With being a full-time student, working 20 hours a week, and holding a position in my sorority, it’s certainly become more difficult to find time to read “for fun” outside of required readings for my courses. However, I still find myself reading novels before I view a television show or movie, due to my nostalgic nature and never-changing belief that the book is truly ALWAYS better than the movie. For me, while it’s nice to see a story portrayed on the big screen, reading written word will always feel more authentic to me.
When reading a novel, as opposed to viewing the movie, I feel that I’m able to interpret and envision the characters in a way that makes the most sense to me. I can put my own faces to names and actions and in a sense create my own movie inside my head while I’m reading it. The book allows me to visualize in a different way than just viewing a film, allowing me to see miniscual details that I might have otherwise overlooked.
When discussing this topic in class, I wasn’t surprised to learn that my fellow WRD students feel the same way. When being polled, I was super happy to hear that people my age are actually still choosing to read books outside of the required school reading. However, it leads me to wonder, if the poll had been conducted in say, a math or science classroom, would the answer remain the same? Either way, I know that I, personally, will not stop reading books anytime soon.
I agree, I think there’s something so unique about reading a book and developing your own “film” in your mind to go along with it. I think that may be why people who read books before they are translated onto the big screen always say “yeah, the movie was okay but the book was so much better”. I think the visualization aspect that you mention must be why we feel such a deep personal connection with books. Lately, I have been too busy with work and school to sit down and read a good book, but this post reminded me of that unique experience of creating movie in my mind to go along with the book and developing a character that I personally feel fits best with the book as I read. Nonetheless, I am excited to sit down, relax, and read a good horror novel this spring break!