Never Judge a Book By Its Movie

The book display at the library right now reads “Never Judge a Book By Its Movie.” Of course, it’s a word play on last week’s topic “Never Judge a Book By Its Cover”, but with a twist. Just as an illustrator can never quite accurately convey the tone and feeling of a written work onto its two dimensional book jacket, a script writer can never take a book and adequately turn it into a movie. The finished product may be terrific, but it is a different product, just not the same as the book.
Reading a book and enjoying it requires an imagination. One needs the ability to see the settings and characters in one’s head. An engrossed reader will hear the words spoken. I know this because on occasion I have answered aloud a question posed by a character in a book and I’ve screamed back at a literary villain or two over the years.
My youngest child had an imaginary friend, Cousin Freddy. Years after Cousin Freddy had stopped showing up around the dinner table, the whole family had a conversation about what he might have looked like. We had five different imaginary versions in our heads. None of our‘s even vaguely resembled the vision Cousin Freddy’s creator had in mind. I was rather startled to find that the little boy I had fed and tucked into bed for years wasn’t a redhead in overalls.
Imagine what it must feel like for an author to sit in a theater and see his/her work come to life on the big screen? Will the appearance of the actors in the movie surprise or disturb the author? I’ve read that Meryl Streep has signed on to star in the film version of Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. Assuming that she is scheduled to play the librarian (and not the cat), it’s an odd bit of casting. Dewey author and Spencer, Iowa librarian Vicky Myron is about my size, my height, my age. Oh, never mind. I understand. I, too, always wanted to be a tall willowy blonde.
Several movies coming out this fall are based on recent books. Eat, Pray, Love is in theaters right now. I tried unsuccessfully to read the book. I was irritated with the heroine who was attempting to heal a broken heart with exotic travel adventures. I wanted to tell her “Just get over it. Countless generations of us have been able to mend without a trip to Bali.” The book was a bestseller, and now a movie, so perhaps, my opinion is not shared by very many.
Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is the story of two teens that discover the body of a teenage boy. One of the book reviews states that its “part revenge fantasy, part horror story and part police investigation gone wrong.”
The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer is about Laura and Lila, college roommates. One girl, the maid of honor for the other, has long-hidden and complicated feelings for the groom and it seems that the groom may not be ready for the walk down the aisle, either.
The American by Martin Booth. George Clooney stars in this one-need I say more? It was previously published as A Very Private Gentleman.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story o f three English boarding school students now all grown up. This one is by the author of The Remains of the Day.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. Juli first flipped for Bryce in the second grade. Six years later life is slightly more complicated.
Whatever you are in the mood for---movies, books or audio books, you’ll find what you are looking for at your library.