From Film to Novel

I'm doing something that I rarely do. I'm reading a book after I've seen the movie.

See normally, I have to read the book first. If I see the movie, I lose interest in reading the book because the plot is spoiled, the story is going to be at least slightly different, and I'm going to visualize everything from the film. In short, my experience of the story is going to be limited to the intepretation of the filmmaker. (which is why books are better than films in the first place--films have a much narrower scope for imagination and interpretation)

But this time I decided to do it anyway, because the film was intriguing enough that I figured I would enjoy the book. I'm talking about Big Fish. I really loved that movie. The book is just a little thing, which is interesting. I've read half of it today. Daniel Wallace is quite a good writer. But the stories, those wonderful tall tales in the movie are quite a bit different. Maybe the stories that are spun in the book would never have translated onto the big screen. They seem a bit darker than those in the movie. I don't know. But I think I'm glad I decided to pick up the book. It's well worth the time.