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I've read the first book of SoIaF series and started on the second, but soon gave up on it, maybe for good. The series has many qualities that I enjoy, like the intrigues and the unpredictable plot. My main problem with it, and what made me finally put the book back in the shelf, is that it drags. There are just too many characters, with too many descriptions of every minute detail of their life, or rather, there are too many characters that I don't really care much about. It gets boring getting through those passages. Also, much of it strikes me as rather juvenile, like it was written by a teenage boy, such as the numerous graphic descriptions of sex and violence. I don't mind graphic descriptions of sex and violence per se, it's just that they're usually not very well written or conceived. Maybe my opinion has been influenced by the HBO series too. I mean, I enjoy looking at naked pretty girls as much as any other guy, but it gets a bit sad when there's no narrative purpose at all in showing at least a few pair of tits in every episode; when it's obviously just a marketing ploy.

LOTR certainly is a better book-series in my humbe opinion, but HBO wins the adaptation accolade.