The book is always better than the film...

I've often found it sad when people dismiss reading for pleasure as a waste of time or just merely regard it as unnecessary. For me, instead of switching on the television, the computer or the Xbox, I cannot imagine a better way of winding down than picking up a good book and using my own imagination to piece together the characters and their surroundings. I often tell my friends that a book is always better than its film version, mainly because a film cannot do justice to the minor details of a book or else we would be sat with numb backsides in the cinema for what would become many uncomfortable and boring hours. However, many books do not get the recognition they deserve until they are mounted onto the big screen. Those who do not have the patience to read books can enjoy the same story through the art of the moving image. Sometimes this in turn encourages them to seek out the original story in it's written form, shedding the light on another otherwise overlooked gem. The thing that bothers me though, is that no matter how it has been done, I always feel the book has been somewhat ruined by the film. There are many examples: Dear John, Eat Pray Love, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Perfume, The Time Traveler's Wife. They are all fantastic books but their film versions have well...fallen short. I know, I could avoid it altogether and just never watch the films and believe me, there have been many times when I have done just that. My problem is that those who didn't read the book and went to see the film will never know the true magic of the story, as it was written by it's creator.