I watched the premiere of Gossip Girl on television the other night (if you missed it, it’s now at the CW’s website), both because I usually try to catch as many series premieres as possible to see what’s worth continuing to watch, and because it’s based on a best-selling series of YA books.

I’ve never read the books; to be honest, they never seemed like they’d be that good to me. However, I did enjoy the television show–it’s a good guilty-pleasure show! I still don’t think I’ll be reading the books, but I will keep watching the TV show, and maybe this will open it up for more YA books to hit the small screen (wishful thinking, probably). I read some people who complained about what they changed from the books, but that wasn’t an issue to me. I liked most of the characters–Serena, very much, although I’m told she’s quite different in the books. One complaint I read was that they put the parents in the TV show, and they weren’t big parts of the books. I actually do think the show would be better without the parents’ stories, but I guess they’re trying to appeal to a wider audience.

Anyone else watch it? Have you read the books? What did you think?