This is not a review!

Watch the film read the book(s) – wrong order right? Well maybe not.

I have been convinced I am a book reader first and foremost, and a film lover second. However more and more I am realising that the books I am reading are prompted by either watching an adaptation on TV or in the cinema, or learning of their impending release.

A couple of examples are the teen sensations Twilight and The Hunger Games, the first I saw on screen then read the books and the latter I read because I was so intrigued by all the fuss that was being created about the film release.

Now you may argue that teenage novels are really not the best example, because after all I was 21 and 24 respectively when I read the above, so the likelihood of finding these reading materials on my own was slim to none. And okay so the Twilight saga are not the best written books in the world but they were compelling, The Hunger Games trilogy however are incredibly well written whilst also being addictive.

A better example is probably JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was 14years old and only just coming to terms with my geekiness when The Fellowship of the Ring was released, I had had The Hobbit read to me about five years previously as part of ‘story time’ in school but never picked up the book myself. Of course I then saw the film and bought the books and have not looked back.

I was OBSESSED with Lord of the Rings; it gave me my window to be who I am, slightly geeky and obsessive. I no longer cared about revealing that side because suddenly I had the internet to back me up. But of course the only way I could join these forums and find out all the details about the books and films was because I had had my interest piqued by the movie.

Is it because I had not been exposed to the literature by those with the power to do so, my teachers, peers or parents? Or because of the age I have grown up in where everyone has access to television and the cinema for relatively little cost (compared to fifty years ago) so it is more natural to watch rather than read? I think it’s a little of both in truth. I love television, in fact I probably love it a little too much but that’s my issue. I also love going to the movies (as this blog proves!), but I adore reading. Getting caught up in a book is one of my favourite past times: you can do this on a train, on the beach, in your room, even on the toilet if the mood takes you. Now I know you can in theory watch TV or movies in each of these places using a mobile device, but it just doesn’t seem right to be on the beach watching a film, it’s too self-involved.

It has been a very long time since I discovered a book on my own, in fact I may have been a child because that was the last time I regularly used a library for purposes other than studying. I have a few books that I definitely prefer to the film version (Time Travellers Wife and The Lovely Bones), but these were recommended by my friends. I discovered Neil Gaiman after watching Stardust, and though the book is hardly anything like the film I love them both, and now have read four of his other novels. Chocolat is also entirely different to the film but the reason I read it was because of Johnny Depp.

Really what I am trying to say is a big thank you to the film industry. Without it I would not have read half the books on my shelf, which would have been detrimental to my own character. Books fuel imaginations, they often pick me up when I am feeling low, and they offer up people I can relate to and not feel quite so alone. It is reassuring to find my sense of humour in a Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett novel, but then it is equally reassuring to find it in Little Miss Sunshine.

Adaptations can often vex, rarely surprise, and sometimes delight us. I have two books I am wanting to read, one is Winters Bone because I want to see what made Jennifer Lawrence so desperate to be part of the movie, the other is book recommended by a friend. Perhaps my mission now is to find a book on my own without the film industry or friends, but that would require my local library being adequately stocked, which is another issue entirely.

Thank-you for bearing with me in this departure from my usual reviews, I promise it won’t happen too often! Also if anyone has any book recommendations (or film for that matter) please comment below!