Friday, June 22, 2012

Friday Favorites: Books made into Movies/TV shows

Happy Friday! Thank goodness it is finally almost the weekend. Tomorrow I have a nice 9 mile run planned, followed by my regular Pilates class. 

Once again this week I have a Friday Favorite for you that is not about running!  Some of you may be familiar with the show Dexter on Showtime?  Well I had heard about it from friends but I had never watched it because we don't have the Showtime channel.  I just happened to be at the library a few weeks ago and a book caught my eye.  It was on the "Hot Book" shelf with many other popular books. 


It was the latest novel in the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay and I was quite intrigued so I went to the regular book shelves and looked for the first book in the series.  Happily my library had all the books, so I checked out the first two books.


In general I have always tried to follow the rule of reading the book, before seeing the movie and in this case I felt no different.  I wanted to read these books before seeing the TV shows.  I flew through the first book and could not put it down! I was actually reading this right after I ran the marathon and this book kept me up late a few nights which was not really conducive to a good marathon recovery. 

Currently I am more than half way through the second book and I already know I need to hit up the library soon to get the next few books of the series.  I always love a good mystery book and these do not disappoint.  Plus I can't wait to watch the Dexter TV series to see how they compare (or differ)!  I have heard that the first season of Dexter follows the first book very closely but after, the remaining seasons differ greatly from the books. 

I think it is kind of cool to read a book before seeing the movie - I go into the movie knowing that it wont be the same as the book and I am ok with that.  I like to see the different perspectives that the movie producer had compared to what the author was thinking/writing.  Plus I also like to compare it to my perceptions and ideas from when I was reading the book.


Fun Fact: Jeff Lindsay (the author) is the pen name of Jeffrey P. Freundlich.  And his wife is the niece of Ernest Hemingway!


Do you like to read books before they are made into a movie or TV show??

8 comments:

Marlene said...

I usually like to read the books first. I have heard so much hype about the Dexter show but I actually had no clue it started out as a book series. I'll have to scope it out for some summer reading.

Jen Feeny said...

I LOVE Dexter, love, love, love Dexter and had no idea it was originally a book series! Now I must go read it, which sucks because like you, I prefer to read the books first.

Jamie said...

I try to read most books before I see the movie, but sometimes I don't realize that it was a book first! I read the Hunger Games before I saw the movie, which was a good decision.

Unknown said...

I love Dexter!! What a fantastic series of books and TV shows. I actually posted something on my blog of some relevance...
http://splitsrunwrite.blogspot.ca/2012/04/serial-killer-workout.html
Check it out. You probably know this feeling!

Rebecca said...

LOVE Dexter!! Wish we could get it on our facy new TV.... but alas, will have to wait for the DVDs to watch the next season. I knew it was a book, but only after we started watching. Probably won't read them.... I wish I read more, like you :-( I was wondering what book you were so engrossed in!

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

funny, i have the first two books checked out from the library right now too. ;)

Kim said...

Lately, I see the movie first! Well... and never read the book. But I read The Other Boleyn Girl first ;)

I saw a few episodes of Dexter and thought it was good! Too graphic for me though, so I did not watch any more.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE reading the book before the seeing the movie and most of them time I prefer the book, there is so much more detail! The latest book I read and then saw the movie was "The girl with the dragon tattoo".

Currently I'm reading "50 shades of Grey" b/c I want to say what the hype is about. I just wish I would be a faster reader. I takes me a long time to read a book!

My BF used to watch Dexter and stopped b/c it went to Showtime. We need to check out the books!