Today I'm going to talk about a little category that I think of as "unnecessary books". Hmm.... you wonder what on earth can I mean by that? Am I going to pick on certain authors? Certain genres? Plot lines? What, oh what, could possibly make a book "unnecessary"?
I'll tell you. I have a very specific type of book in mind, and what got me to thinking about this a bit more was that one of them showed up with our new books in yesterday's library delivery. (I love when we get new stuff - like Christmas at work!) As I sorted through new selections for children, a non-fiction title or two, lots of new best-sellers, etc, I found one of these heinous things with the new mass market paperbacks. There it was, shiny cover mocking me, a small sticker placed on it stating "do not distribute before such-and-such date".......
The dreaded "movie novelization".
Yep, we got a copy of the "new" paperback of "Cowboys vs. Aliens". The "movie novelization", I should say, which I think it the most unnecessary category of books on the planet. After all, the movie itself is based on a graphic novel of the same name, so why not read that? Or just go see the movie? Why read a novel that is 'based on the book"? This just completely boggles my mind.
It's not as if it hasn't been done for decades, and indeed, I have always found these things irritating. I just do not understand why these things are published, nor do I understand the sort of people who read them. I know - be happy that people are reading, right? But it just seems wrong to read what is basically a more-fleshed-out screenplay. And a complete waste of money, IMHO.
So what do you think? Is there really a market for this sort of work? Or is it just a blatant grab for more merchandising dollars? Let me know your thoughts.... and take heart, I love to hear your opinions, even when they disagree with mine!
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