This week’s Booking through Thursday asks:
Even though it’s usually a mistake (grin) … do movies made out of books make you want to read the original?
There are three situations where I have found that a movie inspires book reading:
- The movie is coming out of a book I’ve been meaning to read but hadn’t yet gotten around to or that I know is based on a book that I’ll probably like. Usually I’ll hold off on seeing the movie until after I’ve read the book, which sometimes means it’s ages before I see the film. Running with Scissors was such a combination.
- The movie was particularly good — and I’ve heard good things about the book. My recent foray into The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one such example. I’d also like to read Coraline, the movie of which I really enjoyed.
- And the final category are movies based on books that I didn’t realize were books until I looked them up to do more research. The best (and possibly only) example I have is Helene Hanff’s 64, Charring Cross Road, a delightful epistolary story chronicling the author’s decades-long correspondence with a London bookseller.
How about you? Do movies ever inspire you to pick up a book — and are you usually glad you did?
I agree with you, I usually hold off seeing the movie until I’ve read the book.
Comment by Ann 09.02.10 @ 7:20 amFor period dramas, I do read the books afterwards.
Here is my BTT: Film to Books post!
Comment by gautami tripathy 09.02.10 @ 7:40 amThe release of the Lord of the Rings movies was the kick I needed to manage to get through the books. So many people loved them – and I thought there must be something wrong with me to find them such a chore to read. Having the imagery of the first movie helped to get through the second book.
I’ve discovered that when I watch a movie or tv-show based on a book, every little thing they alter for no reason irritates me. Watching “Legend of the Seeker” with me must have been annoying for all the times I had to interrupt with, “That’s not what happened in the book, you see…”
The Dresden Files and True Blood are two tv series that turned me on to the books they were based on. Dresden was horrible, but there was a hint that it probably came from something better, which turned out to be the case. True Blood is great, but friends who read the books first are jarred by all the changes, whereas I am reading the books after each season and am pleasantly surprised to discover all the things they kept and less annoyed with the changes.
Comment by Grey Kitten 09.07.10 @ 1:34 pm