the first time i ever did so was lord of the rings. i had heard about the movies coming out in 2001 and read it in 2000. more fan of the book than the movies. do you do something similar?
example is right now i'm reading I, Robot because of the Smith movie. now i know that the Smith movie doesn't have anything to do with the book, except some themes. it's been on my list for some time. just the movie sort of forces you to read the book. that's just me... you?
For me it's not always the book that comes first. Sometimes I've watched the movie and then read the book but usually I'm trying to read the book before the movie.
Yep, I picked up The Illiad (almost finished, whew) because Troy was coming out. And I did read Wings of War/War and Remberance before I saw the miniseries. In that case seeing the miniseries first would have ruined the books for me. Bad casting, why on earth would you cast Robert Mitchum as Pug? I don't get it :rage:
I usually end up seeing the movie first and that leads me to the book. I tried reading The Langoliers but couldn't finish it, then I saw the movie and went back and was able to finish it.
It depends. If the movie is based on a book (even if I know this or not) I've never read, I don't. Then, if I liked the movie, I may try to read the book (e.g. The Name of the Rose, Red Dragon, Fight Club). If a movie based on a book I liked is about to come out, I usually reread that book before seeing the film (the Iliad, Lord of the Rings).
Um...I read "Babe" before I saw the movie. :D It's better, as most books are.
as a rule, i go into a movie, having already read the book. and also as a rule, i am totally dissapointed in the movie, even though i tell myself going in, "dont expect it to be like the book, you'll only be dissapointed".
the only scene from any movie that i remember doing justice to the book, was in the movie 'dreamcatcher' (which was not even that great a movie). i loved the way that they set up the guy's memory as a big dusty library with file boxes everywhere, all labelled and cross filed. i liked how he would rearrange the memories and had a big trolley that he would move the file boxes around on it, putting older ones up higher and adding new ones all the time.
fight club was a pretty trippy adapation =).
In answer to the entitled question: Hell no!
If I am fully aware that the movie is based on a novel, and I can actually find the book before I see the movie, then yes. If not I tend to read the books after the movies if I really liked the movie.
The first I did that with was "Cider House Rules". I had tried to read "Garp" many years before, but decided that life was too short, so I went on to something else. With all the hoopla "Cider" was getting, I decided to give the book a try before seeing the movie. I loved it! I then went on to read "Prayer for Owen Meaney" because I knew it was the favorite of so many people; I love that one, too!
My mom loves John Irving too. She had me read Piggy Sneed when I was like 10. I wasn't such a fan, but then again... I was 10. :p I should try reading him again sometime.
Mostly i got dissapointed after reading the book then seeing the movie version (LOTR is an exception), i often think that the book version is always better than the movie one, but i never really read something in advance just cause the movie version is coming. most of the time my book of choice is determine by my mood
I prefer to watch the movie first in cases in which the book is harder to read such as Dickens or Tolkien. I use the movie as an aid to understanding the book.
For the most part, I believe that people who are book lovers (like myself *smiles*) see movies that are based on books want to read the books. I know that I want to read the books after I see a movie that is based on a book because I want to see how the book and movie differ. Also, I want to see what the director did to make the movie into the book and how his vision is captured by his or her own imagination of how the movie should be made into the book. I watched "The Hours" yesterday. I thought that the movie was astounding, yet if I would've read the book first, I would've "murdered" the movie by comparing it to the book. That's why I believe that it is better to watch films that are based on books first than read the book. Universal truth is that books are better than the movies even though the movie maybe good, the book is always better (in my opinion). Also, I believe that movies introduce books that most people do not know about (I didn't know about "The Hours" until they made a movie about the book).
~Sophia
i did it once
with
The Object Of My Affection
and it was a different story
different ending
i lived the book more