Reading is cool too you know?
You will not get the little details of Snape’s past that Hermione in the Half of Blood Prince book was obsessed with finding out when looking for Harry’s hand potion books. No, you only got a snippet of Snape’s “unfortunate misfortunes” in the last ten minutes of the film. And, you wouldn’t have known, without reading the book, that Ana and Christian both had backgrounds that detailed their personal lives which led them to the office meeting that was the first scene of the movie of 50 Shades of Grey.
When it comes to movies that are based on best-selling novels, just face it—you are more likely to get the little details that drew the people in the first place when reading it. When it comes to reading, it can be hard to find a book that is not turned into a movie, making it easier to put down the book and go grab some popcorn for your movie. It is also hard to find a book that sparks up your interest if it is not required in the syllabus in your English015 course. But why is that? When is the last time you read or even thought of reading a book for your own personal leisure?
As a college student, having time to read on your own is something that is rarely done. With classes, clubs and a social life, one can easily put down a book and get the quick 10-minute version of it on Spark Notes or just watch a 2-hour movie instead. That is what is the problem with our generation today. You still have some who enjoy reading the intensive plots that Steven King sets up in his novels, but there aren’t any new Sylvia Plath, C.S Lewis or even F. Scott Fitzgerald novels being made to challenge our perspective on life (what college student wouldn’t want to reference a Plath’s motif as the center point of their thesis)?
What happens in our society is that yes, the older generation is right—we as Millennials are prone to everything being handed to us. But who can blame us? The access to digital media is in the palm of our hand and instead of reading a 357-page novel in the library we can easily watch a movie review on YouTube and then decide if the film is worth $11.50 to watch.
What we should remember is that those YouTube reviews and the film itself will not have the little details that an author puts in effort in order to create substance to the characters and plot of the story.
Valley is not knocking down movies and saying save your $11.50 that was use for a movie ticket to instead, buy three days worth of groceries at Wal-Mart (its college, you know the sacrifice that students have to make). But, reading a book is something that time can’t take away when lost into the world of wonderful syntax and alluring diction.
So the next time a popular movie is coming out, stop and see if there is a book already written on it. Go to the library and give it a look for yourself before even thinking to watch the movie (the librarians will love you forever for this). And you might love it so much that the movie would not even be worth it, because you know the first thought after watching the movie would be, ‘That was nothing like the book, the book was way better.”
