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how much does the average person spend on books a year - Google Search

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Jul 14, 2009 ... How do your spending habits compare to those of the " average" American? I'm especially curious to hear how much GRS readers spend on books. The average of $118 per year doesn't buy a lot of reading material. On the other hand, maybe people are using their public libraries!

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The average amount of money spent on movies - Google Search

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Dec 23, 2016 ... It's no secret that America loves its entertainment, from movies to music to video games. Just how much do they spend on these ... Northeast spending was $54,918, Midwest spending was $47,846, Southern spending was $46,823 and Western spending was $55,453. expenses- average. The average ...

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how much does the average person spend on books a year?

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What is the average amount of money spent on movies?

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Books allow you to know what the characters are actually thinking. Books allow you to get to know the characters better

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Ever since the first book was adapted into a movie ("Sherlock Holmes Baffled" in 1900, if you're wondering), there has been much discussion about which is better--reading the original book or watching the movie adaptation? Each version has its own merits, which is probably why the debate has never been laid to rest, but to me there is a clear winner. As an avid book reader and lover (and hopefully future writer), I will always side with the book--no matter how good the movie that follows may or may not be. Here are the reasons why...

1. Books allow you to know what the characters are actually thinking.

One of my top arguments for why I will always prefer books is that books actually allow you to know what the characters are thinking or feeling. In movies, you have to rely on two things: 1) a character telling you what they (or others) are thinking or feeling, or 2) the subtext you can pick up from the performance of the actor. This may be fine for the people who pay attention that closely, but it is a lot more difficult if you're someone like me. There are also certain thoughts or feelings that you can't tell just by looking at an actor. Take a heart pounding faster, for example.

2. Books allow you to get to know the characters better.

As a result of many of the reasons on this list, books let you get to know the characters better. You get to know their actual thoughts (like I said in #1), you spend more time with them, and you learn more details about them. Take the Harry Potter series-- one of the most famous book to movie adaptations--for example. If you just watch the movies without reading the books, there is a lot that you don't know about the characters because it was left out of the movie. This brings me to my next reason.

3. Books don't have to cram everything into a two-hour time frame.

Books get to tell their stories in hundreds (sometimes thousands) of pages that take hours to read. A movie has a limited time frame of roughly two hours. You know, that is unless you divide the story into two movies like they have been doing. There is no way to get all of the material from the hundreds of book pages into a two four-hour movie. Because of this, important events and details often get left out of the movie in order to fit the limited time frame and/or because they may or may not work well with the medium. If you just watch the movie, you aren't really getting the whole story--just the condensed version.

4. Books allow you to experience the story at your own pace.

This can be related to reason three. With books, you can take your time and read at whatever pace you want to. You can breeze through it in a day or two (if you have that much consecutive time) or you can take your sweet time and enjoy it slowly over a few weeks or even months. On the other hand, movies are usually watched in a one, roughly two-hour sitting. This option is a lot faster overall if you have a busier schedule, but it also means you have to find the time in your busy day to dedicate to the watching the whole movie. You don't really have the option of watching it chapter by chapter or scene by scene...unless, of course, you want to.

5. Books leave more to the imagination.

Books allow you to be more creative and imagine the characters, places, scenes and so on, the way you want to. Everyone can have their own interpretation of things when they read, because there is no right or wrong one. In movies, all of the work is done for you with the set choice of actors and other visual details. And not everything or everyone chosen for a movie lines up with what the readers pictured in their minds, which can be a major source of discord for the more loyal book fans.

6. Books are more detailed.

There are certain things you can do in a book that you just can't in a movie. Besides letting you know the characters' thoughts, which I've already touched on, books also let you in on more basic story and plot details. It is a lot easier to set up the story and explain what is going on in a book simply because of the medium/format. An author can use anywhere from a line of dialogue to a paragraph to even a whole chapter to give the readers the background information they need. Movies have fewer options to do this and mostly have to rely on dialogue to get the job done. It takes a good balance to make this work, though, because where a couple lines of dialogue are fine, a whole big monologue of exposition takes up a lot of time and interrupts the flow of the story.

7. Books are portable.

This is an easy one. You can carry a book around with you almost anywhere you go. There's now also the option of reading it on your electronic devices. You can do this with some movies too, sure, but most of the time it's on a smaller screen that makes it harder to enjoy. Other than that, you either need to be at a movie theater or have a TV and/or a VCR (old-fashioned, I know), DVD, or Blu-ray player.

8. Books are cheaper.

Anyone who has been to the movies lately can tell you that it is not cheap. Even if you get a good price on the tickets, you also have to add the cost of any food or drinks you get there plus the cost of driving there. If you don't want to shell out that kind of money to see a movie in theaters, you can wait to buy it when it comes to stores (or Netflix now), which still isn't all that cheap. Books are usually cheaper because you can borrow most of them from a friend or a library. They're usually cheaper if you buy them too, unless you buy some sort of special edition of the book or a whole series.

9. Books allow you to experience the story as the author intended it.

Another one of the reasons that I am most passionate about is that books allow you to experience everything as the author intended it to be (for the most part). There are no big Hollywood agendas or studio/director/screenwriter changes made to the story when you're reading the book. The publishing company, yes, but not Hollywood. I can tell you that there is nothing more disappointing for a book lover than seeing one of your favorite stories be butchered and changed when it is made into a movie. My fellow Percy Jackson fans will know what I am talking about.

