Wednesday Chatter #10: Things Movies and TV Shows Have That Books Need

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Things Movies And TV Shows Have That Books Need
~or in which I prove I'm a huge nerd~

I've been thinking lately about why I love movies and TV shows. Sure, it's about the subject itself, but sometimes it's more than that. It's about all the extra stuff that movies and TV shows get to have. Though it's movies that get the cake (so unfair in certain cases). I know other bloggers have done this, but I thought I'd throw in my own opinion. So without further ado here are things that movies have that I want my books to have as well:

• Video Games

You might not know this about me, but I'm a gamer. I love video games. Epic video games. Big games that occupy a huge chunk of your time. Games like Diablo, Heroes of Might and Magic, Zeus (and other history themed builder games). I remember when I got my hands on the Battle for Middle Earth II I didn't resurface in the real world for...oh, about the entire summer I had it. A friend from high school had given me his game and I was ecstatic. Especially since you could play both as the good guys and as the bad guys and with playing for the bad side I GOT TO HAVE MY OWN BALROG!!!

 

I also remember being very, very pissed off that in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone I couldn't find all the trading cards. I'm still sore about that one! 

But anyway. Imagine having a Vampire Academy/Bloodlines video game. Where you get to be Rose and train with Dimitri, kick Strigoi ass, travel to Siberia and back, have epic missions, especially the final test from book 4. Or you could be Sydney and get to navigate the world of vampires as an Alchemist. Or even better, you could play as Adrian and aside from being awesome, you could learn how to control Spirit.

Or you could have the Throne of Glass video game and be Celaena and get to kick everyone's ass and you could have Chaol in front of you *dreamy sigh*. Don't even get me started on a Dark Hunter or a Demonica/Lords of Deliverance video game.

 

 
• Deleted Scenes

I know that sometimes, scenes get cut in movies and TV shows, and in some really cool cases, they include some of those on the DVDs. I need this from books too. There are some awesome authors that share some of these deleted scenes, but I need more. I'm greedy!

• Bloopers

My favorite part about TV shows. Bloopers. I live to see bloopers. If they're as funny as the ones from Supernatural, even better. I don't know how this could happen with books, but I'm just throwing it out there, in case someone with much more intelligence than I have can figure this one out.

• Character Interviews

I don't mean like the ones done for blog tours. I mean like the ones where actor pairs (couples in tv shows/movies) do the "Newlyweds" or "Know Your Co-star" type of interviews. I would so, so, so love to see some of my book OTPs do interviews like these.

• Extra Videos 

Here's what I mean by extra videos. I got my hands on a Collector's Edition of The Two Towers (thank you, thrift shops!). And there's tons of videos about how they made some of the sets, how they decided which scenes to include in the movie, how they used the source material for the movie. Same with the Arrow DVD. And many, many other TV shows and movies do this. I know there are Reading guides and Insider's Guides for certain book series, but the ones that I've read so far are basically just a short version of the books themselves. They just go over everything that happened already, without giving any extra material. I want Insider's Guides to have new material. And I don't mean character physical descriptions, either. 

• Epic collector's items

I would do whatever it takes to get my hands on the Lord of the Rings Mattel collector's dolls, just like I would do whatever it takes to get my hands on Amma's (The Caster Chronicles) special tarot cards deck. Or on some Women of the Otherworld dolls and/or wolf figurines. Thankfully, some of the special, book inspired items than one can dream of are on this magical website called Etsy. But I need more.

What about you? What are the things that movies and TV shows get that you want books to have too?

Book Review: Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon

Author: Hollis Seamon
Series: N/A
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Release Date: September 3rd 201
My Rating: 4 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Chemo, radiation, a zillion surgeries, watching my mom age twenty years in twenty months: if that’s part of the Big Dude’s plan, then it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Somebody Up There Hates You.

SUTHY has landed me here in this hospice, where we—that’s me and Sylvie—are the only people under 30 in the whole place, sweartogod. But I’m not dead yet. I still need to keep things interesting. Sylvie, too. I mean, we’re kids, hospice-hostages or not. We freak out visitors; I get my uncle to sneak me out for one insane Halloween night. Stuff like that. And Sylvie wants to make things even more interesting. That girl’s got big plans.

Only Sylvie’s father is so nuclear-blasted by what’s happened to his little girl, he glows orange, I swear. That’s one scary man, and he’s not real fond of me. So we got a major family feud going on, right here in hospice. DO NOT CROSS line running down the middle of the hall, me on one side, her on the other. It’s crazy.

In the middle of all of this, really, there’s just me and Sylvie, a guy and a girl. And we want to live, in our way, by our own rules, in whatever time we’ve got. We will pack in some living before we go, trust me.

If you follow my blog you know that I usually stay away from sad books. Sure, I might read books about tortured characters, but all in all my books end on a happy note. With a HEA for our main character(s). You know that I also like to experiment with my books once in a while, that I try to change things up a little. I'm trying to grow as a reader, is what I'm trying to say. So while I was looking at the books on my shelves trying to decide which one to read for a beach read, Somebody Up There Hates You stood out.

First, I have to say that I read this book over a period of three weeks. This is strange, because usually I read books kind of fast. The problem was that at some points, I had to stop reading. Mentally, I needed a break. The story would suck me in, and I'd forget where I was and then BAM! it reminded me that Richard was sick. And I don't do well with sick children, so I needed breaks.

The story broke my heart into tiny little pieces at times. At times it was like I was in the hospice room with Richard, seeing him. I liked his voice, I liked how he told the story. What broke my heart even more was the fact that he would try to assure people that he'd get better. Sylvie too, she'd talk about the future. Of course, they both knew that it couldn't happen, which is why it was so heartbreaking.

At times I understood the other characters' frustration with Richard and Sylvie. I really could put myself in their shoes and understand their perspective. It was strange, because usually with 1st person narration that doesn't happen to me.

Of course, I can't help but wonder if he and Sylvie would've still fell in love had they not been in hospice, had they been school mates. Makes me wonder if maybe that is why the ending was left as it was.

I loved the ending. I usually don't like books to be open-ended, but in this case I liked it. I don't think I would've been okay with a closed ending, with one of them dying. I'm sure one of them (maybe both) dies in the end, but it was better to not know for sure. Who knows, maybe they do get better and live happily ever after.

Obsessed With Covers #24: Down With The Shine, Ghost On The Lake

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

So, here are the prettiest covers I've seen this week.

I love, love, love this cover. I love the smoky drink/potion, which reminds me of home-made drinks. Then there are the stars in the background. I find it very interesting that the stars are sort of coming out of the potion's smoke. Makes me wonder exactly what does the drink do. Also, there are shadows on the sky surrounding the jar, but again, the jar is lit up. I must own this book based just on the cover.







Down with the Shine - Kare Karyus Quinn

This cover is gorgeous. If it were a painting, I'd hang it up above my bookshelves. The fact that we're seeing the lake from the bottom is amazing. And I love that the person is looking down. If this is part of a series, I'd love for the next cover to be from the person's perspective, see what they see at the bottom of the lake.

Ghost on the Lake - Alex Alexander