Reading books before seeing the movies

I've gotten into this discussion a lot lately, since so many books are being turned into movies.  I think it's great.  I love reading books, end up loving them, and then see them getting turned into movies that go so well on the big screen.  (This probably comes from my love of explosions).

But I can't do it the other way around.  I can't see the movie first and then read the book.  For me, there's just this mental block and I get bored.  It could be that I already know what's going to happen in the book, so I don't feel like finishing the read.  Yes, when I watch the movie, I already know what's going to happen, but for me it's okay; I think I want to see if the director pictures it how I pictured it in my head.  Plus all the explosions.

I have a friend who can only read the book after the movie, not before.  What she said about why she does it that way makes complete sense.  There's so much more detail in the book that wasn't in the movie.  If she read the book before the movie, she would be let down.  But this way, it's like reading a new story because the book has new plot points and so many more details that they couldn't put in a movie.  It's like an expansion pack for video games (I'm guessing).

But for me, I just can't do it that way.  I get a brain block and usually end up putting the book down.  Which is why I always want to read the book before seeing the movie.

Do you read the book before the movie?  Or see the movie before reading the book?

Books I've Read Recently

I haven't blogged about any books for a while and realized I've read quite a few.  I was reading furiously for the past month or so, having finished a first draft and letting it sit, and not having class for most of January. Here's some of the books I've read.

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund was the first book I couldn't put down in a long, long while.  I read it in basically a day, skipping lunch (and I never skip lunch...)  It's a retelling of Persuasion, but I've never actually read any Jane Austen...  Anyways, I absolutely loved this book!  I read it because it's YA SF, but it isn't the ordinary SF with space travel or lots of modern technology.  It's a little bit dystopian, I guess.  The letters in the beginning of the chapters give a lot of backstory to the characters and made them so real.  I loved the tension between all of them.  The world was really interesting with Luddites, Reduced and Posts, as was the mix of new and old technology.  Iwould classify this as "un-put-downable".  Go read out and read it!!

Before that, I read Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.  I heard a lot of good things about this book and knew it was YA epic fantasy, which I love.  Hartman created an interesting world with dragons that can fold themselves into human skins, but I didn't fall in love with this story like many others did.  I think maybe the MC was a little too serious and down on herself, but it did go with the setting/culture Hartman created.  Or maybe I needed more romance.  It just seemed like another magical creature book, albeit a very creative one.  That being said, I still liked it, and will probably still read the second one because I want to see what happens between Seraphina and Kiggs.


I just finished The Crimson Crown, the fourth and final book in the Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima.  I've loved this whole series and this book was a great ending to it.  The whole series is a YA epic fantasy with wizards, clans people, and Valefolk, focusing on the princess heir and a street thief/gang leader.  The world is fantastic and creative, and the characters are interesting. Chima also created a cool and unusual magic system that I really appreciated.  Definitely give this series a shot if you like epic fantasy!

What have you read recently?  Anything fantastic?