“Harry Potter,” “Divergent,” “Hunger Games,” “Percy Jackson” and “The Lord of the Rings” are all books that have been made into movies.
Books will always be better than movies. Movies have a tendency to leave out parts of the books that are key parts to the characters’ development.
In the “Harry Potter” books, Hermione turned Rita Skeeter into her animagus beetle form and trapped her in a jar for a full year for spying on others and spreading lies. She then carried around the jar and shook it around to jostle Skeeter around.
This is something that people would know about Hermione and her craziness if they read the books.
There are endless book series out there that could be movie-worthy but will never be made into movies, whether that be because they are too detailed and long to do it justice, or the popularity level is just not high enough.
The details in books are completely on another level compared to the details in movies. In stories, we get to dive deep and get to really see these characters and their thoughts, emotions, memories and so much more.
In movies, it is really hard to get those details across because we have to see those things through their facial expressions and their body language. Books allow people to actually read those things and feel it as if they were in the story.
Growing up, my mom had made a rule for me pertaining to books that were made into movies. It was that I had to read the books before I could watch any of the movies. So as I grew up, if I wanted to watch a movie, whether that be something as popular as “Harry Potter” or less popular like “The BFG,” I was powering through the books in order to experience the live version.
Don’t get me wrong, the movies were great, but watching them right after I had finished reading the original stories, I was nearly always coming out of it a little disappointed that certain parts of the books didn’t make it into the movies. Quite a few of those missing parts were some of my favorite moments to read.
I will always be grateful to my mom for making me read those books as a kid. One day when I get to be a parent, I will be setting that rule into place with my own children, so they can thank their grandma for that rule.
I am a pretty avid reader. I try to read at least one to two books a week. That being said, I’ve read a lot of books, and I’ve gotten the chance to meet a lot of different characters written by many different authors. When I see those characters I love put onto a screen, I am only seeing the surface level of them rather than all of the inner workings of their brains and personalities.
I have always had a pretty wide imagination. Reading allows me a way to sort through my imagination and pinpoint it onto the things read, kind of guiding it in a way. Being able to escape into a world in my head is one of my favorite things to do. It is a quiet way for me to relax and not have noise blasting from headphones or a TV. For me, it is a way to escape reality.
Having my imagination be so strong and the images in my head being so vivid makes me very opinionated on what I think casting should look like if a movie or show does get made from the book.
BookTok also has people just like me. This community has made the production of books into movies a lot more difficult.
Recently the film adaptation of “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover had such bad backlash toward the casting as well as the wardrobe that the adaptation was put on pause indefinitely. I do not support the lashing that BookTok gives to casting, but I do have my opinions on who would be a good fit or not. However, bullying is never the right way to go about it.
Movies are great, especially for those who are not readers. They give people the chance to unwind and relax at the end of a hard day or week, but books will be better in the long run.
For those readers who are out there, never stop reading. Keep finding those stories and share them with the world. We need to spread our love of these stories that are still enclosed in the pages of books.
