I first watched the HBO Series then, due to my driving up and down the country a lot for my job I choose to listen to the narration of the book series read by Roy Doltrice as opposed to reading the books. I've currently just started listening to Book 3 " A Storm Of Swords"
Anyway, I went back to the HBO series and started to re-watch again and, this is no critisism to HBO, but some of the acting form some of the characters just felt wooden and lack lustre compared to the magic of Roy Doltrice's narration.
Lord Baelish is a good example, Aidan Gillen does a fantastic job as Littlefinger but for me Roy Doltrice's interpretation is so much better.
I love the HBO series but for me Roy has brought the books to life more than the latter.
Roy is a legend.