Excuse me while I Yodel

Ah that's better. I just wanted to yap about movies vs. books and why reading is so great. The trend is for non readers to say "Oh I'll wait for the movie to come out, I don't have to read the book." Believe me I've heard kids say this alot. What's worse is they can now download and watch movies online and really how many books can you do that with? So why read? Kindle needs to be way cheaper and perhaps some of these kids would actually read if it were more like their handheld video games! They are missing out if they think the movie will suffice. It's just not as good as reading. With reading you are the final author, you get to interpret the original author's vision with your own imagination. Yes folks, reading is a creative act. You read the writer's words and you see an interpretation of what they are describing with your mind. I had an English teacher who told me that nothing I wrote was ever really finished. I tell my students that now too. Why? Because it is true. Your audience will finish your story or poem with their own imagination, what they see in their mind when they read your words. Every reader will see it in their own unique way. A movie based on a book on the other hand is a finished product with little room for the audience to imagine or interpret. Though I give some directors credit for leaving room for audience interpretation, in most cases where a movie is based on a book you are getting that reader's particular vision of things.
I saw "Coraline" the other night and I was glad I had read the book. I'm not saying my imagination is better or worse than Tim Burton's but the fact is, the movie was his vision of the book. And this vision is of course unique and typical of Burton. The book was just better as books tend to be because they alone give you the opportunity to embelish as much or as little as your imagination allows. Imagination then, is the best part of reading, not the writer's imagination alone but the reader's too. As a reader you get to collaborate with the author and be part of the creative process as opposed to being a passive observer. And that's what I think is so great about books and reading.