A patron came into the library looking for the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed. We had the movie, I told her. The book was checked out. She said, “No, I’ll wait. I always read the book before watching the movie.”
I agree with her way of thinking. After reading Heaven is For Real some time back, I went to Marysville’s Astro Theater to watch it along with my daughter and mother-in-law, who had also read the book. We all agreed, “Heaven was not portrayed the way we had it pictured.” We discussed that the movie seemed so….. Alice in Wonderland or any other G rated scenic children’s movie as it depicted heaven. In our minds, heaven was peaceful, beautiful, clear, warm, soothing. The film makers failed to get our mental picture of heaven onto the screen. Another one was the book Marley and Me. The movie was clearly not as good as the book as they left out many of the emotional parts that made the book raw and honest….tear jerking.
You wouldn’t think that the book would be better, after all, the movie is played out right there for your enjoyment. Nothing to think about. Nothing to imagine. You don’t have to decipher the vocabulary. There is so much work to reading!
Another negative to book reading is that it is so hard to read and eat popcorn. There are no worries about buttering up the pages when watching a flick.
Speaking of butter, couldn’t reading be considered a weight loss program? With reading, your hands are filled with page turning instead of endless refills of sodas, overly buttered popcorn, Milk Duds, Whoppers, or in some theaters, nachos or hot dogs. (Although, Marysville’s Astro 3 Theater has wonderful free documentary or non-fictional movies on Tuesdays that are highly recommended. Many of these films have books from which the story is derived.) This month playing at the Astro, is the Oscar nominated movie, Lion, from the non-fictional book, A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley.
The library’s challenge to you is to pick any book that has a movie attached and see for yourself if “the book is better.”
A man named J. W. Eagan was quoted, “Never judge a book by its movie.”
Happy Talking Picture Reading!