We are living in the world that is so much different from what used to be even twenty or thirty, let alone a hundred years ago. On average, work is less demanding and we work less hours, so there is a lot more leisure time than it used to be. But the time is one resource that seems to be sparse in todays living. So many things to do, so many new things to try out. Not once I heard people say, “it would take too long to read the Book, I’ll wait for the movie”.

Don’t get me wrong, I love movies, maybe even more than others, and it is like a new layer or layers of art wrapped around the good Story. Directors, actors, crews all of them gave some personal touch to the final work of art, and it’s fine by me.

But let me explain why I think that books are the way better.  It’s not simply the case of the movie being book chewed up, it’s about what was omitted and what was added to. Written or spoken language is not a precise tool, and no matter how you try, a story that you wrote could be seen differently by the readers, regarding their age, life experience, background, sex or just a taste in reading. Some may like it, some may not, but that is not important here. Each of them would have his own vision of the characters, places and plot. A story is a base upon which reader imagination builds up a vision of his own.

Somewhere I had read that the man should read each book three times in his life; once when he is younger than protagonist, once when he is of his age, and once when he is older. The point is that every time the reader would experience the book differently. And I found it as the greatest value of the written word. If you needed a precise, down to the fact story, I guess mathematical terms would do the job. There would be no deviations of any kind. But there is a beauty in the difference, there is a treasure in multitude.

What the movie does? Aside from saving a time, it narrows the field of imagination. Motion pictures are much more suggestive than books. Director gives you his interpretation of the story. Casting do a great job in getting you biased to the characters in advance. Famous actors bring a burden of his previous roles to add to the way you see things.  Costumes, makeup, masks, set design, computer enhancements, all add layers that are obscuring the pure image reader would create in his mind when reading books.

Don’t know about the others, but when I read a book, I kind of bond with the characters. They are like some old acquaintances with their story unraveling parallel to mine. And what I do when I return to the book after a couple of hours, is catching up with them. It is rarely that I experience anything close to that while watching the movie. The movie is much shorter, intense and overtaking, but as soon as it is over I move on.

It is much like a difference between going to see some foreign place, and watching pictures of it while someone else talk about being there. He might have made better pictures, seen all that there is to be seen, and saved you time and money. You on the other hand might threaded different paths, see small and unimportant things, but saw the city with your own eyes, and that is priceless.

If you can, you read the book, it would enrich you much more. Then go and see the movie too.

Two mice nibble movie tape in the storeroom. 

“How’d you like it?”

“Don’t know, I liked the book better.”