Novel versus Film

”I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book.” – Groucho Marx. “Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics & music” – Frank Capra. There are a lot of different meanings about books and films. Personally I would rather watch a film than to read a book. But if I read a good book I rather spend the time on it that it takes to finish it than to watch it end in less than two hours.

“This is your life, it’s ending one minute at a time” – Fight Club. These days our time is limited. We have so many things to accomplish. But no matter how much we have to do, we have to give our selves some free time too. To read a book from start to finish takes a lot of time. To watch a film from start to finish takes about two hours more or less. So by looking at it in this way films are more adapt to our modern society than books. And films are better for us with limited imagination because we are able to see exactly what everything looks like.

“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket” – Chinese Proverb. We buy sandwiches, pastries and fast food because we do not have time to cook a proper meal. So when will we find time to read? We got to take the opportunities we can. When you are on the bus it is not hard to take out your book and start to read, compared to bringing a portable DVD and hoping that you remembered to charge it. And reading a book is a great way to improve your imagination. You cannot just see words when you read, you have to be a part of the book to understand it.

“To love means to realize there is a time to let the beloved one go” – Tony parsons. I first read the book “Man & Boy” and then I watched the film. If I had to choose between reading the book and watching the film, I would rather have watched the film. I do not like when certain things take a lot of time to complete, especially not when there is a more efficient way of doing it. But something that really annoyed me with the film was that they had changed numerous things from the book. For example; the woman Harry committed adultery with was subscribed as an Irish pale woman with red hair, but in the film she had a dark skin tone and black hair. When you are doing a film about a book you should not change things, just summarize it.

“Never judge a book by its movie” – J.W. Eagan. If you compare a book with a film or vice versa you should expect to be disappointed. I have read one book that I really li...