Books have been cherished by people of all ages. They have provided much-needed comfort and have always been a good source of entertainment. Famous books like Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” motivate people to work hard for their dreams while fiction like JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series builds a hypothetical yet magical world for people. Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” gives a message of peace and fighting discrimination. On the contrary, we have movies and with the constantly evolving technology, we have seen a big change in our storytelling ways. With the OTT platforms, making and circulation of the movies have become easier. Nowadays, making a movie out of a book has also become very popular.
Movies are art. They require a good script, fine actors, perfect lighting, and sound according to the situation. For example, horror movies become scarier with low lighting and spooky music. A good movie requires skills and we have seen many movies reach great heights such as Titanic, Avatar, Mother India, and many more but nowadays, movies have just become a source of money. It has also become a norm for scriptwriters to add vulgarity and cussing unnecessarily. Movies also establish false notions that are not quite true in the real world. For example, raising sympathy for the villains and criminals by giving them a sad background story. Other than these points binge-watching movies can cause addiction and be in front of the blue screen for longer durations that affect the eyesight.
When we talk about books versus their movie adaptations, everyone has heard this famous line “The book is better than the movie” and it couldn’t be said more accurately. While reading a story, a person imagines their own kind of world around it and everyone who has read the book has different thoughts about it. A book is detailed and thorough about the setting, personality, and history of the characters. This is why reading a book takes more time than watching a movie. Whereas, when it comes to a movie of that same book, it leaves out important details at times, or the ending is rushed and twisted so as to fit them into a two-hour time frame. The characters that we have thought of in a certain way don’t turn out to be like that, hence disappointing a person who has already read the book.
Books are also easily accessible. A movie at the cinema hall costs more than Rs300 per person. If you watch a movie on an OTT platform, you have to shell out even more money and also have a high-speed internet connection which isn’t affordable for everyone. Most average paperbacks are cheaper than that. A person can also borrow a book from a friend or the library which will cost nothing. Kindle and eBooks help people carry their books in digital devices by paying a very small amount. Moreover, our vocabulary gets better in whatever language we read. Studies have also shown that reading increases memory and can slow the progress of Alzheimer’s, a disease that causes memory loss.
All in all, reading a book is much better than watching a movie. Reading a book, even a fiction one expands the horizon of our thoughts and gives us knowledge that can come handy in different situations. It is both an entertainment and an information medium which helps in escaping one’s problems for a little time and creating a world of imagination. Therefore, everyone should pick up a book now and then and refresh themselves with some reading.
Author – Aarju Rawat