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Thread: Seeing the movie before reading the book

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    The Poetic Warrior Dark Muse's Avatar
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    Seeing the movie before reading the book

    There is one thing I have noticed about myself. It seems that when a movie comes out made after a book, even if it is a book I had wanted to read prior to the movie, if I see the movie first I end up stalling when it comes to reading the book and never quite get around to it.

    This is what happend to me with The Girl With the Peral Earing I first saw this book before I new anything about the movie, and wanted to read it, but at the time I was unable to get it, and than by the time I could aquire a copy of the book, the movie was already coming out.

    I did not want to wait to see the movie, but did not have time to get the book finnished in time, so I ended up seeing the movie first, and sense than the book has just been siting on my shelf, and though I often think to myself that I shoudl read it, and I still want to, whenever it comes time to choosing a new book to read, I pass that one up for something else and always put it off.

    Or, what happend to me with Gangs of New York I did not know about the book untill the movie came out, and I saw the movie and really liked it and that made me want to read the book but than when I got the book again becasue I had seen the movie I end up stalling on reading it and just let it sit there on the shelf.

    Also sometimes I will see a moive like Prefume and after seeing the movie, I will be interested in the book, yet whenever I happen to see the book at the store I debate about getting it and up deciding not to in the end.

    And I know the books are always different than the movies are, and are so much more envolved, but I just have this mental block about reading a book after I have seen the movie.

    So I was just currious how does seeing a movie prior to reading the book affect your reading habbits?

    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

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    deus ex machina Shalot's Avatar
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    With certain books, it helps me to have seen the movie beforehand. I am thinking of high school, when there were certain classics I had to read for a test. There were often movie versions of those stories, and if I watched the movies, it helped me get through the book I didn't want to read. I know, that's terrible, but it often worked out that way. I would read the book, and have the faces of those actors in mind, and then the differences between the movie version and the book version always stood out. And those movies helped me pass the test.

    But, if you read a book, and love it, and then watch the movie, the movie is always disappointing and the actors never measure up the to the image of the character you imagined in your head.

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    The Poetic Warrior Dark Muse's Avatar
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    Yes that is very true, I remember, I saw the movie Interview with a Vampire a couple years before I started reading Anne Rice and when I began to read the books, I was amazed by how different they were and how better the book was compared to the moive, and than when Queen of the Damaned came out, I had read the book before the movie, and I just could not beleive by how much the movie got it messed up.

    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

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    Registered User Joreads's Avatar
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    I always try to read the book before I see the movie before I see the film because if the film lets me down I won't read the book but if I love the movie I read the book. I am a member of a book club and we went as a group to see The Jane Austen Book Club - I really wanted to read the book but simply ran out of time. I loved the movie so much I rushed out and got the book and read it.

    I don't mind a movie being different from a book i realise that you can not put in a movie what you can in a book.

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    The Poetic Warrior Dark Muse's Avatar
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    I have the book the Jane Austen Book club, and now the DVD is coming out soon for it, but now its like I don't want to see it untill I read the book or I am afraid I won't get around to reading the book if I see the movie first.

    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

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    Registered User Joreads's Avatar
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    You really have to do both they are both fab in there own way. If you think that you won't read the book if you see the movie read the book first you will not be sorry. I loved the movie to I will be getting it on DVD when it is out here.

    I have also been inspired to read all of my Jane Austen books again

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    Ooh la la la
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    Last edited by Quinn_; 07-28-2008 at 04:38 AM.

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    The Poetic Warrior Dark Muse's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joreads View Post
    You really have to do both they are both fab in there own way. If you think that you won't read the book if you see the movie read the book first you will not be sorry. I loved the movie to I will be getting it on DVD when it is out here.

    I have also been inspired to read all of my Jane Austen books again
    Hehe yes I do want to see the movie, but I plan to wait untill after I have read the book before I do so.

    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

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    Two plus two is CHICKEN!! Weisinheimer's Avatar
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    If there's a movie out of book I want to read, I will purposely not watch the movie till I've read the book. I find that seeing the movie beforehand ruins the book for me.
    Calvin: You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.

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    Wandering Child Annamariah's Avatar
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    If I see a movie that is based on a book, it is very probable that I'll read the book too, unless the movie was very bad.

    And if I have read a book and liked it at all, I'll probably go and see the movie, too
    Little Lotte thought of everything and nothing. Her hair was golden as the sun's rays and her soul as clear and blue as her eyes.
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    Searching for..... amalia1985's Avatar
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    I agree with Annamariah. It works as a combination for me. I must admit, though, that usually, I am disappointed by the way books are treated when they decide to transfer them to the big screen.
    None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free.
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    Voice of Chaos & Anarchy
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    Some books are better to watch than to read, but there aren't many of those. The biggest problem that I have with movies is that a one and a half to two hour movie means a novel that was 20,000 to 30,000 words, and most books are longer than that, so something was dropped. The only movie and novel that I can think of that were equivalent was "The Maltese Falcon", which is a short novel.

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    Registered User Aiculík's Avatar
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    When I see a movie that really impress me (which happens very rarely), I usually read the book as well. And very often I found the book even better.

    I discovered few of my favourite books and writers this way, e.g. Marquez, Moravia or Tolkien (I mean Bakshi's animated adaptatio, not Jackson's movies).

    If I do eat other way, first read the book and then watch the movie, I'm usually very disappointed. Probably greatest failure for me was Clockwork Orange, which was much more absurd and sex-oriented than the book and Name of the Rose, which was simply bad.

  14. #14
    PeterL, I guess you're right. As for successful transpositions of literary works to films, two more occur to me: Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility and The Crucible (you can tell that Arthur Miller himself wrote the screenplay).

    I never see the movie if I intend to read the novel, and usually try to see the movie once I've read the novel.

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    Voice of Chaos & Anarchy
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    Quote Originally Posted by kandaurov View Post
    PeterL, I guess you're right. As for successful transpositions of literary works to films, two more occur to me: Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility and The Crucible (you can tell that Arthur Miller himself wrote the screenplay).
    I forgot about movies written by the author of the book. There are a fair number of that sort. The Thin Man comes to mind. Hammett wrote the screenplays for the later Thin Man series, but they were not written as novels. Faulkner wrote quite a few screenplays, but I don't know if he did any for his own fiction.

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