DON'T Read The Book!

As many of you may know a lot of movies and shows are based off of books. Some of the most well known movies such as the Harry Potter series is taken from the original books. For years though people always told me that you should read the book before seeing the movie. However I've found that this is not always the best course of action. This week I'll establish the times when it may or may not be best to read the book first.

Let's start with stand alone movies. These would be movies based off one book and are a single movie and not a series. Such examples are The Great Gatsby or Forrest Gump. In a movie where the plot is self contained and there are no prequels, or sequels to the book, I feel it is ok to read the book first. This gives you more insight into the characters that you may not get because of things that must be cut out for time purposes. So when a character makes a decision you have that prior supporting knowledge on why that choice was made. Now what about Harry Potter or The Chronicles Of Narnia? These are more of the opinion of the viewer. Because one book follows into the next one but doesn't leave you at a huge cliff hanger I feel reading the book first is ok. Their individual stories are always wrapped, sure you may want to know what they do next but you basically know how the next one will be or the story is wrapped so well you don't know what will happen next but its not a cliff hanger. 

Then there is a series like The Hunger Games. With this is advise NOT to read the book first. There are two qualities to a series like this. First of all the main plot is a competition. Whats the point of watching a competition if you know what's going to happen? Would you pay to go to the Super Bowl already knowing who wins and every play that will be made? Reading the book in this case takes away from the dramatics of it. Also they leave their books with cliff hangers, the end of the second book and movie specifically ends in a cliff hanger full of questions. This adds a lot more to the experience in my opinion and makes it worth watching. So those are just my opinions on when you should and shouldn't read the book before seeing the movie and of course this is all up to your personal preference this is just my advisory on it.