GUEST POST: “Books Over Movies” by Aimee Brown

Reading is subjective. You always hear that. It’s the reason why some readers love a book, and some don’t. There was a time back when I first started reading that I didn’t get that phrase. A book is a book, everyone is reading the same words. Right?

Wrong.

Sure, we’re all reading the words in the same order as everyone else but what we’re seeing as we read it is so much different than everyone else. How we’re interpreting the words and sentences is not even close to how anyone else has done the same thing. We use our own backgrounds and personalities, our life experiences or lack thereof, to create a world that is unique to only us.

It’s kind of the same with movies. Movies make me feel, just like books, only not always in their words, but in the vision someone else had. If I relate to the filmmaker and their vision of the story they’re telling, I fall in love with whatever is on the screen. That doesn’t always happen, especially with books to film.

With reading, every single person creates their own ‘vision’ of what a story is. That’s why when books are made into movies, they don’t always settle for everyone who loved the book. Every single person’s vision is different. Maybe you’ll get lucky and share that with the filmmaker or even the author. Maybe your vision is 1000x better than theirs or maybe yours makes sense for you and no one else. That’s so amazing to me. How we can each read the same words and create this world in our head that is unlike anyone else’s even though we’ve read the same words.

I’ll always choose a book over a movie. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy movies, or that I won’t run out and watch a book to film adaption. Take my money. But, I’ve often been hesitant on watching a movie based on a book I loved because there is always the chance that it won’t meet my own vision and let me down in a way that feels like a friend walking away. Maybe I’m overly sensitive but I love these characters as I’ve created them in my own head.

They also say a reader lives a thousand lives and I find that to be true (for writers as well, these characters become a piece of who we are). With books you can create these memories and experiences that otherwise you’d never have had the chance to experience. The feelings that can come with getting to know a cast of characters you’ve never met before can be overwhelming enough to leave you with a book hangover for days, weeks, even months.  Somehow, they stick with you so much longer than a film does. If you fall in love hard enough it can ruin moving on to another book until you can finally let them go. But, you can always go back. You can always jump back into their world, the one where no one else is allowed, the one only you have created with the same words thousands of others have read. You can relive your experience with them anytime you want by just opening the cover of their story. This time, it might be a little different, maybe even better, and that’s a chance I will always take over buying a movie ticket for a chance that someone else’s vision meets my own. If only there were more reading hours in the day.

*****

“The Lucky Dress” by Aimee Brown

Blurb: We all have our lucky dress… an irresistibly hilarious rom-com: perfect for fans of Anna Bell, Jo Watson and Sophie Kinsella.