Book Turned Movies: Yay or Nay?

In the past few years there has been an increasing number of movies that are based on books. I don't necessarily hate this, but the fact that each book I pick up ends up being made into a movie is just frustrating. 

Why you ask? Simply because I am all about imagination. Imagination is the most of the time the only thing many have to keep us going. 

The reason why I read stories is to escape from a world I despise, if only for a short-lived moment in between classes or an entire day of holiday. I can lose myself in a world I love where my problems are no longer mine but of the character I am impersonating for the time-being. On days when I am bored of life's quotidian patterns, I get to live adventures vicariously through this person developed out of someone else's imagination. For a while, I get to live an interesting life fighting crime, being a werewolf, falling in love with a faery prince, or being a wizard. For a while, I don't have to worry about grades, studying for tests, doing the chores, living up to parent's expectation, world hunger, world peace and everything humans do wrong. 

To me, books are also a special private sanctuary. No one around me usually knows about the books I read, their characters, the plot. Make it into a movie, and suddenly everyone in close proximity knows everything about the book. It is no longer that safe haven. (Still gotta get to reading that book by Nicholas Sparks. The imagination part is lost already because I have already seen the actors and will continue to imagine them as the characters when I read). I can no longer escape to the safety of the book alone with the characters. (Note the irony as book settings are anything but safe) It now feels like all of mankind is with me while reading the book and not just fellow readers. It's no longer our own private world (referring to the all the readers of the book). I used to feel a special camaraderie with other readers, but now that everyone knows the story, the feeling is no longer alive.

When I pick up a new book, I like having the choice of imagining details any way I fancy, twisting the descriptions around in my mind's eye to form images the way I desire. I don't care whether I have read a story once or five times. I like knowing that I have a stash of imagination food on my bookshelves that I can read over and over again whenever I wish to live the life of that character the way I imagine. I like modifying my imaginary world a little differently whenever I read the same book again. Stories aren't just nutrition for the imagination but your horizons, vocabulary, and thinking. It's also a proven stress-reliever I tell you!

Come ye media and movies, we are stripped of the joy of imagination. It is easy to say: well you are not forced to watch the movies. But darlings, it is hard to stay away from media in this day and age. I am alway encircled by it everywhere I go. I am bound to see a poster or a trailer of a book-made movie while walking on the street, in a mall, watching TV at home. Browsing the net I am bound to see 'so and so actor for the upcoming movie based on so and so book'. My friends would likely come to me with news about such stuff as everyone is in a media-frenzy this century. So how can I escape it? The answer is: I can't. 

Books are already beginning to lose readers to movies. I hear many people changing their minds about reading a book as soon as they see a movie coming up for it, not knowing the infinite joy of which they are depriving their imagination. There is no imagination is watching movies. Your eyes and ears feed your brain signals and that is all the stimulation you are getting: auditory and visual with no other cognitive processes. 

I can't blame hollywood, after all it is a business and businesses are all about making money. And what better way to make money, they realized, than using books that have already been read and loved by people and probably have a ginormous fan-base, instead of writing out new stories and living in fear of the movie being a flop. Or maybe it is simply that hollywood writers are running out of ideas and this proved to be their life jacket. But that simply could not be the answer because to me human minds are vast pools of imagination and do not run out of ideas. Perhaps the new minds of today are very savvy and sharp-witted that the previous movie ideas of hollywood simply do not entertain them and only through the stories of books being made into movies were they satisfied?

At the end of the day I think it is all about money, and supply and demand. Most people out there are more than eager to witness live-action versions of their most cherished stories. You get to see your favorite book come to life, hollywood makes money (not just money but MONEY), the author makes money, everyone's happy. But are they really - the readers that is?