Book, Mind, Film • Eat, Pray, Love

Been reading the book "Eat, Pray, Love" slowly, a little before I sleep one some nights and a little before work some mornings, a few chapters every other day. It is one of those overhyped books that is advertised at every single corner on earth and then made into a jump-onto-the-profit-wagon-movie, like " The Da Vinci Code ". I love The Da Vinci Code book a lot, hate the maroon cover design though. Don't remember much about the movie.

There is this book/film game that I love playing once a while. I shall name it lamely as "Book, Mind, Film" (after "Eat, Pray, Love")! I have a kick out of watching a film based on a book I have read. I will read the book first, imagine how all the characters look and sound like and then watch the film and see if the characters, the settings I have built in my head and the ones the director has were similar in any ways. Also, seeing all those words on paperback transforming into visuals. For better or worse, it's still an incredible experience for me. It's like looking at an object from different angles or knowing the actual lyrics of a song for the very first time after knowing the song and melody for years. You look at it from a fresh new point of view.

Have watched a bunch of mediocre book/film combination like "The Kite Runner" (I love the book so much but the film felt like a haste summary with some characters miscasted), "Perfume" (My favorite book of all time so it's really too hard to make a film up to my dream expectation.)

The best book/film combination I have came upon is Shawshank Redemption. It was a great journey of "Book, Mind, Film". Both the book and the movie were so good I had goosebumps reading and watching them. The characters were so perfect I only see Tim Robbins as that particular brilliant character in any other movies I seen him in after that. Morgan Freeman is an even better Red than the Red I have created in my head.

Shawshank Redemption • The Kite Runner • The Da Vinci Code • Perfume • Eat, Pray, Love

read the book > imagine the characters and settings > watch the film :)

I am in the Bali chapters of "Eat, Pray, Love" now, the Love section. This book is part funny, part whiny and super duper girly. I love her humor a lot but I can't stand the whiny part about relationships but I guess it was an essential and relevant part of her discovery and it was meant to be this way to show progression as well. Till this moment, I have to say although it's overly hyped, I know why it's a great read because there are so many parts of it a lot of people and I can relate to. Almost done with the reading but I don't want to rush through it. There's more than enough time before my plan to watch the film version this weekend if time permits.