People ask why I often refer to movies when I talk about books. Here’s why:
If a million people read a book, it’s a runaway best seller.
If only a million people see a movie, it’s a flop.
Movies reach a much larger audience than books, so it’s a more common point of reference.
DAN ALATORRE 
15 replies on “Why Do You Reference Movies When you Talk About Books?”
I agree… I read AND see movies so I can talk about both. But if a book is really successful, it will sell more than a million copies, eh? 😉
I also think movies and books are a great way to start a conversation, You can learn a lot about a person based on what they read (or if they don’t read) and what movies they watch (or don’t watch). It is a safe topic for me and I use it to gauge whether or not deeper subjects can be broached like religion, current events or politics….
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I tell people “I don’t read.” That’s supposedly like one of the worst things you can say to an author. I should probably stop saying it.
It’s more accurate to say something like “I read three online newspapers and ten blogs, plus write probably a five hundred to thousand words, all before 6am, and then critique 3,000 – 10,000 words before my daughter wakes up for breakfast. But that sounds so pretentious.
Meanwhile, I tend to not read a book at all, until I do – and then I devour it nonstop in 1 or 2 days.
So I say “I don’t read” – meaning books – because most of the time I’m not. I probably don’t go a week without seeing a movie or two, either on TV or at the theater.
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Playing to an audience that has grown up in a very visual world, referencing movies is a quick way to establish an image, concept, or theme with a visual quickly so you can more rapidly go on and talk about what you want without long explanations
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I like your answer better, philosophermouseofthehedge. I’m changing mine to that.
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It’s a whiplash world. Gotta grab that attention span while you can and redirect on the run. Glad you got a grin.
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I reference movies when I talk about…well,,,pretty much anything. It scares people sometimes. Like at work last week I made some witty comment and someone told me I was funny.
“Whaddaya mean I’m FUNNY? How am I funny? What’s funny about me? Huh? Huh? Like funny ha ha or funny queer? Huh? How am I funny? How am I funny?”
The look of terror in her widened eyes finally clued me in to the fact she’d probably never seen Goodfellas. (sigh.)
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Do I amuuuuuuse you?
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Am I a clown to you?
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Just lemme get my baseball bat…
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Bwahahahahaha! Gotta know your audience. Was HR called? Some people can’t take a joke.
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Thankfully no. I explained it to her, and then she laughed (you know, after I explained it…like having to explain the punchline to your joke.)
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Books, movies, and television don’t enthrall me like they once did. Maybe that’s why I write.
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That’s true; there’s a lot of garbage out there on the big and little screen.
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I wanted to say I keep the two pretty separate but then I realized just this last week I talked my writers group into a field trip to see a movie. And I’m currently running a how to write workshop based on a film script book. LOL. um….media co-mingles, on it’s own. Like teenagers you just can;t keep them apart. That’s my story.
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That works for me!
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