Monday 10 March 2014

The book was better by Amanda Johansson

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Hey lovelies

It's time for the next guest post. The wonderful Amanda agreed to write a post for me and left the topic open for her. I'm so happy with the result, thank you so much gorgeous lady, that means a lot, xxx.

You'll find her blog here: http://adventuresfromthebookshelf.blogspot.co.uk
And now enjoy :)
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“The book was better!”
I was so happy when Simona asked me if I wanted to do a guest post on her blog. I’d told her, that I’d be delighted! I’m still very new to the book blogging scene, and I was surprised by how welcoming and friendly everybody was on Twitter after my blog only being live for one evening! Simona was one of the first people I met, and I’m thrilled to be contributing to her blog.

I wanted to talk about movie adaptations of books, as they are quite a lot of them coming out this year, and I love to keep on top of the new film releases (particularly the ones with award buzz surrounding them!) Although, as a lot of you will be familiar with, I am with the firm opinion that the book is usually always so much better! And here’s why...

Books have an amazing quality, one that is much superior to any film, or any television adaptation. Books are inclusive and are so personal to the reader. You can read the exact same book as your best friend, and have completely differing opinions about how a character looks and how they act. Whereas on a film, it’s just there, it’s right in front of you. You don’t need to image what Katniss Everdeen looks like, because Jennifer Lawrence is right there in front of you.

There is also a much weaker connection when watching a film. You’re an observer. An outsider looking in. Whereas a book invites you in, speaks to you directly, asks you to form opinions and attachments. It’s a personal experience as you hear all of their fleeting thoughts, insecurities and feelings. It’s all laid out for you in beautiful metaphors and imagery. I’m not saying that this is always the case, and I adore watching films almost as much as I love reading. At college I studied both film and English literature, but I just feel that books are more suited to a person if they’re looking for that individual connection with a character. Hands up if you’ve ever felt like you’ve truly know and understood a character just because you’ve read about them. And hands up who’s been truly disappointed by a film adaptation. (I’m looking at you Confessions of a Shopaholic...)

Actually, let’s look at Shopaholic as an example, if I would have watched the film first and based my opinion on the book, and Sophie Kinsella’s writing on the film alone, I doubt I would have given the Shopaholic series a second glance. Whereas, the Shopaholic books are probably my favourite book series. They’re definitely my favourite books in the chick lit category. It’s surprising how different the book, and film adaptation can be!

With this in mind, if I am looking forward to seeing a film, I shall try my hardest to read the book first. I am going to use this helpful article on Buzzfeed (

) as a guide for my 2014 viewing/reading. It lists some of the major films coming out this year that are based on books. And any that I think I may want to watch on the big screen, I’m going to read the book first!


I’ve already read a few of them, and I can throughly recommend Gone Girl andThe Fault Within Our Stars. And I’m close to finishing This is Where I Leave You as well. Let me know what films and books you’re looking forward to this year. My usual home is at Adventures from the Bookshelf (http://adventuresfromthebookshelf.blogspot.co.uk), or you can tweet me @amandajtweets.

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