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.
You know, I think the Netflix Carmen would have been better if they had done good flashbacks. Carmen was a teen right? Why not do flashbacks of when Carmen and Chase were partners and working together? Or when Chase was chasing Carmen? Or more about when Carmen quit?