Books vs. Movies

More and more books are being made into movies. It seems to me that most movies coming out lately are adaptations of books. To name a few would be, The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, If I Stay, The Maze Runnner trilogy, The Hunger Games trilogy, the Divergent trilogy, Harry Potter, Beautiful Creatures, The Danish Girl, and almost all of Nicholas Sparks' books. Having a favorite book or series go from the page to the big screen is something that a bookworm will eventually face. My feelings are a little mixed.

On one hand, I get super excited about it. I start thinking about what it would look like, and the actors who will play the characters. Sometimes, when I get bored, I'll find myself on YouTube. I would search for some fan made videos of casting for book adaptations and fan made movie trailers. It's fun to see what others have thought up after reading the same words that I did and seeing how they visualized what the characters would look like too.

Then there's the other hand. After the initial excitement passes, I get this feeling of my stomach being in knots. I get these knots because I worry that the director, producer, basically the whole cast won't do the book justice. Everyone knows that when a book becomes a movie parts get and sometimes parts get added to help the movie flow better. It's a game of chance on what will get cut or if something will get added. So when I hear about a book I like being made into a movie, I'm a little hesitant about the final product.

A good example of this was when The Hunger Games trilogy jumped to the big screen. I was particularly wary of this one. In the first book which is titled, The Hunger Games most of the book takes place in Katniss' head, especially when you get to the arena for the Games. I wasn't sure how they were going to move a book where not a ton of action takes place until much later. When I did see the movie when it come out, I was super stoked about it. I loved how they added transitions form Katniss in the Arena to seeing the Gamemaker in action. I really liked how they did it and I kind of liked the movies better. Don't get me wrong the book was still really good but at times it dragged on because you only saw and experienced what Katniss did. For the most part with this series, I actually liked the movies more than the books, which is very different for me.

The Debate

E-readers are a big part of books and reading these days. There's the Nook, the Kindle, iPads, iPad minis, and basically any type of tablet. I mean, hell you can even get books on your phone if you have the app now. There are two sides to every debate. The two sides in this are fairly clear, but there is a grey area, as with most things. The people who love e-readers and those who think that they are a waste of time.

Some of the cons of e-readers to me are as follows. One is that I love having the feel of a book in my hand. I like the weight of it, which probably sounds a little weird, but what can you do? With an e-reader, I don't get that feel of the book. Another is, I like to be able to see my progress through a book, of seeing how far I've gotten, and the feel of turning the pages. I also, as weird as it is, I like to smell the pages of my books. It's a guilty pleasure and its something that I've always done. I don't really know why and believe me I've gotten my fair share of strange looks from people, even my fellow bookworms. One big problem I have with e-readers is that, I feel like with e-readers growing in popularity, what's going to become of the libraries and the bookstores? Now, I will admit that the likeliness of e-readers running a huge book distributor, like Barnes and Noble out of business is pretty slim, especially since they sell their own version of one. My fear is also for the smaller, less known bookstores and town libraries. That being said, its still a fear, perhaps an irrational one, but I digress.

Don't get me wrong, there are some pros to e-readers as well. One being that with e-books, authors can now make novellas much easier. Rather than having to go through the process of getting it in print, they can just type it out and release. Of course, its also frustrating when an author that I really like has a novella come out, and its only available as a e-book, especially with a series that I really, really liked. Another is the size, with an e-reader its possible to carry around several books, rather than one, or if you are really dedicated sometimes two or more. It also makes it easier to carry around the really big books, for example the novel Under the Dome by Stephen King is 1074 pages! That's quite the book to haul around everywhere. E-readers also make school easier and cheaper too. Instead of having to buy, sometimes the option is available to get it as an e-book, which is in most cases cheaper than buying or renting.

I used to think that e-readers were something to scoff at and that it wasn't really reading a book. That it was cheating in a way. I couldn't wrap my head around why people would chose e-readers over actual, physical books. It seemed that it was black and white, with no middle ground. Now, I see the grey area that surrounds e-readers. While I prefer physical books to e-books, I still see and understand the appeal pf e-readers. I believe now that e-readers aren't ruining books, more that they are simply a new part of the ever growing world of books. A quote I found when scrolling through Pinterest one day sums up my point perfectly.

