Getting onto books because of other media...

[Quatermass]

Okay, I admit it. Many of my reading choices were influenced by other media, especially when I find out, say, that a book influenced or inspired a TV series or a film, or even in some cases a video game.

How many of your reading choices were thus inspired?

[pip]

Well I read Game of Thrones off the back of the TV series, Harry Potter after the first film, the Vampire Chronicles after Interview with the Vampire and probably others.

I will take a chance from time to time on new authors and books but have to admit that film and Tv can have a huge influence

[Quatermass]

Agreed. In fact, thanks to Doctor Who alone, I have read books like The Loved One, The Prisoner of Zenda, and am currently reading High-Rise.

Video games inspired me to read stuff like Dante's Inferno and House of Leaves.

[DaveC]

Film's got me onto reading Elmore Leonard, Jurrassic Park, ... but I think reputation got me to pTerry

[meerkat]

Depression got me into Terry Pratchett books. I tend to read a book and will usually find that most films are not as good as what I see in my head when reading them such as the LOTHR! Arggh!

I am waiting with baited breath for the Hobbit. Ready to throw my banged grains at the screen!

[Sjoerd3000]

I started readin Harry Potter after the first movie, and LOTR because of the movies too.

Started with Game of Thrones after watching a few episodes of the tv series

[raisindot]

Well I read Game of Thrones off the back of the TV series...

Me, too. Generally, I don't read the book after a movie or TV show, but every now and then I do. The last one (before GOT) was No Country for Old Men.

[Quatermass]

I have to admit, I think I actually got onto the Discworld series because I saw parts of Soul Music, the animated series. I might be wrong, as I also vaguely remember borrowing The Colour of Magic from a friend of the family's.

It did take me until after the first film came out (although I hadn't watched it) to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

I also read Alan Moore's graphic novels The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta after I had watched the movies, so Alan Moore, in the unlikely event that you are reading this forum, well, you may hate the movie adaptations of your work, but you can't deny their ability to bring people to your written versions!

[Antiq]

Game of Thrones. I have a feeling a ton of people are reading that after the tv series.

[raptornx01]

Jurassic Park (movie) got me not only into the book, but into novels in general. It was the first non-comic book i bought and read cover to cover. didn't have much interest in novels at the time (13). had read where the red fern grows in school. liked it, and tried reading "The Shipkiller" by Justin Scott (couldn't get through it till years later). after that movie came out i got the book, loved it, then got the rest of his books. then moved to other books. Alot of them being star trek novels

at the moment i'm actually reading Atlas Shrugged, and if it wasn't for the game Bioshock being inspired by it i would never have bought it. so far i'm enjoying it. though it may take till next year to finish it

To be honest, most of my interests (movies, tv shows, books, music especially, video games etc) can be linked in some way to something else. such is the organic nature of my life. (except for the discworld books ironically. i got into them completely blind except for the name.)

[Mycroft Vimes]

Probably quite a few,but one i'm very thankful for by letting me 'discover' Joseph Conrad's-Heart of Darkness,was the film Apocalypse Now.
I loved that and when finding out it was loosely based on that book,i just had to read it and was glad i did.
The later,more novel based film with Tim Roth wasn't bad either btw and i also loved the documentary/making of 'Hearts of Darkness' about Apocalypse Now(Francis Ford Coppola in the days when he still made great movies and being nicely stereotypical as a sort of absolute controlfreak/dictator,there's a recorded telephoneconversation in there,where Coppola basically says : "Even if Martin Sheen dies,nobody says anything about it till they talk to me!" )

Come to think of it,i think i sort of re-got into Terry Pratchett(already had Good Omen in the bookcase,which i loved) and Discworld,by watching a scrapheap challenge-episode(nr. 5 from 2002).
The challenge was to build a hovercraft and one of the captains named her hovercraft Great A'Tuin,which she then was asked to explain,which got me interested enough to go out and get me The Colour of Magic.
Been hooked ever since.
So although i never thought i'd say it,it seems a big thanks to television is in order,thanks TV!

Ps There is always the comparison between the film and the book,in that i usually find the films that stay closest to the original story are always favourite.

[spideyGirl]

Depression got me into Terry Pratchett books. I tend to read a book and will usually find that most films are not as good as what I see in my head when reading them such as the LOTHR! Arggh!

I am waiting with baited breath for the Hobbit. Ready to throw my banged grains at the screen!

I was actually the opposite Meers! I read the books when I was a kid and was worried that it would be spoiled but I thought it was brilliant!

Although I haven't actually seen the film yet, with all the fuss around The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I've downloaded it to my kindle and am reading it now (also because it was free ).

[SimStars13]

I find quite often that film trailers inspire me to read the books that the films were based on, for instance Hugo and Never Let Me Go.
As to LOTR I read the books about five years ago and didn't have a clue as to what was happening, saw the films and was like "oh, so that's what happened!"

[Quatermass]

at the moment i'm actually reading Atlas Shrugged, and if it wasn't for the game Bioshock being inspired by it i would never have bought it. so far i'm enjoying it. though it may take till next year to finish it

You're reading Atlas Shrugged?! No! Don't read it, unless it's for a bet, or you want to riff on it! Take it from someone who's actually read the damn book!

Wait, did you just say that you're enjoying it?

[raptornx01]

at the moment i'm actually reading Atlas Shrugged, and if it wasn't for the game Bioshock being inspired by it i would never have bought it. so far i'm enjoying it. though it may take till next year to finish it

You're reading Atlas Shrugged?! No! Don't read it, unless it's for a bet, or you want to riff on it! Take it from someone who's actually read the damn book!

Wait, did you just say that you're enjoying it?

well, so far, but i'm only like 100 or so page in (which are like 150 pages of a regular book since the text in my edition is so small and tightly spaced ) out of the 1000+ pages.

If you are refering to her political and socio-economic views, i'm aware of them (though i don't know how the book plays out specifically. just a few points here and there). hell, her objectivist view-point was the basis for Bioshock as well as some of her ideas. But i tend not to take that outside stuff into the narrative with me. I can usually judge on its own merits, and judge characters and events the same way. now if its about the book itself, well, i didn't get that far yet. i'll let you know if that changes.