It's not Maggie Stiefvater's Fault

In case you've missed out, there is an unspoken disagreement about Maggie Stiefvater on The Sirenic Codex. P.E. is an adamant fan of her work while I cannot understand the reason behind the existence of The Scorpio Races.

This story came to relevance somewhere around 10pm when I was struck by an epiphany. It's quite world changing really- It's not Maggie Stiefvater's Fault!


See I was an alright fan of Shiver. I liked it. Then The Scorpio Races happened and Ms. Stiefvater and I kind of broke up. Why: slow pacing, disengaging plot, uninteresting characters. But what all of this really sums up to is descriptions. The Scorpio Races is Maggie's hall of fame on details and descriptions. Something that I've come to realize isn't my forte.


My mind doesn't really bother to register excessive descriptions and skips right over them. As a result, books like The Scorpio Races have no appeal to me. Sentence after sentence of descriptions about the weather, the horses, the characters faces whizz by me. I can't see them as anything but wasted space.


This is where movies come in. I don't believe in reading the book before watching the movie. Call me a rebel, but I don't believe in any real set way of reading. And I've been known (because the whole world pays attention to me, of course) to watch the movie before reading the book, quite unapologetically. 

Watching the movie helps me visualize.

I remember as early as my Harry Potter, I would google images many of the characters or creatures in the books in order to get the visuals. Somehow I managed to ignore the fact that Malfoy had white blonde hair, Hermione has too-big front teeth and that Voldemort didn't have a nose. The last I don't mind.




Watching the movie, however, plants the images in my mind and actually improves my reading experience. I can now imagine a certain face smirking when the text says so. 

Many of my favourite books of all time have been books I picked up after getting my interest peaked by a movie or tv adaptation. I love the visuals, but I am not a visual reader.


-Mari

6 comments:

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  2. Totally fair. None of us have a strict policy on reading books before seeing the movie adaptations, and Kristan feels similarly to you: that sometimes even just knowing who is cast in a movie can make the reading experience more fun, because now you can picture those actors in your head while you read. (Btw, she did end up loving Scorpio Races, but agrees that the first half of the book is slow and detail-heavy.)

    It's hard but totally fine when friends don't agree on books. We wrote about that a long time ago, with GIFs hehe! http://www.weheartya.com/2014/02/when-you-and-your-best-friend-disagree.html

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    1. Yeah, I actually had never given this topic much thought until I entered the blogging community and realized that there was a big push about reading the book first. Oh Scorpio Races, I tried :)

      -Mari

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  3. The gifs drew me to this post...
    Fair comments! I also find that seeing the characters beforehand helps me to visualise the characters in the book. If you read the book before you have any idea about what the actor playing them is going to look like you tend to build up your own image in your head and that only leads to one thing: being disappointed in the film. I suppose the best thing to do is see the cast, read the book, then watch the film. That way everyone should be happy xD Great post!

    Laura @ What's Hot?

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    1. Yes! Point of Supernatural gifs, they are the best.

      I absolutely agree! It's easier to conform the details you read to a face you've seen then to try to place your image onto an actor. I think that was a major struggle for me with the City of Bones movie. I like you solution, I used it when I was reading Harry Potter and it definitely boosted my reading experience.

      -Mari

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  4. I felt exactly the same as you did about The Scorpio Races; I really struggled with it and had to push through to finish it. It was my first Maggie Stiefvater book, and when The Raven Boys came out, I was extremely hesitant to try it. But TRB and its sequels have ended up becoming one of my all-time favorite series, so I don't know what happened between me and The Scorpio Races, lol.

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