne, and the spoilered character above all have parts of their Feast for Crows/Dance with Dragons storylines in that season.
EDIT: One thing I should add is that the show often makes things explicit which, in the books, are only hinted at or revealed over time. This happens as early as the first two seasons, in which much of ambiguity behind characters like Littlefinger and Margaery Tyrell are stripped away. They aren't spoilers, per se, but it could diminish your enjoyment in reading the books.
There is no one true answer, but here's the strategy I would take.
Option 1: read all the books, then watch the TV show.
Why? Because then you can't be spoiled and don't have to think about it.
Option 2 (if you really wanna watch the TV show):
Why? Because the order above will let you alternate between the book and show while minimizing spoilers.
The season that’s about to debut covers the second half of the third book. The third book [A Storm of Swords] was so long that it had to be split into two. But there are two more books beyond that, A Feast for Crowsand A Dance with Dragons. A Dance with Dragons is itself a book that’s as big as A Storm of Swords. So there’s potentially three more seasons there, between Feast and Dance, if they split into two the way they did [with Storms]. Now, FeastDance take place simultaneously. So you can’t do Feast and then Dance the way I did. You can combine them and do it chronologically. And it’s my hope that they’ll do it that way and then, long before they catch up with me, I’ll have published The Winds of Winter, which’ll give me another couple years. It might be tight on the last book, A Dream of Spring, as they juggernaut forward.
So going from what G.R.R Martin said I would just read as the books as the seasons pertain to them.
You will no doubt read fast, and the seasons will be much more behind you, but if you wait for them you will never get finished.
So, read the books and wait for the seasons to portray them. The seasons have no special content really(the books were written first, so I classified them as more canon), the books were written before they were even aired.
Here are additional reading list:
Both these additional list talk about spoilers and understanding the series. That being said you will probably get a better understanding by reading the books first(or along with watching the series), because the series seems to condense and cut to make the books fit on screen.
If you read the books first you will no doubt get spoilers as the books will give you a outline of the seasons and the seasons will give you a outline of the books. This may or may not ruin you enjoying the series, both books and seasons. But they do have minor differences(large sometimes).
This might help your decision: It is a look at the differences between the books and the seasons.
