Game of Thrones and Hobbit Shows on HBO Tonight, Diverge From Books

Although my current cable television service has on it many, many channels, I don't subscribe to HBO.  Every now and then, however, they offer a short period of time in which HBO is shown for free.  It just so happens that this weekend is one of those times, and I'm taking advantage of it by watching old Game of Thrones reruns, as well as the new season's opener for the series, which will air at 9 PM.  Then, at 10, I plan to watch (on a different HBO channel): The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which is the second part of the movie trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's relatively short book The Hobbit.  These two shows bring to the forefront a major gripe I have with screen adaptations of literary works...

The HBO TV series Game of Thrones is based on George R.R. Martin's ongoing fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, of which he has published five volumes and still has two in the works.  Yet the TV adaptation has taken some major liberties with Martin's story, virtually ignoring some characters (which the author may intend to later play a more significant role) and at times creating brand new story lines.  I was watching one of season #4's reruns earlier this afternoon and it had Bran Stark and his entourage kidnapped and imprisoned by a character that he never encountered in the book.  And Bran's mother...at a point in the series, they began to ignore her while the book continued to show her as a meaningful part of the story.  But Game of Thrones is just one example of this problem (or least it's my problem): the movie adaptation of The Hobbit goes even further in diverging from Tolkien's book, both by invoking an ultra-somber mood and by injecting completely foreign story lines with subplots to which the author would probably strenuously object were he still alive.  Then, to top it all, the makers of The Hobbit movies decided that they could capitalize on the success of the Lord of the Ring movie trilogy by placing some of its characters in it (and who weren't in the book)...supposedly as a draw for those many Ring fans...

Still, in spite of my criticisms, I do enjoy seeing how the works of Martin and Tolkien have been realized on the screen, especially in regard to the special effects and the generally good acting and direction.  But I am glad that I read the books beforehand, at least the ones that have already come out...