I just bought the box set of the Percy Jackson series

The five books from the original series for $25. Good deal.

I read the first one and I love it and now I can't stop.

 

After reading Divergent, I'm not very trustful of teen lit anymore. "We're totally not like Twilight" BS!

Of course, this is a different genre...but my teenage sister liked reading Percy Jackson...

 

Saying Percy Jackson is like Twilight is just blasphemous

 

The only reading I do anymore is fanfiction. I can't stand to actually open a book and dive in anymore. Why pay for a book, this is excluding the option of going to the library (which I actually have but meh), when you can read so many amazing wonderful stories of things you already like for free?

As far as Percy Jackson goes, I liked the movies.

-Nights

 

I guess I didn't make it clear that I didn't read the Percy Jackson books. So, I can't say anything about it one way or another. But from my experience with YA fiction, it's all...ehhh. I more read it just for laughs. Don't get me wrong, I really hope to find something enjoyable.

 

Aaaaand I know I'm not the first to say this but Percy Jackson is nothing like Twilight lol. Imo anyway.

Anyhoo I read the original series in middle school and liked them ~ It's been a long time but they were really fun as I recall. I wouldn't call the series a paragon of great literature or anything, but good fun. Takes me back ;~;

 

People who watch the movie to a book instead of actually reading the book are a big part of what's wrong with the world.

 

i could say the same thing about people who watch comicbook movies but dont read comics
but that would make me a pretentious prick

 

I honestly don't care if someone chooses to watch the movie instead of reading the book. I don't expect everyone who loves Les Miserables (movie and musical) to have read the full Victor Hugo novel (kudos to you if you have though).

What really bugs me is people going "that's not how it was in the book" or "i can't believe they left that out". Storytelling in movies and books are two very different things. Things will get cut. The movie doesn't always need all that detail. When a movie tries to stick too close to the book, it's often bad because instead of telling the story their own way, it's a connect-the-dots kind of movie, which feels very uninspired.

 

I think What? has read the full novel, but then again, that's not all that shocking. :b

Anyway, I agree with the storytelling point. A book -> film adaption cannot be expected to be condensed into an 90 minute film and follow the whole plot of the book word for word. This happens too with novels -> TV shows, TV shows -> movies, and so on, so forth. I do think that some very faithful adaptions (e.g. FMA: Brotherhood, though that's manga -> anime) was really good. There can be too many cuts made to a film though. The sixth Harry Potter movie was my first thought, since it completely cut out the scene of Fawkes' song and Dumbledore's funeral from the book; the former is whatever, but the funeral is pretty significant, even if only just because it's Dumbledore's.

 

Okay so like I said, I've only read the first book and like a smidgen of the second one, but they are the furthest thing from Twilight. They're closer to Harry Potter styles of YA than any paranormal romance. That said, it's not much like Harry Potter. And it's got Greek Mythology which is great. <3

Also Percy is a sarcastic little sh*t and it's great. The books are all first person, so you get a lot of what's in his head. And chapter titles that are things like "We Hail The Taxi Of Eternal Torment" and "Clarisse Blows Up Everything" and "I Fight My Jerk Relative".

As for the movies, I've seen the first one. If you ignore the book canon, it is a good movie in it's own right. Just don't compare it to the book.

 

I have a great appreciation for YA lit and I'm trying to get more into it ). I think it's so interesting to observe the trends and stylistic qualities of YA lit. I took on The Hunger Games trilogy a few months ago for this reason (plus Katniss was brought up in a lot of feminist media circles). Part of the barrier for me, though, is that I favor 19th century literature, which is told primarily in the third person. Most YA novels seem to be first person which is a turn off for me... but it's also fascinating to look into why they're primarily first person.

 

The same could be said about anime/manga. I don't have time to read entire books, especially when there are multiple books in the series. It's easier to take an hour to watch the events of the book transpire, even though it's really watered down. It's like watching a summary which is good enough when you're short on time.

-Nights

 

I should probably re-read them all. I remember taking one or two days per book because I was so into it, and they were all so great.

 

And I would agree with that. I'm really talking about any case in which someone who is capable of experiencing the real version opts for an adaptation on the logic that, "It's close enough." It has happened with Attack on Titan, A Song of Ice and Fire (which I have yet to read, but am going to before I watch the TV series), Dangan Ronpa, The Walking Dead, and too many other really great things that were adapted to other media. My attitude is that unless you're illiterate, you have no excuse not to read the book, even if you watch the movie first. And even that only really works with books and their on-screen adaptations. What's that? You love Dangan Ronpa: The Animation but can't afford the game and/or the console it's on? Watch a ****** Let's Play of it. At least you'll get part of the source material.

But it's still no substitute for the real thing. Note that I said, "instead of," implying that the moviegoer would see the movie with no intention of reading the book. It's especially awful when someone notices that I'm reading, for example, I, Robot and says, "Why don't you just watch the movie?" and then I have to explain that 90% movies based on books are inferior to the source material in every way. I have a feeling that these are usually the same morons who "wait for the movie" when they hear about a really good book.

And what about all the book-movies that don't even try to stay true to the source material? Maybe I just have really specific tastes, but every book-movie that I've seen has been a mishmash of mass appeal, lazy paragraph to script adaptation, and a few names from the book it was based on. Even The Hobbit has only managed to be okay, thus far, and I doubt it'll get any better. I will not speak for Lord of the Rings because I have neither read the books nor seen the movies. To be fair, the only reason I haven't read the books is that I can't get over the fact that Bilbo is a way better protagonist than Frodo. I barely got past the first chapter because of this.

 

Before either of those was I, Robot. More recently was Ender's Game, which I will admit would have been pretty decent if it weren't an adaptation of a great book. And don't even get me started on Federal Income Tax Form 1040 Instruction Handbook: The Movie.