User blog comment:Bassmasterkjb/Book expert help please?/@comment-5014364-20120727145007

You absolutely have to read book 1 before reading book 2, because subplots in the second book might not make sense without the first. Its a long book, but you have unti March 2013 for Season 3.

Season 2 generally corresponds to book 2. The only minor difference of particular note is that Jaime Lannister spends the entire book imprisoned, so to give him something to do this season, they moved up some of his story from book 3 - the part where he's released and Brienne is escorting him back to King's Landing, that's from book 3. So they sort of gave us a "preiew" of that storyarc by putting some of it in season 2 of the TV series. This should not affect your reading of book 2.