the movie vs. book dilemma

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

I really hate seeing the movie before I've read the book. Then, when you read the book, it's totally distracting because you keep comparing the movie to the book. It's especially bad if you just watched part of the movie on HBO a day before reading the book. Unfortunately, with "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, this is exactly what happened to me, because I didn't know there WAS a book when I saw the movie. If you haven't seen the movie yet, READ THE BOOK FIRST. This is ALWAYS the way to go. And in this case, the book was completely different from the movie apart from the basic concept. Both the book and the movie have their merits, and I enjoyed them both, but sometimes the book characters seemed a little more complex and real, especially Nick's ex-girlfriend Tris, which I appreciated.

Alright! For those of you who have neither read the book nor seen the movie, it's about two straightedge, music obsessed, bridge and tunnel kids from Jersey, both of whom are getting over some messy relationships. Know what their names are? Nick and Norah! That's right! Basically, the book is about this long, eventful night they spend together in NYC. I really enjoyed it. It was funny, and witty, and once I stopped comparing it to the movie (it's hard! get out of my head, Kat Dennings and Michael Cera!) I had a lot of fun with it. It's one of those books where by the end you're so jealous of the characters, because you want a night as amazing as that, and additionally, you really wanna know the characters, because they seem like they'd be fun to hang out with. I give it 8 pretzel bites!

KAY