More Than One

What is your favorite book?

This is a question that will inevitably come up for any reader. It could be by family, friends, an English class, or the random person that happens to see you reading. It always seemed to me that there are far too many books out in the world to just have a favorite. The word favorite has always felt to me like such a loaded word, as though there is no middle ground. That it has to be black and white. However, there are grey areas in everything, even in the matter of books.

Rather than list a bunch of books, that I would deem my "favorite", I'm going to talk about the memorable books. The kinds of books that stay with me long after the last page. The books that when I see them in the bookstore or the library, I smile and flip to my favorite parts just to relive the story. The books that I greet like an old friend.

One book that falls under this would be, Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. This book is the story of Alex and Brittney. Brittney is the beautiful, blond, wealthy popular diva. While Alex is the hard as nails Hispanic gang member from the wrong side of the tracks. To say the least, these two are living in opposite worlds. But in their chemistry class, as fate would have it, they end up as lab partners. I don't want to give away too many spoilers, but this a story about finding love and understanding in the last person you thought you would.

Another book would be, Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. This is a retelling of the classic story, Beauty and the Beast. Now, this book is very different from the Disney version. It follows a girl named Nyx, and she is betrothed to a monster. The monster being the evil ruler of her kingdom. Nyx is charged with the task of killing her new husband to free her people from his tyranny. As much as she knows that it's her duty to carry out this task, Nyx desperately wishes she could flee and never look back. When the dreaded wedding day arrives, which happens to be her seventh birthday, it's all Nyx can do to bring herself to the alter where the ceremony takes place. After the ceremony, Nyx is whisked away to the castle of the monster himself, she soon finds that nothing is like she thought. This story had all the best parts of the classic while still being its own book, and not the same story told over again. It's about learning to accept all of yourself, even the darkness that resides in us all.

I started out this post with a question. I've had the question asked of me many times, and usually my answer is that I don't have  favorite, I have tons. Now thinking about the question more, I think my favorite book is one that leaves me feeling as though I've just had an adventure. One that I can dive into and be as though I'm in the story. One that leaves me bittersweet that it ended but it was so good while it lasted.

Books and Me

I chose books because it’s something that I’m passionate about. Really, I’m a huge nerd about books. I’ve been a big reader for as long as I can remember. I remember getting so excited in school about the classroom trips to the library.  The library was this whole different world, where you could have so many adventures. I remember throughout elementary school doing the AR or accelerated reading tests on the computer to get as many points as I could. In second grade, I was one of the top readers in my class. I even got a t-shirt with top reader on it, which to a second grader was one of the coolest things ever. 

Books are wonderful pieces of art. Some may think that a book isn't art because there aren’t pictures. On the contrary, the words are the pictures. The words paint the picture in your mind. It activates your imagination, and soon you are inside the story or so it seems. I believe one of the best parts about books is that the characters and their life become so real. That you can become so attached to characters that you feel as they do. Happiness, heartache, depression and on it goes. These words on a page can make me feel so much that by the end of the book, I can sometimes feel as though I lost a friend or something great just ended. An example of this is when I read ​The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. If you haven’t read or watched, The Fault in Our Stars ​ then you should stop now if you don’t want spoilers.  

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! 

Anyway, when I found out that Augustus’ cancer came back, my immediate thought was no!!! Up until that point I was thinking that Hazel was going to die or that John Green was going to pull what happened in ​ An Imperial Affliction ​ by Peter Van Houten, which is the book-within-a-book of TFiOS. What happened is that Anna, the main character of ​ An Imperial Affliction, ​ dies from cancer or is too sick to continue in the middle of a sentence. On a side note, how completely evil would that be for a book to end in the middle of a sentence?!?! I, for one, completely understood the utter outrage that Augustus had when he finished the book. Back the point, I still didn’t think that Augustus was going to die. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had the fantasy that he would somehow get better, then Hazel would get better and then would all live happily ever after. Needless to say, that’s not what happened. When Augustus did eventually pass, I was a total wreck.  

Me reading TFiOS (mind you this was at 3am too!):  

 

This is just one example of how books can make you feel so much with just words. That is one of my greatest loves about books. That by the end, whether good, bad, or feeling like your heart has just been ripped out, you feel something. I believe that is one of the best parts about books.