Guest Post: Melissa Lemon + Cinder and Ella

Author Melissa Lemon is stopping by the blog today as part of the Cinder and Ella Blog Tour to talk about two of my very favorite things: books and movies. Give me either of those two things or a combination of both and I'm pretty much the happiest girl ever. Take it away Melissa!

LIGHTS! CAMERA! READ!
What you get from reading that you cannot get from film and vice versa:

Reading is brain exercise. With each sentence, you have to think about eight times as much as when you watch a movie.* (That statistic is entirely made up, but you get the point, right?) It’s kind of like comparing running at a steady 5mph rate to a stroll in the park. You have to imagine what characters look like, sound like, and where they are at, even if the author is great at description. The picture in your head ultimately comes from…you. You also get a deeper character and setting experience. With film, the actors are putting on a show that is often set on a stage. I never seem to be able to get over this when I’m watching a movie. I’m always thinking things like, I bet they couldn’t stop laughing when they were shooting this part, or That’s a stunt double right there or That bridge is so not real. But with reading, and maybe this is a result of having to do more work, it can be as real as if you are actually there. The characters become your friends. They seem so real sometimes it’s hard to believe the book they’re in is fiction. It’s sad to say goodbye at the end of the book. Usually. That is the power of the written word.

Not that this is meant to make you choose between the two, because watching movies is pretty awesome, too. One of my favorite things that we get from movies that we can’t get from reading is music. Honestly, can you imagine the world without soundtracks, John Williams or that amazing guitar solo in the movie Uncorked, which is obviously NOT played by Rufus Sewell? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ve got to see it.) Then again, with technology, who’s to say that books and music won’t be a package deal someday? Hmmmm. Another thing we get with movies is special effects. My brain has yet to produce on the fly something as incredible as the worlds and creatures shown us in the movies Avatar and Lord of the Rings. Yet, some computer genius can throw it all together for me and I can see it. That is the power of film.

Reading a book and watching a movie are both activities that come with a personalized experience. One may come while you’re curled up in your favorite chair and wrapped in a fuzzy blanket. The other may come with popcorn and 3-D glasses. Reading is done best while the lights are on and movies are much better when the lights are out. Each gives us something valuable and entertaining and has the power to make us feel something.

So this weekend, I hope you get the chance to read a good book or watch a great film.

*Not that some movies don’t make you think so hard that your brain wants to explode, because that has happened to me a time or two.

Thanks so much for popping in Melissa! I have to say music is one of my favorite parts of a movie too, it adds so much to my reactions and is instrumental (ha! I amuse myself) in whether I'm happy/sad or about to jump out of my seat or falling totally and helplessly in love. *cue sappy romantic music as I go off on a tangent* For more information on both Melissa and her upcoming young adult novel Cinder and Ella (releases November 8th), you can find her here:

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