I’m a book-lover; a bibliophile. The more books I can own, the better. I gluttonously hoard them yet I will trade and share them - but only the ones I don’t have room for on my ‘keeper shelf’ (I have countless ‘keeper shelves’ so I rarely share. I know – I’m a big contradiction). It’s always a great day when I can add yet another book to my constantly growing to-be-read-pile.
Discovering a new author and their book(s) is up there with Christmas morning. Whether in a regularly-read genre or in a genre I don’t read very often, a new find is always exciting. Although nothing can replace browsing through a bookstore or library, things like magazines about books, book websites or simply word-of-mouth are among the few ways I have learned about new-to-me reading treasures.
But I have recently learned of another way to discover a new-to-me book, and somewhere I would have never imagined:
Netflix.
Yes, the global provider of countless movie and TV shows readily at your finger-tips as a subscription for only a few dollars a month has helped me discover new adventures in reading (I should write commercials for them).
It started innocently enough: Netflix has ‘categories’ of movies – thrillers, dramas, documentaries, etc – but I’m kind of scattered and didn’t really clue-in to all the categories available when we first subscribed. If a movie looked interesting based off the description, I’d watch it, and ignore the categories they were divided into.
But then one day I watched a movie I hadn’t heard of before and LOVED it. When the credits rolled and the words ‘Based on the book by…’ flashed across the screen, I nearly fell off the couch.
WHAT? How come I never knew of this particular book-to-movie?
Well Lisa, you can’t know EVERYTHING.
Then I discovered the movie was in the category ‘Movies based on books…’ and my world changed.
(I never said I was a fast-learner.)
I’ve heard the endless round-about argument ‘the book was better than the movie’ vs. ‘the movie was better than the book.’ I’ve always been one to read the book first and watch the movie later; I’m a patron to the written word. But now I don’t care – I know I will likely end up getting the book after watching the movie, regardless of my thoughts about the movie. I’ve taken to scrolling right to the ‘Movies Based on Books…’ category on Netflix just to give me an excuse to inevitably buy another book. Sometimes the movie was made first and then a novel adaptation is made after, but it doesn’t matter to me; I’ll still watch and I’ll still read.
So now when I discover a loved book-to-movie on Netflix, something I know I would enjoy reading, I’m of the couch and racing to the bookstore before the credits have started rolling (unless, I’m in my pajamas – mind you, that’s never stopped me before).
Confusing times for this book-loving girl....
But I'm full of double-standards and contradictions. Confession: I love all the Star Wars movies, but reading the books is just not my thing. I tried – I did – and my lack of interest in the book is not a reflection of what I think of the writing in any way. But I fell in love with the hunky Hans Solo when I too young to go to a movie theatre by myself and I had watched the movies so many times before I discovered the books that I couldn’t shake the on-screen version of the story enough to immerse myself in the books. And in this case the movie came first and the book second – the novelization of the 1977 George Lucas sci-fi classic was ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster. (Read about it more
here.)
This whole Netflix/book-to-movie mode I’m on has made me a big contradiction, I guess. My allegiance and loyalty IS to the written word – and in turn to a fellow author. And I suspect my bookish friends will consider me a traitor – and defector in a way. But at the end of the day it’s all entertainment – it’s storytelling – and for a booklover, writer and movie-lover, a good story is all that really matters.
And what will remain equally timeless for both movies and books? A bag of popcorn – if you don’t mind salty/buttery pages.
