Books trouble to read.

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I once read Dune by Frank Herbert, and I just couldn't read it. I found iy immpossible to visualise. I then saw Dune by David Lynch a bit later, and I liked it. So I went back and tried to read the book again. And I could. I could picture the book using the film...... it was simple to do. So I could finally appreciate Dune which is a good book. So sometimes it's good to turn a book into a film. For some the Lord of the rings films will make it so much easier for them to read it after they have seen the films.

 

I know what you mean. The humor of Catch-22 escaped me until after I saw the movie, even after several attempts. When I went back later, I fell off the couch from laughing so hard.

 

I can't say that I have ever had that reaction but that might be because of my rather narrow attitude towards movies adapted from books.

I pretty much take the book as being the genuine material and the movie as being illegitamate so any differences that I perceive between what I read in the book and what is in the film I tend to categorize as the film being wrong.

When someone is telling me that they interpretted the book differently from me I am quite open to consider their interpretation so why I instantly dismiss a filmmaker's interpretation is somewhat inconsistent. I guess I have just seen too many Hollywood adaptations that have been adapted to mindlessly appeal to the masses.

 

I can understand that viewpoint a bit. The ones that are ok are things like Dune, Catch-22, the Lord of the rings. They are a bit more personalised as it were... they have a bit more substance and not just mass market appeal. I really enjoyed the LotR extended appendix where they explained why they made some changes to the script. I felt a lot happier and could understand why they had to do it.

 

I tried reading anything by Tolkien. So, so confused. Watched the movies (even the cr@ptastic cartoon version of The Hobbit) and thought to try again. OMG, no way. Total confusion if with picturing the films in my brain.

Dune was no problem at all. I barely remembered the movie when I read Herbert's series.

 

Tolkien books rule. The Lord of the Rings movies rule. They both rule.

 

I've never seen a movie that I liked better than the book -- I thought Dune was terrible as a movie and loved the book. I've never felt the scripts captured the essence of the book -- just look at Frankenstein. Here is an incredible book about predujice that is turned into a gothic horror, what a shame. 2001 A Space Odyssey is impossible to follow as a movie, but very clear as a book.

I can't read books that have slow writing or whiny characters. I hated (and never finished) Crime and Punishment -- I didn't want to understand the sniveling idiot. I forced myself to read Catcher in the Rye, mostly out of morbid curiosity -- that kid was a waste.

 

You didn't like the movie of Dune??? I saw it again just yesterday, and I still love it. But everybody has different tastes I guess.

 

I tried that book and i couldn't finish it because of that idiot boy. I don't understand him too.

Also i tried to read Hitler's book Mein Kampf once. I was curious. But I didn't succeed in that one except a few pages. Too boring and crazy for me.

 

Crime and Punishment is by far the best "classic" I have read. Was very positively surprised by it.

 

Lovecraft is seriously difficult to read, mostly due to the archaic expressions he uses and sheer amount of wordage (I don't care if that's not actually a word, I'm officially declaring it one).

It's especially hard to envision most of the creatures he described, but that's mostly due to the fact that these creatures were basically the results of God's "spare parts" box.

 

I found Dostoevsky difficult to go through until I picked up a new translation (Pevear & Volokhonsky).

 

Terry Prachett (or however you spell it) is so hard to read. Long and detailed, but the detail is no where near as interesting like LOTR. I couldn't make it half-way through Tom Sawyer...I can't really read classics. Although I managed to read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Emma by Jane Austen.

 

Terry Pratchett? Long and detailed? Hard to read? Are you sure you're talking about the right Terry Pratchett? There must be two. Because the Terry Pratchett I know writes funny, light hearted, easy to read books.

 

Really? Well maybe because I first read his books when I was like 7 or something so it was *really* boring at the time. It was so not funny at all. I read the one about some sorcerer being the seventh son of the seventh son etc. and I can't remember anything else (except something to do with a tower?). Maybe I've been scarred for life because there is no way I'd ever willingly read one again.

 

There are so many Terry Pratchett fans on these Boards that we can't all be wrong.

 

Oh well, I'll be the individual then.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed Lovecraft. Another book I couldn't get past the first 50 pages was The Secret Agent by Conrad(?).

Who's Prachett? I've never heard of him.

 

He's an intensely funny writer in fantasy. He wrote the Discworld series of books, if you have heard of them. And not really going for Sorcerers, Shadow Lurker.... that's understandable. It's not one of his funniest. His best have the guards like Vimes.