Read First

Usually that's my motto. If a movie was based on a book I want to read the book first for two reasons, first, movies by nature are a whole lot shorter and most of the story has to be cut out to conform to the time limitations, second I get more enjoyment out of a movie because I feel like I have some first hand information that anyone who hadn't read the book might not know. Sometimes it even helps to understand the plot a little better. Things that might seem shady, or even seem like stupid actions because there wasn't time to explain why they happened in an hour and a half might make perfect sense if you'd read the book.

One of the big things that drove that idea home for me was the fact that I had grown up loving the tv series 'Little House On The Prairie', but even though I'd loved reading from a very young age, I'd never read the Little House series. I grew up cherishing the stories and characters that comprised that series, but when I finally had the opprotunity to sit down and read the books it took a lot of enjoyment of the series away because things were so different. If I'd read it in reverse I could have accepted the libralities taken (is that a word?) but in reverse I was so shocked that I felt somewhat cheated.

There is a flip side reason to support the read first theory, although it might backfire into a don't even bother with the movie. I saw the movie 'The DiVinci Code' before I read the book. I really liked the movie. Not becasue of all the hoopla surrounding the 'truth' of the story, I just liked it. It was along the lines of 'National Treasure' another favorite movie. However, I hadn't read the book even though it was being hearlded high and low as such a fantastic story. After the movie I just had to get the book... boy was I disappointed. The book dragged and wasn't very well written in my opinion. I think the only reason it did as well as it did was the controversy surrounding the reality of the story idea. If I'd read that book first I would have never bothered with the movie... and I would have missed a movie I ultimately liked.