Reading books vs watching movies is a never-ending war. Movies and TV series based on books are now in trend these days. Film industries are continuously digging into books for their next blockbuster hits. It has been a trend these days which has resulted in most of the people parting their ways with book reading.
Sometimes, people bifurcate themselves and prefer to read before watching movies while some prefer otherwise. Some people don’t even bother reading a book or vice-versa. There must always be a complete balance between watching movies and reading books because both have their own benefits for us.
Reading books helps us with vocabulary expansion, memory improvement, increase in imagination, stress buster, entertainment, peace, etc. also consumes our time, keeps us away from people, and is hard to keep up with while watching movies helps us be social, appeals visually to the viewers, entertaining, etc. However, movies block our imagination, affect our memory, and render our physical health.
Here in this article, I have tried to answer some of the frequently asked questions in brief such as How reading and watching films are similar. The benefits of reading books over watching a movie or vice versa. And finally what one should prefer reading or watching? So let’s compare both of them as both are concrete experiences and they seem to largely depend on the personality of people who prefer to choose reading books over watching movies or vice-versa.
Reading Books vs Watching Movies
How Reading Books and Watching Movies Are Similar?
Reading books and watching movies are one of the top sources of entertainment and have multiple similarities. A person can relate their Imagination to both books and movies. A Person watching a movie can relate to the character the same way as the person can relate while Reading a book.
When books and movies are produced with real-life facts, it makes the episode so much more pleasant when one relates to the story’s plot with their life. They help us in evaluating our lives.
Good books and movies inspire us, and motivate us in ways that improve our quality of life. They both tell a story and give numerous details and information about the story, making them similar to each other.
Both are the best bonding agents. When you meet another person who likes the same book as you do, you assume a similar ideology and talk about it until the end of the day. The same goes for a film. People loving the same genre will endlessly discuss the film’s plot, actions, and characters. So, a bond is created between a couple or a group of people.
Why Reading Books Are Better Than Watching Movies?
Talking about the benefits of reading a book, a book can take a reader into the world of imagination where possibilities are immense. The human mind can brace the image that even the best of movie animations cannot produce. Books provide more background information than a movie does.
1. Reading Reduces Stress
As one starts reading a good book, they dissolve in the character and the situations they read about in the book. Reading books also relaxes your muscles and lowers your heartbeat.
2. Time Flexibility
If you start reading books, you can read hundreds of pages in one night or finish a book in a couple of days. You can leave reading the book and again continue after months. The good thing is that you can enjoy reading books little by little for months, there’s no time-bound, but to watch a movie you have to sit for 2-3 hours.
3. Books Allow the Reader to Understand the Character Better
While reading a book, you understand and feel the character’s emotions and feelings, which the book portrays, but in the movie, you are served the platter that the producer wants to show you. It is possible that while watching a movie, you can’t feel the emotions that the actor is trying to deliver. Still, if you are reading the same, you know the actors’ emotions at a particular time.
4. Books Are Portable
You can read a book anywhere you go. You don’t need a television screen to watch it or a power source to charge it. The book is an endless source of entertainment.
Why Movies Are Better Than Watching Movies?
1. Watching a Movie Saves Time
You invest in reading the book for a couple of days to realize the book is not good, but you can conclude a film if it is good or bad after watching it for a couple of hours.
2. Movies Are Visually Appealing
Watching a movie, you experience great action sequences and special effects that can blow your mind, but while reading a book, the imagination can’t do justice to you. Our mind visualizes the situation more easily than imagining.
3. Movies Are Social
You can enjoy a film with anyone, all you need is a plan with your family or friends to go to a movie, and you can spend quality time with them. But people have to limit themselves while reading books. You may read books aloud to others like your children or someone else, but most of the time, people consider reading more individually and privately.
4. Movies Are Easy
To read books one has to be determined and focused to complete a whole book. Everyone has, at a point in their life started to read a book but a lack of focus and determination led them to leave the book in the middle, however, on the other hand, watching a movie is easy, without much focus you can understand the plot of the film.
What Should You Prefer Reading Books or Watching Movies?
The answer to this, preference between book and movie can’t be depicted in a single line. There are different perspectives and approaches among people. Some people read books before going to a movie while some watch the movie and then read books. and some don’t read books. They confine themselves only to movies.
Different Perspectives and Approach
1. Reading a Book Before Watching a Movie
People who love reading books have a picture in their head of how their favorite character would play in the film—observing them in the view. But after following them, most of the time, it is so different from what the book portrayed most of the time—a lot of information mentioned in the book left out while producing a movie. Many times movie producers need to eliminate so many details about the story to squeeze everything into one to two hours.
So as per this perspective, one should read the book first and then watch a movie as people will have every information about the story, they can relate better. Most importantly, they will visualize their favorite character.
2. Watching a movie before reading book
Some people love the movie and not an aficionado book reader. They read books but on purpose. So if a film or TV series (based on a book) astonishes them, they try to read the book based on it. Afterwards, the experience of living by the character will be doubled and you’ll come to know many easter eggs and scenes which the movie didn’t show you. It will take your entertainment level to a different zone. So, in this case, watch the film first and then switch to the book.
3. People confined to movies
There must be a die-hard fan book reader who would watch a film (based on the book) unless it is terrific. But there must be film pundits who won’t want to read a book as the activity is exhausting and lazy and involves a lot of time and mind space. A quick film would be a better experience for such people as they get their imagination served on a platter.
Conclusion
Here, we talked about the different aspects of Reading books vs watching movies. The entire decision is now about how much time you have on hand to invest in the activity. They both have pros and cons, and there cannot be a certain answer to it, as the decision is all about the perspective you hold on to.
As learning cannot be done only by imagining or only by visualizing, it should be a mixture of both of them and to that, one can read and watch a movie afterward or vice versa.
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