Thursday, March 31, 2022

Reading & Writin' & Look, My Dick!

Someone right on over CHERE has a list of controversial opinions about books. I don't know how "controversial" these are, but of course I am only too happy to list the ones I happen to agree with. You're welcome, Earth!

1. "The movie can be better than the book." - Xmastime case in point: Jaws.

3. "Us men should read more romance novels, to be honest. They're very different from what's typically expected on our shelves, especially here in the States. There's just a stupid-ass stigma amongst ourselves. I'm a large, bearded fella who works with grain, and damn it, I enjoy the warm fuzzies of a cute romance novel. People can fight me if they think it's weird." - read whatever you like, dawg!

10. "I hate it when the book cover is changed to match the film or show based on it. I like imagining the characters, not having the actor you choose invade my idea of the book." - YES!! This person is correct! As per moi:  

I'm annoyed that the reason I know it's a movie is because of the book cover. This always annoys me, it always seems to cheapen the book for me - isn't this their way of saying "oh, fuck this book, just go watch the movie!!"?  I understand media/publishing tie-ins, but I never see the reverse. A movie never opens with "Hey, this is based on a book, which you should definitely run home and read after injecting hot buttered popcorn into your veins!" The phrase "based on the book _______" usually comes buried somewhere between the gaffers and caterers' and names. 

ALSO: People I Hate, Vol XXII

People who run out and buy the book to a movie that's being made so that later on when the movie's coming out they can say they read the book, all while pretending they had no idea it was being made into a movie. Grrrrrrrrr.

16. "Offering incentives to get kids to read is a fantastic idea that should be brought back. When I was in elementary school, we had a system that was called A.R (accelerated reading) that assigned points to every book in our school library. You then took an online test, and you received the points if you got an 80% or better. The classics were worth double-digit points" - YES! As my Children's Lit professor at The Harvard on the Appomattox said about children, if they'll read a fucking cereal box let them read a cereal box. Reading crap is better than reading nothing, no matter what age.

18. "I've seen a lot of people say they only read books once and, in their words, 'Why would they re-read a book when they could read a new one?' I think re-reading books is crucial to a deep understanding of the work. Read the book once for the plot, read again for the theme, read a third time for patterns and details you didn't catch before. Read a fourth time because it's a good book. Always re-read books if you liked them the first time, I guarantee you will get something new from it. Re-reading serves just as meaningful a purpose as reading a book for the first time. Books don't exist purely to inform you of the events in a story." - I've never understood this. Anything else anybody likes doing, they wanna do twice. Nobody fucks once and says okay that was great and then never tries it again. We all watch the same shows over and over. Each reading of a book you love only makes it even better, and of course your perceptions/sympathies change as you age. That's why you love Holden Caulfield when you're 15 and roll your eyes at him when you're 35, but you still like reading the book.

20. "The world of 'I'm a book reading person who reads books' merchandise, memes, etc. is cringe as shit." - I've never personally experienced this but yes, it sounds pretty stupid.

23. "Hardcover books are just not as good as paperback." - paperbacks are good for reading, hardcovers are good for coffee tables.

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