I read the books first, but couldn't get in to them. It was almost a year before I reading another shot, and after that I was hooked. Also, I accidentally ended up at a George R. R. Martin panel at comic con and that was cool.
Until I played one of the Carmen games from 1995 with Lynn Thigpen, and I found a note left behind from one of her agents, I didn't realize that Carmen pays her people too Lol