Top 10 Reasons Why Books are Better Than Movies
You've probably heard it before: "The book was better." Maybe you've even said it yourself after sitting through two hours of a movie adaptation that cut your favorite scenes, watered down the characters, and skipped that one twist that made you gasp while reading. When you read a book, it's just you and the story. There's no director deciding how it should look or actor changing the tone. The world builds in your imagination, and no one else's version is quite like yours.Books give you space. Not just in terms of pages, but in how they let your thoughts wander and settle. You can pause, go back, reread a moment that stood out, or just sit with a feeling before moving on. Movies have a set pace. Blink and you might miss something important. With a book, you set the rhythm. That makes the experience more personal and less like something you just consume in one sitting.
Characters in books are entirely yours to envision. A great performance in a movie can stick with you, but a poorly cast role can ruin the whole thing. When you read, there's no casting director. You imagine how the characters look, how they talk, what they wear, and how they carry themselves. That connection is stronger because you built it yourself. The story feels like it belongs to you in a way that a movie rarely can match.
I don't care how you pronounce their names. I will pronounce Siuan the way I want to. I also don't care what color coat Mat is wearing. He always wears green. Ogier are walking trees! That's all the complaints I have.
Remember, don't judge a book by its movie. Besides, why would you watch a movie when you can read? I was reading a minute ago.
Okay, 500 people read a Harry Potter book for the first time. They will each have 500 different versions of how Harry, Ron, and Hermione look.
Next, they watch the movie. Now they all think Harry looks like Radcliffe, Ron like Grint, and Hermione like Watson.
In movies, a lot of times, brilliantly developed characters fail to impress because of the actor's inability to perform the role.
Movies always remove your vision of the book, and bad acting ruins the story. Everything in the movie ruins the book!
Logan Lerman was about five years older than Percy should have been in both The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters.
If you ask me what I want to do for, you know, let's say two hours, and we can't go somewhere, then I would grab a blanket (or iced tea for the summer) and one of the Harry Potter books. Then it could stretch over two hours and probably fill the two hours.
Movies last about two hours. A book can last for a day, a week, a month, or even longer. It's like chocolate. You either eat it fast or savor every bite until it melts in your hands.
You can read a book at your own pace. You can either enjoy it slowly over a few weeks or devour it in a day or two.
Even the simplest characters like Greg Heffley are spot on in the books but just seem off in movies. Zachary Gordon wasn't that bad, but since there were at least seven Wimpy Kid books out by the time the movie version of Dog Days came out, he was almost 20. So, they tried a remake. Those never work.
In movies, they often do not say what the characters are thinking. We can only look at the way they act, while in books there are usually sentences describing the way the characters feel (for example, "the heart is beating faster") and/or think. This is something an actor in movies cannot convey.
If you really focus on what you are reading, you get the feeling that you are actually right there in the book, watching everything take place.
Totally concur. I love films, but I'm forced to imagine only what the actors project. With books, the imagination is limitless. I don't want to be shown what's going on. I want to use my imagination and be creative with it.
Authorial intent always messes everything up. I want to decide how everything happens.
I think this is the most important point here. Likewise, when we want to teach a kid, the first thing we do is the alphabet, then read stories to build their vocabulary. So, I encourage this point.
I need to pay my respects to this amazing list. Let's have a moment of commemorative silence.
Apart from doing something recreational, you're also doing something productive.
Apart from narrating the storyline in depth, books explain the thoughts going through a character's mind while performing an action. This lets you connect with them better and immerse yourself deeper in the story.
Example: The Shining - Book vs. Movie. While reading the book, I felt Jack was a close friend, and I started caring for him. But his character in the movie felt underdeveloped, and the Overlook Hotel too. It was the main reason why Stephen King hated the movie adaptation of his masterpiece.
It depends on the movie and the book, but I must agree. Percy was funnier in the books. Tris wasn't so girly. Katniss stayed the same, but I just couldn't get interested in the movies.
It depends, really. But as a general rule, I agree. For example, the movie Big Fish is so much better than the book. But I hated the Percy Jackson movies (but then again, what person who actually read the books didn't?).
What I said for books is more detailed.
Nothing ticks me off more than a good book being turned into trash because the movie was poorly developed.
You can really understand what's happening. In movies, it's always a bit of a jumble of explosions and yelling. In books, it's way more understandable when there is a fighting scene.
Yes, of course, they are. I totally agree.
Unless the author takes a full page describing a character's car or beverage.
Even if they did (for some reason), you could easily skip them.
The Newcomers
Why isn't this higher on the list? A good book is just that: pages upon pages of fond memories. Characters become your best friends, hours pass by without notice, and you will come back to the book as often as possible. Even forty years later, you'll remember at least the title and the author, the fact that it was a beautiful piece of work, and that you held it near to your heart.
Movies? I can barely remember the last ten movies I watched. Very few book-based movies encapsulate the fondness, the nostalgia, the memories of the book itself.
A lot of directors are so focused on making money that they stop caring about their movies' quality. They know what sells, and so they follow the basic blueprint which is sure to get the masses filling up theaters. An infamous example: The Transformers series.
This is so true. Almost all my favorite books got turned into bad movies because the quality and accuracy to the book were poor. However, they do choose great actors for the roles.
You can't lug a TV, a DVD player, and a remote everywhere you go. However, you can carry a book in a purse, a pocket, a bag, or just in your hand as you wander mindlessly looking at the book and trying not to bump into things.
Well, you could use your phone, but if you're in a quiet space like, for example, on a train, then I don't think others would like it if your device is making loud sounds. Unless you have headphones or earbuds, but personally, I don't like having these things in my ear.
You will have to worry about having electricity to play the movie. You just need a comfortable space and good lighting to read a book.
A book's character isn't someone acting. It's the person in their own right. They are themselves, and they know how to act out their own emotions. For one, they're not getting paid to act out someone else's life or feelings. An actor can only ever portray a character's emotions, not live them.
In the Harry Potter movies, I felt like Harry was so bland and had no personality. He was just numb and boring. Yet in the books, we actually saw how he started liking Ginny instead of it being a surprise attack like in the movies.
A good story can't be told to its full potential in two and a half hours.
We can read books again and again.
Movies don't have the same budget as books. A book's budget is imagination.
It is true because they give a lot of useful information to improve your reading level.
Yes! This is what a lot of people want. Who doesn't want to get smarter?
Financially, books help educationally in ways that movies do not.
I agree. They give you more education.
Ticket price, popcorn, and a drink for a movie, which will last no more than three hours, vs. the price of a book, which will last for a week or two.
It depends on the book price. A movie might be 20-30 dollars, and a book might be 10-20 dollars. So I would go with the cheapest one and the best one.
If you borrow books from a library, they cost nothing unless you order a book, and then you pay a very small borrowing fee.
A story you have read over a few days stays with you longer.
By the way, TV is deadlier for adults' eyes than kids'.
Movies just plop the actor into the first scene and usually rush the background information or throw it in the trash. Book-based movies usually convey the message, "This is (insert favorite book character here). He/she is the main character. We don't care about their background. Okay?"
Background information makes us pity the villain, yet hate them at the same time. Background information makes us hate the boyfriend or girlfriend because they were ungrateful. It makes us change our whole perspective.
In movies, all the ugly characters look ugly, but in books, you can imagine how you want all of the characters to look.
I know! I'm currently doing a project at school in which I am writing a The 39 Clues fan-fic and love the way my ideas are turning out! No one stops me from writing what I think!