[Does GRRM prefer his readers to get very involved in the story or should they just read them as great stories and not think too much about them?]
I think every writer appreciates attentive reading of his work. We labor over these books for years, after all. Then they come out, and the readers gulp them down in days or even hours. Which is very gratifying, in one sense, but can also be frustrating, if we feel that they are missing all the grace notes and little subtleties and clever allusions and ironies and turns of phrase that we sweated blood over for so long. I try to write books that will stand up to rereading, so that every time you go through you will find more to appreciate... and therefore I'm thrilled when readers tell me that they do reread the books.