You are what you read

It’s interesting in the day of Television, Cinema and now the Internet that so many people read books.

One would think that the newer flashier media would have done the dry and dusty book in for good. Well so far they haven’t and books are still big business.

Curling up on the sofa with a good book used to be something that was done in the days of coal fires and the under maid bringing in the tea cakes on a silver stand. Nowadays unless one is on vacation or a long journey by air, rail or sea life leaves little time for prolonged reading. Books have become attuned to the modern world. Even the most scholarly of works is written in a style that is readable, and critics will remark on the readability of a work they are reviewing.

Other media lead people to the water. A television series or a film will encourage viewers to buy the book on which it was based and even in the case of an original series the book that is written as a result of its success.

Reading a book in this way is a half baked way of going about it. The image of the characters will be imbued by the choices made by the makers of the film, often dictated by finance rather than strict adherence to the author’s description. The plot will be changed, whole incidents and characters left out or distorted to suit the visual medium. The locations will at best be an approximation of those in the book. The result of this is disappointment. The flights of imagination required to picture the characters in a book are unused if the image of a star actor is already in the mind’s eye. There is annoyance that the plot is different to the one already seen on the screen. Who are they to mess with the author’s original story? Location is less important but when events take place in a familiar one there can be irritations.

It is always best to read the book first. Then you can have the cerebral enjoyment of living the entirety of events in your mind. Even if the book is factual, events will be emphasised or lessened according to your mood or inclination and the style of the writer.

Modern books tend to be written pre packed for the screen. Short episodic chapters peppered with crunchy dialogue and fast moving events. Classics are slower paced with long sections of scene setting and even occasional direct asides to the reader - "and now dear reader". Surprisingly it is these classics that are now immensely popular. As the ever fragrant Ms Thompson remarked during her Oscar garnering the other day, Jane Austin would be amazed at how big she is in Uruguay thanks to the film of Sense and Sensibility. Although Austin may be flavour of the moment other classic novelists are also making lots of new friends. Their books are as full of skulduggery as any modern one but the language is more refined. It is hard to remember, so encased are they by history, that classic novels were the popular fiction of their day, in the same way that classical music was run up for a Saturday evening hop. In more recent times such as the days of Dickens they were serialised in magazines before being published as books.

One of the joys of reading is to immerse oneself in the book lock stock and barrel. As one reads the characters grow into super reality and when one is within a real humdinger it becomes more than life itself. What becomes apparent is the skill of the author. Not only can they tell a tale and keep you satisfied, they can impart knowledge at an astonishing level on a variety of topics. Nearly everyone could write about their immediate surroundings and companions; most first novels are semi autobiographical. But to write about another time and another place and from the standpoint of another gender is mind bogglingly clever.

It follows that the next step is to move into the book itself; become one of the characters. This is usually the hero/ine. The archaeologist often sees himself, along with 1,000,000 others, as James Bond. On one memorable occasion strolling down Princes Street, Edinburgh wearing a hideous big checked tweed overcoat, made for me in a fit of alcoholic splendour and described by my father as only suitable for a bookie’s runner, torn jeans and a hint of acne he announced that he felt the very embodiment of 007.

I have a friend who reads a lot of biographies. During the time that he is reading the book and until he is immersed in the next he becomes the subject of the biography. Recently in short order he has been Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Anthony Quinn. Quinn was the hardest to handle, especially for his wife.

What I am saying is that the book still holds the key, in the hands of an imaginative individual, to stimulate and satisfy more deeply than any present prepacked entertainment. Each individual gets a personal message crafted by themselves, from the written word whereas the other media deliver what they want and you accept it willy nilly.



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Grey Fox can be contacted at greyfox@londonmall.co.uk.

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