Reading, watching, listening to... a book

From Gutenberg to my mother, reading a book has been one of the best ways to spend my time. Perhaps you do not agree with me and you are thinking of the best thing to devote your time to, but even for that thing you are thinking about, I would dare to say, you need or have sometimes needed a book, particularly if you are trying to do it well. Reading a book is the most moving and stimulating thing you can do without having to sweat or get tired. And even more, reading a book is really an adventure, a personal and hazardous undertaking, the only risk that a man like me, mortal and fearful, can afford to take. Nevertheless, if you love perspiration and feeling the endorphins running through your veins, this is not for you, so, please go practice any sport and let us alone to enjoy our books.

You will be able to experience a lot of things by reading a book... in your imagination, of course. For instance, you can enter the murderer’s hideout without being seen, smell the perfume when the girl takes off her clothes or even, if you want it, save the whole world or a piece of it. In addition, you can sell your soul, give life to a corpse, go around the world in 80 days, or live one hundred years in solitude just by going beyond the cover of a book. Knowledge, compassion, emotion, justice, crime and punishment, beauty and ugliness... there is room for everything in a book and by extension all things fit in the core of the one who reads, in that secret room closed to the reader’s heart. But, dear reader, be careful. Opening a book has a lot of side effects: it can affect your mind and change your mood; after reading for a while you might feel wiser, stronger, the most overwhelming person in the world. Well, let’s just say wiser and stronger... Just wiser?... Maybe only witty? Anyway, you will surely feel better than before you started to read. In any case it is the best way to spend a while by yourself.

Books are good for almost everything, as you can see. We can read to have a good time, pass an exam or impress friends with our knowledge. These are some of the common uses of a book. But people use books as well for other purposes as well, like lighting a fire, shimming a table, reaching a biscuit box, hammering a nail or feeling taller in front of a mirror; these are some of the uncommon uses of a book. This way you can see how versatile or adaptable a book could be. But, please, don’t take me too seriously, I’m just kidding.

I like reading but sometimes I have the chance to watch a book, that is, to watch a movie based on a book. Most of my favourite movies have come from a book, such as Solaris or Farenheit 451. The relationship between movies and literature is a thorny issue. Most people think that movies based on novels are inferior to the novel itself; that is, lower or poorer in quality. Some think that it is not possible to enjoy the book after having watched the movie. I am not sure. A high percentage of the most awarded movies in the history of the cinema have been adaptations of books but the movie-goers do not know this. Filmmakers like Kubrick, for instance, only used novels or short stories for their scripts.

Comparing movies to literature is not recommended; they are two different narrative forms. A movie has more impact and uses a lot of expository tricks; visualization in a film is easier than in a novel but it is a more passive act since the plot is shown in pictures; in a novel, visualization is an active act and, therefore, difficult and demanding of more intellectual effort because you have to re-create the plot by yourself. But a novel has more room to create scenes, characters and so on. So it is better not to compare them. What we can do is to give our opinion about whether the film adaptation is faithful to the text and summarises the essence of its messages or situations or whether it cares for the structure, reproduces the atmosphere, is a good portrait of the characters and so on.

Anyway, when I have the chance, what I like doing is watching a book and reading a movie. The film provides the setting (borrowed but normally reliable) and the book provides the depth in the characters and the plot if needed. So, this way, I enjoy both, the book and the film. Try it. It is a fantastic mix I enjoy reading and watching books and, too, listening to them. There are some ways to listen to a book. For instance, listening stories narrated on the radio is a pleasure that only compares to listening to music. And the same is true of audiobooks. It does not matter if it is a theatre play, a novel or a short story. You are always transported to a new world by the magic of voices that come from the outer space. I can feel still around me the sound of Tris Tras Tres, a radio broadcast in the 80’s, by Carlos Faraco. It was my nightly surprise. The echo of those voices resounds in my mind after all these years.

To summarize, what I like is to learn stories, the stories themselves, and I do not care how they came to me: in a book or in a movie or in a radio broadcast or audiobook. In the future, thanks to the digital era, we will able to read, watch and listen to a story at the same time. The first digital generation are already doing it right now. Are you up for it, too?

Bart Ptolomy