I like books. A lot. Recently, I was at Costco browsing through their book section when I noticed a couple of books that I had already read had new covers. Movie covers. For some reason, I was immediately put off by this. I think the first book I noticed this aversion with was
Eat, Pray, Love. I read it loooong before the movie came out (thank goodness). When I first saw the movie cover on it, I almost felt cheated on. My vision of the main character was nothing like Julia Roberts. I didn't see the movie and I don't plan to, but I don't ever remember a vision of Julia Roberts eating gelato in Italy come to mind while reading.
{photos via goodreads.com}
Now, I realize that movies have to come from somewhere, and there are a lot of books that are definitely movie-worthy (Harry Potter is the first one that comes to mind), but I don't necessarily want to be reminded that the book I'm reading is or will be turned into a movie. Part of the fun of reading is "seeing" the characters in your own way, not the way the movie portrays them.
I much prefer to be surprised that a movie that I liked was based on a book that I liked, rather than knowing I was seeing a movie based on a book and trying to make the two versions of the characters jive. (I think Harry Potter is an exception to this...I can't think of much in the movie that didn't fit my visions from the book...also, I'm totally not a Harry Potter fanatic...just a fan...it's just a good example to illustrate my point.)
