Hey, do you agree in reading a book before seeing the film? I was having a dispute with my friend about it and though i'd see what everyone here thinks!

I think you should always try and read the book befoire you see the film, it doesn't spoil what happening, because that'd be the same with seing the film first.

It's like with LotR, I'd only read LotR 1 + 2 and it was years previously. So when I saw RotK, and I saw what happened, and then it was all over, I just never got down to reading the book, I started the first chapter but then never got back to it, and i guess i'm not going to get down and read it for ages, so it's sort of spoilt me reading it.

What do you think?

I like reading the book before watching the movie for some reason. But I didn't do that LOTR though.

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I was cured all right.

I hadn't discovered the books before the movies with LOTR, but I think it makes it harder to read the book after watching the movie.

I really agree on reading the book before watching the movie (thats why i havnt seen the Da Vinci Code yet, because I'm still reading the book)
Reading the book always gives you an inside on things just in case they miss something in the movie. And if you watch the movie first, it's always harder to get to reading the book because you know whats happening, and you don't want to go through reading the book, if you know how it'll end, etc.

But, it's always easier to be very critical of a movie after reading the book. You'll feel like something is missing, or it went to fast, and small details that are included or missing might make you cringe.Like who they choose to play th character, or how cities and lifesyle are portrayed and things of the sort.

But either way, i would still rather read the book and then watch the movie.

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You should definatly read the book first. Its pretty much a rule in our house. Like Mrs. Gamgee said, you can pick up on things that other people miss. In the other hand, you could miss things because you are exspecting somthing else. However, whe that happens most of the time I get mad and grumble at the movie and all the pruducers of it for being so wrong.

I don't usually read the book first. But with LotR I read RotK first, becasue i was dying to find out what happend

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I definitely think you should read the book before you see the movie so that you can have a better understanding of what the movie is about. Sometime's there are things in the book that are left out of the movie, and usually the book was made first. Plus, when you read the book you establish a kind of mental picture of the character's and places that is your own rendering. If you went to see the movie and then read the book you'd have pictures of all the actual people in your head instead of ones your imagination has created for you.

I have a very...um...defined opinion on this topic. I guess I've thought a lot about it.
It's usually a good idea to read the book first, in order to develop an image of what you think the characters and scenery look like, so that you can compare it to the filmmaker's interpretation later. However, if you don't care that PJ's Aragorn looks different from your version, then it doesn't really matter in that sense.
I try to keep the books and their movie adaptations separate, so that I don't get too worked up about the differences. Howl's Moving Castle, for example, differs quite a bit from the book, but it's a great film, so I consider them to be merely two different works with the same name
Also, a lot of movies are based on books, and I'm not always interested in reading the book. There are some movies that are based on books, and I don't find out that they have literary counterparts until much later.

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I totally agree with what Larien just said.

I always read the books before I see the movie...with the exception of Whale Rider and Endurance, because I had no idea they were even books.

I mean, it's always more fun, for me at least, to read books. Movies are just something I do if I have the time. And especially, if there is a movie I'd like to see that was based on a book, then I'll definately read it first. It doesn't "spoil" anything for me...and if it came down to it, I'd rather the book over the movie.

There are some books, that I've become so attatched too, that I absolutely refuse to see the movie. (The DaVinci Code is a GREAT example). I guess sometimes, if you read the book first, then you will obviously imagine the characters and scenery differently than in the movie. But that's also a double edged sword, because if you see the movie first...then you'll imagine the characters like the actors playing them.

And then, I guess it depends on if you're just too lazy to read a book. Which is sad, because I'm seeing more and more of that lately. Especially with Harry Potter. That's pretty ridiculous..."I'll just wait for the movie." ACK! What has happened to all the screenwriters?!

So, I encourage one and all to read the books first! Then decide if you want to see the movie. Hmm...I didn't make much sense...bah.

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And, if you see the movie, then read the book, you'll just keep thinking about the actors who played the characters and just picture them in your head when you're reading it instead of forming your own mind about how they should look.

I think reading the book is crucial before seeing a movie. I don't know why, I just feel that way. Maybe because you would actually know what's going on, and to compare a movie to a book is mostly very interesting. Movies are usually a lot more fast-paced, and they usually chuck in a somewhat insignificant character and then kill them off... or put in a surprise romance somewhere... just to make the audience intruigued.

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Yep I agree, I don't like it when they change too much.

^ I'm the opposite, I don't like it when the film director sticks too closely to the book unless it seems as if that will make the film better. I prefere to have my books and films separate and I don't like a film to be just an illustrated version of a good book. I want to get more and different things from the film than I got from the book. I'm also more fussy in films about unnecessary scenes from the book.

At the moment I can't actually think of any books that I read because I was going to see the film. I might have re-read LotR, HP and such like for the film coming out but I can't think of anything I read for the first time because of that. Now I generally try not to read the book too close before seeing the film as I suspect it could spoil the film. There are quite a few books I've read after seeing the film though. A few were disapointing like Big Fish but others like Pride and Prejudice and Little Women I loved and I don't think were spoiled at all because of seeing the film first.

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I always try to read the book before I see the movie. A lot of times I'll end up being disappointed with the movie, though. I didn't do that with LotR, though, because I was too little to understand the books at that age when FotR came out (I don't think I even saw FotR until TTT or RotK came out). In some ways, maybe that was a good thing. If I loved the books beforehand I probably would hate the movies because of the minor changes they made or even if I didn't agree with the casting. (That's what happened with me and Harry Potter... I still haven't gotten over the third movie!)

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The book is always better, so you should read it first. This way the movie doesn't interfere with you imagination

I saw the first 2 LotR movies before reading the books. Actually I was half through TTT when I saw the movie. I wish I had read them first...but I have a horrible memory so it's not as if I actually remembered the movie when I was reading FotR for the first time.

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*agrees with Elanor*

I see the book and movie as different interpretations of the story, so if you're going to compare them, it doesn't matter to me which one you see first. Also, a lot of stories don't have 'the' movie - they have lots of movies. Pride and Prejudice, for example, has even more interpretations to consider. For me, the chage of media isn't all that important. Different things should be done in movies than in books; therefore, I'm okay with directors taking liscence to change the film version of a book up a little.

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I just love movies that are based on books. Everytime we rent a movie, the movie is usually based on a book so when my mother asks for the rating, we just say the rating but it's based on a book. 99% of the time, she says ok. But I doubt I can pull that off with Night Watch.

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I was cured all right.