{"id":223417,"date":"2015-09-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/la-mesa-reads-movies-television-owe-a-lot-to-books\/"},"modified":"2015-09-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T07:00:00","slug":"la-mesa-reads-movies-television-owe-a-lot-to-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/la-mesa-reads-movies-television-owe-a-lot-to-books\/","title":{"rendered":"La Mesa Reads: Movies, television owe a lot to books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Jake Sexton<\/p>\n

Every so often, some self-important expert will announce that “print is dead,” as if the time of the book has come and sadly gone \u2013\u2013 like dinosaurs, or disco. The reality is that more people are reading than ever, the so-called “Millennial” generation reads more books than its elders, and the Internet has allowed for readers and authors to access and distribute an explosion of new content.<\/p>\n

Even beyond that, the multibillion dollar Hollywood entertainment industry, in all its forms, has largely become dependent upon books. Films and TV shows cost so much to produce that many studios don’t want to reach for their checkbook unless they’ve got a surefire hit on their hands. Basing a movie on a successful book series makes them feel much more secure in their celluloid investments.<\/p>\n

\"Puzo-Godfather\"<\/a>Just name a film genre and we can find shining examples (no pun intended, Stephen King fans) of popular and acclaimed films that found their start as pages of a book. Academy Award-winning classics like \u201cGoodfellas\u201d (the autobiography \u201cWiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family\u201d by Nicholas Pileggi), \u201cThe Godfather\u201d trilogy (by Mario Puzo), \u201cForrest Gump\u201d (by Winston Groom), and \u201cSchindler’s List\u201d (historical fiction by Thomas Kineally) were once best-selling books. Comedies like \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d (William Goldman), \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada\u201d (Lauren Weisberger), \u201cDr. Strangelove\u201d (\u201cRed Alert\u201d by Peter Bryant) and \u201cBridget Jones’ Diary\u201d (Helen Fielding) were clever novels that were noticed by Hollywood. Science fiction classics like \u201cBlade Runner\u201d (Phillip K. Dick\u2019s short story, \u201cDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?\u201d), \u201cStarship Troopers\u201d (Robert Heinlein), \u201cEnder\u2019s Game\u201d (Orson Scott Card), and the \u201cJurassic Park\u201d series (Michael Crichton) also found their start in the world of novels.<\/p>\n

Some of the most popular modern films were adapted from books. Gillian Flynn\u2019s \u201cGone Girl\u201d attracted Academy Award-winning talent and made a few hundred million worldwide. \u201cAmerican Sniper\u201d was originally an autobiography by ex-Navy Seal Chris Kyle. \u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d was less popular at the box office, but was based on the amazingly successful erotic novel series by E.L. James. John Green\u2019s \u201cThe Fault in Our Stars\u201d was a weepy epiphany to a generation of teens, and became a cinematic money-maker at the box office. I won\u2019t even get started on the cavalcade of superhero-themed movies, each based on a popular comic book series.<\/p>\n

Finally, TV owes many thanks to the world of books. Acclaimed classics like \u201cRoots\u201d and \u201cM.A.S.H.\u201d were based on powerful works by Alex Haley and Richard Hooker. Modern soaps like \u201cGossip Girl\u201d (Cecily von Ziegesar), \u201cTrue Blood\u201d (Charlaine Harris\u2019s \u201cSookie Stackhouse\u201d series), and \u201cVampire Diaries\u201d (L.J. Smith) got their start as book series with passionate followings. And some of today\u2019s most acclaimed TV series (\u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d \u201cDexter,\u201d \u201cOrange is the New Black,\u201d \u201cFriday Night Lights\u201d) were based on novels and biographies (George R.R. Martin, Jeff Lindsay, Piper Kerman, and H.G. Bissinger, respectively).<\/p>\n

So rest assured, books won\u2019t die as long as we readers are willing to share our favorite stories with the silver screen.<\/p>\n

The La Mesa Library will be celebrating this book\/movie connection with our third annual Star Wars Reads Day on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 1 to 3p.m. Families can visit and check out \u201cStar Wars\u201d-themed books and movies, make \u201cStar Wars\u201d crafts (like light sabers), eat snacks and participate in a \u201cStar Wars\u201d costume contest for prizes. We hope to see you there.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013Jake Sexton is librarian at the La Mesa branch of the San Diego County Library. Call the library at 619-469-2151, visit in person at 8074 Allison Ave. or get information online at sdcl.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jake Sexton Every so often, some self-important expert will announce that “print is dead,” as if the time of the book has come and sadly gone \u2013\u2013 like dinosaurs, or disco. The reality is that more people are reading than ever, the so-called “Millennial” generation reads more books than its elders, and the Internet […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":736,"featured_media":222278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"La Mesa Reads: Movies, television owe a lot to books","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-la-mesa-courier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}