After seeing the first 2 episodes of the 2nd season, I think I pinpointed my problem with ADWD. In all the other books there is a large amount of travel and passage of time between chapters. Often this is hard to tell just casually reading, and the responses in the TV series threads demonstrate this for the show as well. I think with ADWD instead of skipping all the traveling, GRRM wrote about it in full detail, and he did this because he did not know where he was going any more than the characters and he had to get the book out. I really hope he returns to form of the previous books.

So, like many the show has me hooked in but I'm not much of a reader

Spoiler wanted:

Has it been told who was the mother of John Snow? Just want to know what other family he is part of. Wife guesses Targaryen. I'm guessing a family that hasn't been shown yet.

No, but the fan theory is that