MUSING MAILBOX MONDAYS (#11) | Watching or Reading?

It’s been a while since my last Musing Monday post. The first one since it changed hosts for sure. I missed it. Also, I finally got my Book Outlet Boxing Day sale order in so you know what that means… Mailbox Mondays!

But it’s Wednesday. I know. I fail at this. XD

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

I finally am getting to A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab. The 3rd and final book, Conjuring of Light, is coming out very soon so I should be done with this one by the end of this week. My first read of 2017 is The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson and it was amazing. I cannot wait to get to the next books in the Mistborn trilogy. I also just finished listening to Subterranean by James Rollins, narrated by John Meagher. I realized that my audiobook genre of choice is mystery/thriller/sci-fi. I’m loving it.

For this week’s random question: What do you think about books being made into movies or tv shows and do you always read the book first?

Hollywood seems like it is running out of original ideas. A good chunk of movies nowadays are adapted from books. TV is the same thing. At this point, it’s no longer a new thing. The question now is “Did these film people do it justice?” Then it comes down to the viewer’s personal taste.

When I hear that a book is going to be made into a movie or TV show, I have one hope. I hope they do it right. It boggles the mind how some adaptations turn out so wrong that it’s like a completely different story. The Scorch Trials, anyone? The casting was great but what the hell was that movie? Then there are times when they get it right like The Hunger Games trilogy. And the Outlander TV show. The recent Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children was a little hard to swallow. I mean, it was okay but it took away everything that I liked in the books. Why change the children’s peculiarities? That is what makes them unique and recognizable jumping from the book to the screen. Idgi.

And no, I’ve given up on that. I used to make it a point to read the book first before watching the movie but that’s just not feasible anymore to me. What if your friends want to watch Me Before You but you haven’t read that yet? I found that for some movies, reading the book before watching is only setting yourself up for disappointment. But hey, you do you. I’m just saying that I’ve let it go. I’ve done it both ways – watched then read, vice-versa – and I enjoyed one or the other or both in their own ways.

MAILBOX MONDAYS #11 | Book Outlet Boxing Day Sale

Here is my first haul. Technically, I bought these at the tail end of 2016 on Book Outlet’s Boxing Day sale and one from Kinokuniya Los Angeles last week. I’m running out of Japanese fiction to purchase from that heavenly store. I might need to start on that Haruki Murakami collection after all.

I got another bookmark coupon from this package. It reminds me that I have to use the previous one that I got. Hey, I know that I don’t have to use it but I’m that person who feels like I should use a coupon rather than it going to waste. Counter intuitive, I know. 😉

I guess I can say that all of these books are legit in my wishlist. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor and The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski finish off two trilogies on my shelf. I’m the kind of person who wants to acquire whole series in the hopes that I could binge read them… which, never happens. Or will it?

Every time I go to Target, I see The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler. I need more books about books. I’ve heard this is good. I hope this is good. After reading and falling in love with the Wolf by Wolf duology by Ryan Graudin, I went ahead and picked up The Walled City in a pretty cover (that you can’t see in this photo). I still like historical fiction after all. Everyone on booktube was talking about Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and around Halloween time, The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy. You gotta be picky when it comes to booktube recommendations so I hope I made the right choice with these.

The books on the bottom, The Death’s Head Chess Club by John Donoghue and Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Judd Trichter are both blurb buys. I’ve never heard of them prior to seeing them on Book Outlet but their blurbs completely sold me. I’m actually pretty excited to get to them.

And finally, Honeymoon to Nowhere by Akimitsu Takagi. This was acquired at full price. I saw this the week before at Kinokuniya Los Angeles, read the blurb and was intrigued yet passed on it. But I couldn’t get it out of my head. So the next week, I hoped it was still there. It was so I picked it up. The last copy in the store.

So here’s to another year of book-buying. And hopefully, a good year of reading as well!