Wednesday 10 February 2016

Paperback's Pondering's: The Reader vs. The Non-Reader (Non-Reader's Point of View)


Well this is new. Hello there! My name’s Claudia and my sister Emily asked me if I wanted to write a post for her blog, and to be honest with you, I was kind of apprehensive about it. I’m absolutely terrible at putting my thoughts to paper, and I’d rather have a rant face to face with someone then through the Internet. But, I’ll give it a go. Please bear with me, like I said this is probably going to be very informal and contain many grammatical errors, but hey, we all learn differently, right?             

I’d like to start off this post by saying that a lot of the things I’m going to be talking about are my personal opinions and beliefs. Now you may not agree with my opinion, and that’s totally fine. However, please do recognise that my opinion is not meant to offend of hurt anyone else, and if you respect mine, I’ll respect yours. After all, a little debate is always healthy. Anyways, as you may have guessed by the title, I’m not exactly an avid reader. And when I say this, I mean that I’ve basically only read John Green. A lot of the reviews I see my sister write, I have never even heard of the books, or authors. So this kind of gives you an idea on how many books I’ve actually read.

Now here’s the thing, I don’t actually hate reading or hate books. In fact, I hope that in the coming year I can get a lot more into books. The thing is, it takes A LOT to impress me. Some books I’ve attempted to read are just so boring and so dry and so un-intelligent (in my opinion) that I just can’t get through them. Now here’s a secret, I skipped pages all throughout attempting to read the Harry Potter series, and ended up giving up by the third book because I couldn’t understand what the hell was going on. Now this may be because I don’t have an active imagination, and fantasy books just do not appeal to me at all. 

 Now don’t get me wrong, JK Rowling is an amazing person/author, and I can’t even imagine how she came up with this whole series. But for me, I didn’t enjoy it at all. Some might say that it is just because I'm not an avid reader, but at the time I read it, I was pretty much at the same level as my sister. I just could not get through this series. 

Most books that I see my sister reading do not appeal to me at all. I always wonder why there are so many post apocalyptic books nowadays, it just seems so repetitive. I would personally prefer to read more realistic, dark books.  For example, Perks of Being a Wallflower completely knocked it out if the park for me. It left me with amazing lessons and life questions for anyone out there. However it's the more mythical or futuristic books that leave me uninterested. 

Another huge issue: films. Now I don’t understand why book worms get so defensive when a book becomes a movie and non-book readers obsess over it.  You didn’t write the book, you have no control over what people can and cannot see when they go to the movies, and it’s a free freaking country!!!!! If I want to go see every single Harry Potter movie in the theatre, but haven’t read single book, guess what? I’M GOING TO. If I want to buy a Hogwarts sweater and haven’t read a single book but seen the movie, I’M GOING TO. AND WHAT SHOULD IT MATTER TO YOU?! Movies are simply meant to attract more fans. If you've become a fan of a movie, that's great! If that movie happened to be a book first, that's great too! But what does it matter if you haven't read the book? You've seen a movie, and you like that movie, and now you've become a fan. Why.Should.It.Matter? 

 Movies are meant to bring words to life. Movies are meant to inspire more viewers and more people to engage on what was once a novel. After all, the author gave permission for their book to be made into a movie, so I’m not exactly sure why some become so offended. Taking the Harry Potter series for example, great movies. The special effects and acting was amazing. Now I absolutely love movies as well as acting, so yes I do prefer the film rather than the book. The opportunity for an actor to forget their lives and put themselves in another person’s shoes, I just find so incredible.

Well, that was a long post. I don’t know how many of you actually made it to the end, but if you did, thank you. Thank you for hearing my side of the story and actually giving us non-readers some attention. In the end, we’re all the same people in this crazy messed up world, and if we start worrying about ourselves and less about other people, life would be amazing. Well that’s all for me today, thank you for reading to the end if you did, and if you want to comment anything to me/about what I said, negative or positive, please do. My sister said she’d tell me if this got any comments, and I would be happy to reply. Again, I don’t care if you don’t like my opinion, but as long as you respect mine, I’ll respect yours. Thanks again!
-         
      Claudia


12 comments:

  1. Claudia, I totally understand the taking a lot to impress thing. Lately a lot of the books I have been reading have been falling short for me. I also agree that people get unnecessarily apprehensive when it comes to movies. Personally, there are a ton of book to movie adaptations where I haven't read the book because I don't the book would be as enjoyable as the movie.

