Bold statement: I pretty much never like movies that are based on books as much as I liked the books themselves. There is something so satisfying about being completely engrossed in a book that the feeling rarely translates when you see it on the big screen. I'm not saying this makes the movies bad, by any stretch - I mean,
Revolutionary Road was nominated for an Oscar for crying out loud. But the book version? Man, it may be one of the best pieces of writing I've ever read. The
Harry Potter movies? Are fine and entertaining and pretty much faithful to the books, but I consider reading the books a far, far, FAR more delightful experience. Even when I felt the need to read
Deathly Hallows in one weekend, for fear of hearing spoilers, and almost made myself blind as a result.
Most of this stems from the fact that the act of reading and the act of watching are two totally different things, but there's also the whole "I didn't picture this character looking like that" or "Oh, they left out that awesome part there" disappointment factor. And this isn't even mentioning books you loved that became absolutely not-so-good movies (
Where the Heart Is - I'm looking at you). So, yeah, I'm honestly not sure I've ever seen a movie that was as good as the book, if I'd read the book first. EVER.
So this is why I have no intention of reading
Game of Thrones. You're like "What the what now?" after just reading those last two paragraphs, right? Hear me out: I watched the whole first season around Christmas and enjoyed it greatly. So much so that I was tempted to go out and buy the books just to see what happens next. But then I realized from here on in I'd only be watching the show to see how stuff in the book is portrayed, and worse, I'd know what's going to happen and that element of surprise is taken away. I hate spoilers for TV shows, to the point that I sometimes don't watch the "next time on this show" previews (although, I will say, I love
Mad Men for keeping theirs so vague. I've never been able to guess a plotline from watching those). And as much as I love that engrossing experience of reading, being genuinely shocked/delighted by something I see on TV isn't exactly a common occurrence (unless we're talking
Breaking Bad, which gives you whiplash sometimes from plot twists you didn't see coming). So for this one show, I intend to keep it that way, as much as I know that at the end of this new season, I'm going to have to physically restrain myself from reading the books just to see what happens next. (Like, good god, I hope Arya makes it far. And no, that's not a prompt for you to tell me if she does. Surprises, people. Good or bad.)
I'm Team Books otherwise, but if this gets my Book Nerd card revoked, then I guess I'll just have to deal with that. In the meantime, I'm going to make sure I have some popcorn and M&M's on hand for what may be the single best night of TV of the year in my apartment:
Game of Thrones premiere,
Shameless season finale and
Mad Men. Honest to god, I cannot remember the last time I've loved so many TV shows, let alone having
three air in one night. Imagine if it were already baseball season!
