as i turn the pages

A friend asked me a question once: "Which do I prefer, movies or books?"

I thought for a while which I actually really liked better before answering.  Movies are feasts for the eye, yet books are feasts for the imagination.  I then answered "Depends on the genre."  However, for both books and movies, I prefer only certain genres: romance, drama, suspense, fantasy.  Generally, life.  If I were to either read or watch Star Wars or Matrix, if there is such a book, I would rather do the watching since all the special effects that would take place in the movie would never be expressed in the book.  Other than that, then yes, I prefer books over movies.

When you read a book, you see everything better. Why would an author write "when her hands lighted on his chest, not when her hair tickled his neck" (Picoult, Jodie "Salem Falls") if it is insignificant?  If you read that phrase directly from the book, you would feel the importance of that very line.  You would feel the emotion the author attached to that line.  You could see clearly the significance of a line for the characters.  These are gravities that would never be captured in the movie.  Although some movies might, in passing, actually practice such lines, the emotion that is meant to be passed to the viewers would never be delivered, unless a character says a significant line.

Why then do I prefer books?  Because books are captivating, and as I turn each page one by one, read each word one by one, I become more entranced to actually love every emotion that has come about in the book.

"When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me."  - W. Somerset Maugham