Read a Movie

You would read a book, or watch a movie. So what is to Read a Movie? I put simply as read a book, then watch a movie. Provided Hollywood decided to pick that book you read and made a movie out of it. But these days, more common than not, many people are buying books to read then catch the movie when its comes to Singapore. It keep the authors happy and the movie makers, casting crew even more happy. The show must go on!

I remember as a child, my dad suggested that I read only books he have selected for me. As I was growing up, I found out that I read the most pecuilar books. Kids my age don't read book titles like these:

The Old man and The sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Time Machine by H G Wells
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
White Fang by Jack London
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

When all my friends were reading Goldilocks and the 3 Bears or Enid Blyton's books. And when everyone else were reading Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys, I was reading Sherlock Holmes. In my teens, I wanted to read romance novels like my peers did. My dad would again picked these for me instead:

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I felt most out of place with my peers. Because they were all reading Mills and Boons collection of wild romance and have so much in common to talk about. I have nothing much to say. I could never understand why my dad made me read those books. Not until I left school, went to work. Or finding work.

Never would dream of a day I wanted a job so bad(because it meant I could leave my monotonous IT Computing work) to try something new (Desktop Publishing, training and extensive travelling in the region).

I went for an interview..I got the job because my boss gave me a questionaire to fill in. One of the questions was :

What books I read as a child that made me different. It never ask why I should read the book. But what I read. So I wrote "The old man and the sea". My boss had to talk to me later and ask me why I said that. I told her, because I hated that book. Because it was the most boring book I have ever read. Later, my dad brought me to the movies to watch the book that was made into a Movie.

It was then, I understood every word, every expression the author wanted to depict or to express.

I got the job because of this book I read. My other skills doesn't seem important at that point of time. She says I can just learn the job as it goes. I stayed in that company for almost 4 years. My boss named me the "Best Employee" she ever had in 10 years of her career with the company.

All because of a book I read, and the movie I watched with my dad. I still find that story boring but the movie made the book come alive. The only sad thing was I knew what was to happen, because I read the book. There were no surprises at the end.

But my dad told me that movies are often slightly twisted from the original book. From print, its possible to write every emotion, every moment, every facade in life. But when you make a movie, certain depictions are difficult to follow. And not every actor or actress can express that emotion, that very act.

So there is still some form of surprises, some excitement left to be discovered when you watch a movie after you have read the book.

Right now, I am trying something different. Watch a movie then read the book.

The movie I am watching now is Twilight and reading the book which Natasha bought a year ago.





But while I try to find out what the book really writes about, the movie made the book come to life. No wonder everyone is so crazy about this Twilight movie. If you ever been in love, I mean seriously, hopelessly in love, this Twilight movie really makes you rekindle old flames..!