During my week of Covid (only symptom was a sore throat and cough, if I was scatterbrained…well, that tends to be my normal state…mostly I was just overwhelmingly pissed off because I’m vaccinated and boosted, I wear a mask in public spaces and at work, I wash my hands, etc so how the heck did I get it???) and then a week of vacation (at home since I was not going to visit with family just days after I was hacking up a lung) I read two books. 

Let me say that again, in two weeks I read two books. Even now, I hear the faint sound of angels singing in celebration of that amazing feat.

Remember earlier in the year when I was reading the Harry Potter series, The Witcher series, and then other random books all at once? It honestly feels like that was years ago.

I did not realize that Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan was the first book of a trilogy when I began reading it, but it was easy enough to find the second book once I did. I loved the first book, and the second, Crazy Rich Girlfriend, had me in stitches and eager to watch the Crazy Rich Asians movie while I was still reading it.

So I rented the movie from Amazon Prime.

And then spent a few days ignoring Crazy Rich Girlfriend like it had offended me. Why do I do this to myself?

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the movie, I did. I really did. It was adorable and funny and the actors were wonderful. Filmed in Singapore, I was mentally planning a trip the entire time I was watching. I liked the movie on its own.

But there were key elements from the book that, for me, were missing in the movie. It made picking up the second book to finish difficult for some reason. I got over it, mainly because it’s a damn good book, but it made me remember why I don’t read the book first anymore before seeing the movie, if I can help it.

I figured it out when I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone after having read the book, and watched Fellowship of the Ring before I read the book.

A friend recommended the first HP book very soon after it was released here in 1998, and I pretty much devoured it in one sitting. With each consecutive release, I re-read the previous books, so I knew the Sorcerer’s Stone pretty well by 2001 when the movie was released.

Of course I was going to go to the theater to see it right away. I didn’t regret it, I still love the movie versions, but I think I actually enjoyed the last four movies more because I hadn’t read the books until much later. (Like, years after the movies were released because I spoiled the ending of the book Order of the Phoenix, and refused to keep reading that or the rest out of spite.) I liked the first movie (and the rest) but I didn’t fall in love with them like I had the books. I had to compartmentalize the books and the movies in order to not be on a ranting spree for weeks.

And then there’s Lord of the Rings…

I remember when Fellowship of the Ring came out and the uproar from fans of the book about missing characters and dialogue switched to different characters. I had never read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I didn’t get the big problem. I didn’t read the books until after all three movies had been watched multiple times. After reading the book(s) I could see why there had been such criticism but I adored the films (or was obsessed with) first, so while I did have some short rants about the changes, overall it didn’t have as deep of an impact for me as it had the “book first” fans.

I understand that live-action or even animated versions of a book cannot include everything from the original source material. I understand when something like bits of dialogue are given to other characters for the sake of time and convenience. And budget. Money is the root of all evil and book-to-movie adaptations. I know there are millions of factors and reasons for how things are done in the process.

That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

So now I am reading the third book, Rich People Problems, from the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, and I know that there are plans to make movies of the second and third books. I’m hoping that by the time the next movie is released, I will have forgotten the book material enough to simply enjoy the movie on its own.

Which, considering how it has been a few weeks since I finished Crazy Rich Girlfriend and I am sitting here trying rather unsuccessfully to piece the plot together, may be easier than I thought it would be when I picked the book back up again and finished it with a giggle and a sigh of happiness. Maybe that’s all I need to remember right at this moment, with the third book on the dining room table waiting to be opened. That I enjoyed the book.

And hopefully, I will enjoy the movie just as much.

(Of course I will, anything with Michelle Yeoh is always worth watching! As a matter of fact, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the first movie where I heard Mandarin. Up until that point, I had only ever heard Cantonese and thought that was “Chinese.” Oh how times have changed since 2000! And! She was a Bond Girl!)