Books or Movies?

There has always been a long-standing debate of books verses movies. For instance, you go to a movie with a friend, and they ended up loving the movie. Whereas you are a bookworm and seeing all the ways it fell short of the book, hated it. Or maybe you're the friend who's a constructive critic, who spends half the movie telling your friend the correct version of the story using the book. (I admit, I have been this person once or twice.)

I personally love books. I also love films. So where do I fall on this scale? It depends.

See, we had a rule growing up where we couldn't watch a movie adaptation until we had read the book. It was a clever initiative to get us to want to read, and also, we could do the whole compare-and-contrast once both tasks were completed. It made things rather fun, for me at least. I also personally like getting to use my imagination while I'm reading. And once you watch a movie oftentimes what you picture in your head is the movie, regardless of character description, world building, or whatnot. I like my own imagination, usually more than a director's depiction of a book.

Now don't get me wrong. There are plenty of movie adaptations of books that I both love and adore and recommend to people. However, I do think one of the sole purposes of reading aside from learning is just pure enjoyment. And what is more enjoyable than painting a picture in your head from an author's descriptions and point of view? Doesn't that just grow more appreciation for the author's efforts? After all, books were around long before movies were a thing, so description and world building were half the work of creating a story. And the imagination made it fun initially.

I also think staying true to the story can honestly sometimes be more important to anything else in creating a movie. For instance, if there's a historical biography coming out in theaters, I would hope it's true for historical accuracy and biographical reasons. Also, for the reputation of the author's sake. Most people will believe anything that's put-on film. As such, accuracy needs to be top priority if the focus is on portraying a true event or story.

There's also the aesthetic. Some people would rather sit in a dark room with a big screen with the story told to them, while eating some buttery popcorn with a soda pop. Most bookworms wouldn't be caught dead with anything buttery or remotely messy next to their precious books. There's also the fact that most bookworms love peace and quiet as they absorb a book themselves (hence the library is a thing).

I personally love a blend of both. I love watching films that are detailed, solid, with a good script and acting to display a good story. Or send a good message. But I also love to read a good book curled up on the couch with a cup of tea. (No popcorn).

There are some books and movies that are on equal standing, though usually I find the books to be better. And then there are rare occasions where a film will take a different direction and stray from the book, and it is actually an improvement. But that is a list for another blog post.