Is Reading the Book Better than Watching the Movie Based on it?
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This is like the ‘Chicken and Egg’ question; nobody has the right answer to it. But if you are expecting that this article will help you to get rid of your guilt of not reading at all, then, you are sadly mistaken. Everyone should read and there is no excuse for not reading. However, I would like to talk about the major competitor of books, movies, and will try to determine which one would most likely be more rewarding: watching movies or reading books.
Films can be a very satisfying, convenient and time-saving source of entertainment. Even when they are based on some book, they have the capability of delivering the same plotline and setting described in 500 pages of the book, in just 2 hours. It goes well with the modern habit of gaining access to everything in a jiffy. That is why it is preferred by many people over the book. It can prove to be a very therapeutic experience because it is easy to do. On the other hand, the book needs much more time and dedication to unfold. This is the reason why films are sometimes even used to treat the first stage of depression. Moreover, watching any film together with your friends and family can be a very nice bonding experience. Watching movies on a date is preferred by most people, whereas books in this area are considered to be a little on the dryer side.
Still, when it comes to debating whether reading the book is better than watching the movie, the answers would mostly be inclined towards the book. Why is that?
Books trigger the imaginative and creative aspect of our minds. It lets us imagine the whole story and its characters much better than any movie. The book becomes an experience which is purely our own, relating to our own feelings in a way that no other source can; whereas, in a movie, we look at the whole story through the second-hand perspective of the director. The way a writer expresses the emotions of a character or a situation cannot be justified through any movie. The movie only glides through the basic plotline and basic emotions, but it can never really be as deep as the book. The description of anything through words is much more independent and ripe than the description of the same thing through a screen, because, a film has to take care of the time, the scope of entertainment and even the actor/actresses who’d be performing the role. The movie depends on so many different things that it can rarely do justice to the little nuances of the book which serve as the most important part of understanding the whole meaning. Reading a book has the slow gratifying quality that is almost lost in today’s world. It triggers our senses in such a way that we get to understand ourselves much better.
So, both have their own advantages and disadvantages, therefore, to satisfy this debate, most people would agree that one can choose whatever is agreeable to him/her. However, I would like to suggest something else. It can be quite a pleasurable experience to watch a movie based on a book that you have already read; it feels like a part of yourself that imagined the story, characters and emotions of the book has been given the gift of corporeality. That experience is sublime (assuming that the movie is a good adaptation). So, why not do both? This will inculcate a very good habit of reading in us and then, we can experience the squared enjoyment of watching the film based on the books read by us. So, go grab a book, play with your imagination and then watch the film based on it, to feed your imagination with reality.
Happy reading and Happy watching!
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