The movie or the book?

[mat123]

I find watching a movie more entertaining than reading the book. To me, movies provide cinematic composition, making them more interactive. But in some special cases like Harry Potter I would prefer to read the book. How about you?

[OctoberBreeze]

I love books better than movies. I think books allow for creativity on the reader's side since we get to imagine - in our own personal way - every landscape or character description. Movies produce scenes based on a director's perspective of a book passage. 

[Karolina]

I believe it depends.

My dad once told me, that movie is how the director understood the book. I have to say I agree with him to a degree. There is a lot of space for our imagination when we read a book, there are a lot of details that we fill in. Therefore, it could happen that we do not appreciate the director's understanding of the book or that we identify with it completely, or occasionally the director's version might be better than ours.

Reading a book requires a lot of focus. Some people can't focus long enough or they simply do not have the time. 

I believe they are two very different experiences. For example when reading, you set your pace of the story, while in the movie it is set for you. I think it varies from person to person, but also from story to story. It also changes the conversation if you are to do both - see a movie and read a book. Often, readers are disappointed by the movies, and moviegoers are bored by the book. 

To each their own I guess.

[armystic]

I honestly do love books, however, I prefer Television because the actions and story theme can be easily pictured out by the viewer. It is also time lesser compared to the duration of reading books. Also, I chose Tv over books because every time I read books I always felt sleepy and eventually fall asleep.

[Shailabh]

If someone asks me what is better than movie and book, then I would say that I find the book more appealing. The author writes the book with his own imagination, when the movie maker makes his movie using his imagination. So I would love to read the book.

[JewelsCat22]

I have always found that the book is better than the movie.  In some cases, the movie differs drastically from the book - and not always in a good way.  For instance, the, "Divergent," movie series differs quite a bit from the book series.  I personally enjoyed the, "Divergent," book series much more than I did the movie series.  

I find that books allow me to use my imagination more.  I often feel more connected to the characters in books than I do to the characters in movies as well.  When I spend hours reading a book, I feel like I know the character on a deeper level than I do when I watch a movie.  

[RPayne]

I almost always prefer the book. I find for me personally that the movie is disappointing to me after reading the book, since with the book, I'm using my imagination as to the appearance of the characters, the settings, etc. Once I see the movie and the characters aren't anything like I pictured, I'm disappointed. Harry Potter is the prime example of this that I can think of right now. This may be a very unpopular opinion, but I am not a fan of those movies at all. I love the books however. So if I know I'm going to a movie based on a book I haven't read yet, I'll wait to read the book if I don't want to be potentially disappointed. I did this with Hunger Games and ended up loving the movies.  

[M&K]

The book will always be my preference. In a book I can read a character's reaction to certain events. In a movie I might have a harder time understanding what the actor is trying to portray. I'm a very blunt person and I cannot read people very well so this makes me a bit biased. I do love all the visuals that movies have to offer, but i feel that I pay less attention to the story as a result. 

[Wolfey]

I prefer watching the movie. A lot of people say that if you read the book you can imagine the scenarios and characters in any way you like - However, my imagination is not that good. I can surely think outside of the box, but I simply can't imagine things in my head, or visualize them. I rather actually see them with my eyes.

[Ejaytee]

I love both. I prefer to read a book first and then watch the movie. I want to see my characters come to life and also see what extras the director will add to it. For instance, I read the Vampire diaries before seeing the movie and it made it more exciting for me because I knew what was coming before it did and also I understood some parts of the book better by watching the movie. So I love to read the book first then watch a movie about it.

[Zery]

Personally, I prefer watching the book. The reason behind that is because that way I can imagine the scene in my mind, which makes it even better in my opinion, and even more exciting. A lot of people think the movie is better because they hate reading, however, I beg to differ. If you start reading, you will eventually love it and prefer it over movies.

[Ewelina]

For me, a movie will never be better than a book. Books got something magical that let our imagination work. It's an active entertainment when watching a movie requires no action from us.  I remember how many times I was disappointed by characters from a movie, which I imagined differently while reading a book.

[Gree]

I really enjoy reading a good book. On the other hand, I enjoy watching a good movie, too. In a perfect world, a well-made movie would follow on the heels of the well-written book that the movie is based on, but that's not always the case. A book has the advantage of being able to take the time to draw the story out. It has the advantage of being able to develop the characters over a time frame of several chapters. A movie has about a two hour window to make an impression, and I find that most of the time a movie falls short in living up to the book. Every case is different though. In my opinion, there are some very well-made movies out there that are much better than the books that they are based on.