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    1. Thanks for your opinion! Yes, there are a ton of books that weren't as enjoyable as the movie. Hopefully we can both find our perfect books soon! :)
      Claudia

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  2. HEY CLAUDIA *waves excitedly* ITS GREAT TO SEE YOU POST - especially about this topic! :)
    You've brought up some FANTASTIC points :)
    As a reader, I find that it's a matter of finding the right book? Like you said, you're not really into the mythical stuff, but Perks was AMAZING for you (AND I AGREE - PERKS WAS FANTASTIC!). I personally think that non-readers just haven't found the kind of books they like best?? But that's just me :S
    I think us bookworms get so upset when a new movie is made because of several reasons. For one, if we love the book, then we're SUPER worried that the movie won't be as great (HINT: The Mortal Instruments movie compared to the original book, City of Bones -cringes-). Also, I know that for me, I get a bit annoyed because it feels like there are all these fake fans?? For example, there'll be a couple of people just quoting a book, and THEY DONT EVEN KNOW THE REAL MEANING BEHIND IT. And plus, sometimes it feels like its to be with the "popular" thing, you know? For me, it feels like it devalues the meaning of the book/series, and it cheapens it :S
    Movies are definitely fantastic - it's so great to see how the story is reimagined and portrayed from a completely different medium! :)
    SORRY FOR THE LONG AS COMMENT - I'm just really into this topic haha and I love your post! THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS and I'm really sorry if I've offended you in any way :/

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    1. Hi Geraldine! First let me start off by saying how much I love your name! It's really unique and sounds really nice! :P Anyways, I totally agree with you 100% that us non-readers probably just haven't found the right book. Some completely hate reading and books, but like I said, it just takes a lot to impress me. :) And I do see your point with the movies and the whole "fake fan" thing. I agree that as a fan of a book, movie, band, etc, we do get a little over protective/defensive sometimes. :P I see it in myself with the bands that I love as well! I guess for me I just don't see it from the book reader's point of view? You know? I kind of just think that if it's a movie that you like, it shouldn't really matter if you've read the book or not. But again you did bring up some really good points about people not understanding the meaning behind the book, which I will agree bothers me a lot when I like a song or a movie. Thank you for your comment, and don't worry you did not offend me one bit, it's great to see other people's point of view! :)

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    2. AW Claudia, THAT's SO SWEET OMG <3 Thankyouuu :)
      Yeah haha, it's easy to get protective of the things we love! For a movie yeah, it doesn't really matter if you've read the book for me - so long as you get what the book originally meant, or at least the movie, then I'm fine. I remember being really annoyed with The Hunger Games because after a while, it seemed like there were so many fake fans, that were only focused on Team Peeta and Team Gale - that frustrated me to no end!
      I'm so glad I didn't offend you <3

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  3. Totally agree! There's nothing wrong with preferring the movie. There's nothing wrong with preferring the book. There's nothing wrong with feeling both have their own merits and that neither was 'better' than the other. :)

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    1. Definitely! For me, I'm an avid movie watcher, and so I do enjoy the movie better. But then again there are some that enjoy reading the story and creating their own picture in their mind, rather than seeing it come to life in a movie. :)
      -Claudia

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    2. I'm definitely of the 'just enjoy your film/book' school of thought :)

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  4. I totally agree with you! Some avid readers get too defensive about their favourite books being turned into films. I didn't enjoy Harry Potter either, but I did like the films! I adored perks too. I hope you manage to find more books this year that you enjoy! :D

    Denise | The Bibliolater

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    1. I guess as a fan of anything really, we get really defensive/over protective. But some just take it a little overboard! I just don't think there's anything wrong with preferring one over the other, or reading/watching one but not watching/reading the other, you know? And thank you! I hope that I can find more books that appeal to me as well! :)
      - Claudia

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  5. HEY THERE, CLAUDIA!! First of all, I'm really sorry I'm so late in commenting here but I somehow missed this post when it first went up- I was SO looking forward to seeing the non readers' point of view!

    Now that that's out of the way, let me get into the matter at hand. I have to say I was feeling maybe a bit too biased towards non-readers, what with me being a reader myself and all that, but now that you've aired your views, I think I'm finally more open to accepting that it really IS okay to be a fan of the movie even if you haven't read or do not want to read the book.

    My problem is that when it comes to series like Harry Potter, I kinda feel that those who watch only the movies miss so MUCH of the story. IDK. But I guess you can't really miss something you don't know about... Argh, but that's exactly what I'm talking about- I want the non-readers to see what they are missing out on. But on the other hand, I COMPLETELY agree with you about some books being quite unappealing when the movies are much better. So I guess in the end we just have to respect each other's opinions and just deal wit h it :D

    Great discussion, Claudia- you and Emily should really collab more and bring about more stuff like this!

    Ruzaika @ The Regal Critiques

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  6. Hi Ruzaika, thank you so much for commenting! :) You've brought up some really good points! I feel like all of us are really biased toward the things that we love, and the things that are special to us. And I completely agree with you! I know I get really defensive over my favourite bands/movies when these so called "fake fans" come waltzing in, pretending they know everything. It can get very frustrating. However, you said it best. It all comes down to respecting each other's opinions and not jumping to conclusions. I'm glad you liked the post, hopefully my sister will allow me to write more for her blog in the future. :P
    - Claudia

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