True Blood, Harry Potter,...and the dying art of reading

Making books into movies and television series seems to be all the rage these days. TrueBlood, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Twilight and others have recently been "brought to life on the big screen." I like that movie makers and TV executives can see value in these works of literature but a lot of the time, books made into movies or TV shows lose the integrity of the storyline which really disappoints fans of the books.

Personally I love reading. I devour books. Let me give you an example. Charlaine Harris, the author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels which has been turned into the hit HBO series TrueBlood, has written 10 parts to this series. I read all ten of these books in the span of approximately a week and a half. I know I know it seems a little intense or even to some like a waste of time, but I simply enjoy immersing myself into the different worlds of these characters and letting myself really get into these stories. It's not just the fact that vampires are cool and therefore everyone is jumping on the vampire book bandwagon, I love to read all kinds of books and I personally love book series because it takes a special kind of author to take the same characters and let them grow and adapt and change over the course of several books. I really admire the authors and I feel like it is insulting to them for their artwork to be picked apart, overly edited, and changed to fit into a mold that some producer or director thinks will make the most money without regard to making sure that the storyline is intact so that readers and fans will not leave the theater unhappy.

Take the Harry Potter series for example. Yes I understand that 300-700 page books would be incredibly difficult to condense into a two and a half hour movie but I feel like there is a way to make sure that large important parts of the story are included. I guess that for some people, especially those who haven't read these stories several times and really gotten into the specific details of the plot and how seemingly small things are related to one another in the big picture. Some of the changes that are made are just wildly inaccurate. Now when I go to see a movie or a TV show based on a book that I have grown to love I spend my time not enjoying seeing a representation of a great book, but instead I spend time focusing on the flaws and the inconsistencies.

Apart from my own personal disappointment in these kinds of movies, I've met people who call themselves TrueBlood fans or Harry Potter fans and even Twilight fans who have never read the books. I understand that it is possible to like these movies independent of the books they were based upon but it is still mind boggling to me that there are so many people who would rather wait for someone else's interpretation of a book than to first read the book and paint the image in their own minds. I love it when the producers and directors get it right! For example, Carlisle in the Twilight series looks EXACTLY as I imagined him from Stephanie Meyer’s description.

It makes me nearly want to scream every time I bump into someone who says, "I don't want to read that book; I'll wait for the movie." Why aren't more people drawn to the world or reading? What happened to that fervor for learning that we had when we were little and the Cat and the Hat was our source of entertainment? Why is reading falling by the wayside? Are television and movies really going to hijack something that is so important in our society? Reading helps us to not only tap into our creativity when imagining the scenes and characters depicted by the words but also helps improve language skills which in our country these days is increasingly important. When there are people in upper level college courses who cannot read aloud without mispronouncing common words there is a severe problem. In a country like ours where access to knowledge and books is virtually universal, it is appalling how many people fail to take advantage of these things.

Next time you want to be entertained instead of reaching for the remote or standing in line at the movie theater, break out that old library card or go to your neighborhood bookstore and peruse the shelves. You never know what fascinating world you may stumble into. Don't rely on the imaginations of others when you can paint just as vivid pictures within your own mind.