If there was a good plot presented in front of you, would you watch the movie made about it, or would you read the book written about it? Most people would probably choose to watch the movie rather than read the book because movies are easier, you don’t have to use your imagination because everything plays out in front of your eyes. For most people, it takes less time to watch a two-hour movie than it would take to read a book. But here are a couple of reasons why books are better than movies. 

There’s only so much time that directors have to include information, so it’s only fair that most scenes get cut. Most movies are about two hours long, which seems like plenty of time, but because of how lengthy a book is, it can be hard to fit so much detail into a two-hour movie. Although directors try to only cut the scenes that are the least significant to the plot, you can’t help but feel like the movie doesn’t quite reach its full potential. On the other hand, authors can put so much detail into each chapter and add more character development, which only adds to the story. It might seem insignificant to some, but in the end, it’s the little things in between the big moments that bring everything else together, and then everything else can fall into place. 

Movies tend to go by quickly when you enjoy the content. This means that by the end of it, you find yourself detached from the story like it was nothing more than a small distraction you probably won’t look back on. It’s different with books. You have to use your imagination to picture what you’re reading using only the detailed descriptions in front of you, and sometimes there are little gaps that you have to fill in yourself. You feel like you’re part of the story, like you’re in a completely different world, a world that might not even be possible. As you watch the characters develop, you almost feel like you’ve known them your whole life; you gain a sort of attachment to the characters, which adds so much emotion to the story.

Most movies produced have been based on books, and the way you view the movie could differ depending on whether or not you’ve read the books. Sometimes the movie being produced gets steered in a different direction than the book went. The producers may have cut some crucial scenes, changed the way specific scenes played out, or used an alternative ending that wasn’t used in the book but may fit better for the length and time of the movie. There have been so many movies that were completely different from the book that they based the movie on, which ruins the experience for people that read the book and had high expectations for the movie. Just like there have been times when people that didn’t read the books hated the movie and then decided that the book wasn’t worth reading. I personally have read books then watched the movie based on the books and hated them but still love the books nonetheless. 

In conclusion, when a movie is being produced about a book, you should always read the book first. Everyone should read more books in general because it’s a good way to escape the reality of life right now. Now is a better time than ever to start reading with us still not going to school and not being able to do much. So I will ask the same question again, but now that we’ve reached the end, hopefully, you will have a different answer; if there was a really good plot presented in front of you, would you watch the movie made about it, or would you read the book written about it?