10. Books can stay with you forever.

There's not really much I can add to this one other than the books that we read and love, whether as a child or an adult, have a way of sticking with us and influencing us in ways we could never have imagined. The aforementioned Harry Potter series does this for me. Even though I read these books at a very young age, the stories have stuck with me to this day and remain one of my all-time favorites. I don't care how good a movie adaptation may be; none of them have made as much of an impact on me as their book counterparts have.

It's clear to see that I have a lot of opinions when it comes to this particular topic. I love movies just as much as the next person, but when it comes to book-to-movie adaptations, there really is no contest for me. Because no matter how great the visuals and effects for a movie may be, nothing will ever beat its more detailed, intimate, imaginative, and character-driven book. Anyone who disagrees can leave me a comment so we can respectfully discuss it.

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10 Reasons Why Books Are Better Than Their Movie Adaptations

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Ever since the first book was adapted into a movie ("Sherlock Holmes Baffled" in 1900, if you're wondering), there has been much discussion about which is better--reading the original book or watching the movie adaptation? Each version has its own merits, which is probably why the debate has never been laid to rest, but to me there is a clear winner.

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Some people like movies more than books because its faster and effortless. Visually movies are more appealing. Many people say a page of text is daunting and dull and they are automatically locked out from accessing the story.

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So last week I shared my thoughts on why books are better than movies. The post was mostly in response to people who ask me why I bother to read since you can just wait for the movie watch the story faster and with less effort. I had ten very good reasons and in the comments left there were probably another ten mentioned. That said, I love movies as well. Not enough that I would ever give up books, but enough that I realise that some stories are better told on the screen than on the pages.

And that is really the whole point. Juliet Boyd did a follow up to my post asking why we would expect books to make good movies and she raises some excellent points. With that said I would like to jump into my ten reasons why movies are better than books (sometimes).

1. Visually movies are more appealing. To many people a page of text is daunting and dull and they are automatically locked out from accessing the story. Stories are more accessible to a larger number of people in movie form than as books.

2. Leif Motifs - you know the music that plays as one particular character comes on screen. It tells us the bad guy is coming or that the hero is entering the fray and whether we like it or not it gives us a slight emotional charge that just isn't there when you read it in a book. If you want the perfect example of this, watch Star Wars. Luke Skywalker comes on screen, cue either the wistful music or the hero music. Darth Vadar appears and we have the strong military beat. Han Solo and we get a sense of whimsy and so on.

3. Time is of the essence - I read a lot and I read fast but if I were to spend my entire weekend doing nothing but reading I'd be pushing to finish three novels (admittedly I read fantasy and they tend to be huge but still). If I spend the entire weekend watching movies (unless I'm watching Lord of the Rings or something equally epic) I can probably knock over about twelve movies. Movies skip out a lot of detail that appears in books, plus they don't need to describe scenes to you, they just flash a picture and move on. They are quicker in conveying the story.

4. Special Effects - Now it has been pointed out that our imagination has no limitations and special effects do so things that sound really good in books sometimes look quite ridiculous in movies. However, my imagination is limited by my sense of reality and so when a book has a car crash I see a little ding and a bit of broken glass, where as a movie will usually just blow the car up in a spectacular show of carnage. Logically I know the car probably wouldn't blow up but watching it on the screen I can go with it. Reading about it, I will usually tone it down.

5. The social aspect - You can go to the movies with your friends (and if you don't mind the evil glares you can talk while watching). More importantly, you can watch a movie at home with everyone gathered in the one room chatting and eating and it is a very social experience. I don't know about you, but when I read, I read. I've had people steal the book out of my hands, throw water at me and clap their hands over my eyes to get my attention while I'm reading. It isn't a social event.

6. Okay I waited until number six for this one and that was very restrained of me. Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderes, etc, etc, etc. Don't tell me you've never chosen a movie just because you thought the main actor was cute. Technically this is part of the visual appeal but I felt it needed to be separate.

7. Action sequences - yes you can read action sequences but I find them quite dull. Particularly sword fights. Please do not describe everything single thrust and parry to me if you expect me to still be reading by the time the battle is over. However, in movies... they define the show don't tell theory. It is a lot more exciting to watch a sword fight than to read a blow by blow commentary on a sword fight.

8. Previews - I hope I'm not the only person who does this, but I love previews. Half the fun of going to the movies, or renting a movie, is to watch previews and to find out about other movies. Sometimes books have other books by the same author or publisher listed, but they aren't quite as exciting as movies. I was wondering if now with ebooks and readers whether they could start putting book trailers with books and that would be almost the same but maybe they can't. I don't know.

9. Jaws. Read the book. Watch the movie. Toss the book. That is kind of cruel given it is beautifully written but the love triangle is dull and all of the character development takes away from the thrills. The movie focused entirely on the suspense and the thrill and nailed it. The book, for once, was too cluttered. Sorry to anyone who loved reading the book.

10. I kind of ran out at nine so ten is going to frozen coke which I always drink at the movies. I don't drink it when reading because the condensation leaves water marks on the pages of the book. If you can think of a tenth, be sure to add it.

Tell me your reasons why movies are better.

Comments are closed.

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10 Reasons Why Movies Are Better Than Books

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So last week I shared my thoughts on why books are better than movies. The post was mostly in response to people who ask me why I bother to read since you can just wait for the movie watch the stor...

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Why do people like books more than movies?

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Why do people like movies more than books?

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Movies VS Books