Why Do I Compulsively Read Books When I Hear They Are Getting A Film Adaptation?

I flipped the final page of Andy Weir’s “The Martian” a couple of weeks ago. Thousands of other people have done the exact same thing since, and we all had similar motivations. I didn’t do it because I had heard good things about the book (at least, that was not the primary reason); rather, I did it because Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the book will be released in theaters this October. A couple of weeks before that, I completed the second book in Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series. I had always wanted to read a Stephen King book, but only decided to take the leap after Sony decided to go forward with a multi-film adaptation of the series. For several years, I had been told that the series was Game of Thrones meets classic western. I love both of those things, but it wasn’t until I knew that there would be The Dark Tower movies that I decided to read the books. Just before that, I read “Watchmen” for the sake of comparing it to the three and a half hour “Ultimate Cut” of the film (Why I would watch an “Ultimate” three hour cut of a Zack Snyder movie? That is a battle I can fight at a later date. Baby steps).

All of these choices are indicative of a horrible pattern I (and many others) have fallen into. Subconsciously, I consider a studio’s decision to adapt a book to film a clear sign that said book is of a high quality. In the past few years, I have become a much less avid reader than I was in my youth, but I have been trying to change that. I will never be one of those people he reads a book per week, but I hope to complete books at a fairly steady rate going forward. The one thing I must change, though, is the criteria on which I base my choice of books on.

The strangest thing about my chronic reading of books that are being adapted for some sort of visual medium, perhaps, is that I loathe trailers. They are the worst. The. Worst. I try to avoid them at all costs (even though that can be very difficult, since they play before all of the movies I go to see in theaters). That spoiler-filled trailer for Southpaw infuriated me to a degree I previously thought no trailer could. I hate going into a screening with a strong idea of what I am about to see. But maybe I just hate knowing some of what is going on, but I like the ability to hang all of the plot over my friends’ heads before they see a film based on a book I have read. Perhaps the false sense of superiority is something that I crave. Am I that petty? Probably. Whatever the reason, it is a habit I can’t shake.

Breakthroughs are a myth

When it comes to reading, I guess I am little more than a sheep flocking to the next Hollywood adaptation. But maybe this is just my first toe dip back into the reading pool. Since I haven’t read as much in recent years, perhaps accessibility is my main qualifier for my next book choice. If there is anything that a big-budget adaptation signals, it is certainly accessibility. They wouldn’t throw millions and millions of dollars at a movie if they didn’t think they could get a solid ROI. But at this point I need to broaden my horizons! Read the classics. Figure out if there is some niche genre that could blow me away. I have dozens of books that I have put in my mental queue as “next up”, but then I push them back when things are adapted. It’s a damn shame and I should be damn ashamed (at this point, dear reader, I should probably thank you for sorting through my self-critical meanderings. Why you would make it this far, I am not sure; but I am certainly appreciative). The mere fact that I wanted to write a piece like this should have been indicative of a breakthrough. I was finally aware enough of the problem to make a change. ‘And make a change I shall!” I thought, I as walked over to my bookshelf.

I squatted down to the bottom row of the shelf and was confronted by the behemoth that is “Infinite Jest” (God help me) and I was oh so proud of myself. Finally, I was reading a book without film ties! I won’t be one of those assholes who keeps in in his room to look smart, anymore! In fact, everything I have heard leads me to believe that this novel is “un-filmable”!

But then my heart sank as I remembered a podcast I had recently listened to with Jason Segel, who was promoting his latest film, The End of the Tour. The End of the Tour is about a journalist spending the final days of the… wait for it… “Infinite Jest” promotional tour with the book’s author, David Foster Wallace. I then wondered if there was such thing as Spontaneous Readers of Books That Are Crossing Over to Film Anonymous. My life is a cycle. Time is a flat circle. I am in a state of flux. Breakthroughs are a myth. I guess writing this wasn’t quite as cathartic as I thought it would be… Well, at least The End of the Tour isn’t strictly an adaptation, right? Baby steps. Baby steps.

Do you read at all? If so, what do you read? Do you pick up a book when you hear it’s being adapted for the silver screen? 

(top image source: The Martian – 20th Century Fox)