Books, Books, and more Books. . . and some movies.

We've had unusual weather here in Florida.  It's been cloudy, cool, and rainy.  Not good pool weather or beach weather at all.  I've been inside today, just reading. 

A couple of days ago, or a week ago (?) I posted the 100 books people should read before they pass on to the Great Beyond.  I guess I won't die because I only read 67 of them.  Therefore, I have dutifully kept a list of several that I HAD wanted to read, but hadn't - just forgot, or found others that seemed to be to my liking. 

So - anyway - from my list I've added that I've read so far,  in order:  To Kill a Mockingbird, A Town Like Alice - by Neville Schutt,  The Stand - by Stephen King.

Paul and I saw a TV program about Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird.  I'd seen the movie.  We tried to locate it on Kindle.  No luck.  There's a lot of books about it - study guides, etc.  but not a single copy to be found.  So, Paul, who had read it before when he was on a work-trip, years, and years and years ago, ordered a paperback copy of it. 

As he was reading, all he could say was:  "Wow."  "This is greater than I thought."   "I keep reading parts that I've forgotten."  "You have to read this book. "  This kind of made me kinda sorta interested.  I needed to scratch that itch.  So I read it.   And . . . . I couldn't put it down.

 Now, they, meaning the knowledgable ones,  always say - and I agree - I've never found a movie better than a book.  Ever. So. . .  a book is better than a movie. ( I knew that.) 

An Aside:  The series on Harper Lee said that she and Truman Capote grew up in the same home town and he's one of the important characters in the book.  It has been said that when she won the Pulitzer prize for TKAMB, he became very jealous because he thought he his In Cold Blood should win.  He left their friendship and never talked to her again.

"A Town Like Alice" was a PBS  Masterpiece Theatre special a lot of years ago.  I hadn't seen the whole show, but I remembered it, and after reading about it on Kindle - found that I wanted to complete the story.  This was another time where I could picture the people.   It helps.  This was also a good read also. 

Now, I'm on "The Stand".  Well.  This is another book I wanted to read.  I got it on Kindle.  Stephen King has written a Forward, saying he added 400 pages to the original 1200.   So, I don't feel badly when I start skipping words, lines, paragraphs that don't have anything to do with what appears to be the original story.  So far, I'm enjoying it. Also, when I can,  I skip the gore that he puts in.  The book is basically the fight between Good and Evil at the end of the world as we know it.  His characters change according to the part they are, which are one of his gifts of writing.  This was another TV mini-series, a long time ago.  I think I'd like to see that again, when I finish reading it.

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So - I just see a correlation between all the books I've listed, which you probably have already noticed. . . . See the movie.  Read the book. You'll like it better.   Most great books are made into movies.  (It's not the other way around.  Don't read a book that's made from a movie.)   If only people would read, how much more enjoyment they'd get from a story.  There's no way to put on an actor's face what they're thinking, or things an author adds to his story to keep you engaged.  A picture is not worth a thousand words.  Sometimes.  Most of the time.

Bill keeps trying to interest me in watching Game of Thrones.  I keep telling him - I read three of the books and lost interest.  I kept forgetting who all the characters were - even though I started to write them down.  He's right though.  He said. . . If I watch the series, I can keep the characters straight. Perhaps that'll be a new journey for me.  Game of Thrones.  That's a long series.

An added pleasure - Guess What!  I got a letter from Amazon saying that they added $17.00 to my account because they won the lawsuit against the publishers. They paid me back for books that were over-priced! 

 Do you remember that?  The evil publishers tried to price-fix  e-books and they were becoming as expensive as regular books.  Amazon sued them and won!  Yea - for the Good Guys! So, now it's like having a gift certificate to Amazon and I'll be able to buy 3,4 or 5 books, or more.

 I'm so excited - can't you tell how much.  I haven't bought any since I'm reading The Stand.  I'm about 60% done.  It'll be a while.