Books Vs Movies : Would you rather read or watch?

This is definitely not up for argument as the title might imply. It is more of a discussion as I'm tired of thinking about it and explaining it to myself and others. For the longest time, I've been asked why I haven't seen a full episode of Game of Thrones or why I don't follow this or that series/ haven't seen this movie and the likes. Even though I have a few  Favorite movies of all time , I honestly find more solace in reading books for reasons I wasn't certain until recently.
It was an online interview (I'd have linked back to it but it hasn't been published) and I was asked what my favorite TV show while growing up was. After thinking hard, I realized I had none and the reason was not far fetched. I grew up with my grandmother and I hardly watched TV  because there was a fixed routine during weekdays of going to school, getting back home to play for a little while, doing homework and then freestyling till night falls with the television left untouched and then during weekends, leave her place to my parents place and start acting all clingy clingy. So, then too TV wasn't an option because all we wanted to do was catch up on all the time we couldn't spend together during the week. Also, there was this spelling game we used to play on Saturdays and I always wanted to get all my spellings right so I sort of figured reading storybooks would help and it definitely did. The one word I can remember spelling right that made me immensely proud of myself was 'Encyclopedia' even though I doubt I even knew the meaning at that time. Somehow, I managed to watch less of all the Tom and Jerry and Cinderella I developed a huge reading habit, buying and borrowing books here and there so I had a deep love for anything in print (magazines, newspapers and the likes). It wasn't much of the deep stuff of trying to get life lessons but just to amuse myself. All these made me more of a book than a movie person which I didn't think of as much of a big deal till first year in University and all my roommates would be watching movies and I'd be sleeping and they'd be asking "How don't you watch movies?".

I've been reading more books these days like Last month  when I read 5 and someone was awed and asked why not movies so I decided to make a post about it and share my views and get to know and understand other people's preferences. I was thinking of making this post all about myself and share why I prefer reading books to seeing movies but I changed my mind and decided to ask randomly on my twitter and a few friends which they'd rather go for and then share some of their responses.

From those who'd rather watch,I gathered that

- They'd rather deal with something they can finish in less than 2 hours which well makes sense because reading books could be quite tiring at times. Someone even went as far as telling me he finds it hard to read emails talkless of reading a whole book! I found that pretty hilarious.
Another person I asked said he's so into movies that if he wants to study, he'd rather opt for video tutorials because he gets bored reading books.

- With books, you'll have to do all the imagining whereas movies just simplify everything. For example, I read a book I love so much  with its location in Athens and I've been trying to paint the perfect picture but I doubt if I'm close so it's definitely top on my places to visit list. If it was a movie, I definitely won't have any problem visualizing it.

- It's easier to get distracted when reading books than when watching movies. This makes a lot of sense. I mean, this is a era where we're drawn to visually appealing things. Just look at Instagram.

For books over movies, It was basically

- Books spark your imagination. You tend to imagine a lot and there's a lot of possibilities in imaginations especially if you love to imagine things yourself. No wonder I used to write 'daydreaming' as one of my hobbies then.

- Books are more detailed (especially for those that become movies).

- Get to improve spelling abilities and vocabulary in general . This right here is the truth!

And so, what about books that become movies? The best because you get the best of both worlds but I'd never see the movie of a book before reading it. That kills the suspense that I love. Seeing the movie after reading the book makes me feel like some kind of boss lol. Probably because I know what scene comes next and I get to be a mean movie critic. For example, I just read The Notebook last month and just last week I was with some friends going through a laptop and I saw The Notebook movie. I was so excited and I proceeded to play it. When I saw the protagonist Noah Calhoun, I actually said out loud that "The Noah in the book is finer than the movie's Noah" and the remaining 3 people in the room were shocked, like how do you know what he looks like from a book? I don't think I gave a valid explanation cause this guy actually said "If only people could imagine the word of God like that". Whew
Also,after reading the book 'Me Before You', I really disturbed the person I saw the movie with with my frequent "In the book, that's not how it happened" without considering the fact that they were probably trying to reduce  the cost of production.

All in all, I think the comparison isn't all that needed because either way, you get knowledge, you lose boredom, you learn new words, probably get to imagine all you want to depending on your reasons for engaging in either activity. For me tho, it'd always be books over movies.

What about you? Are you more of a book person than a movie person? Why?
I think my childhood experiences had a big role to play in picking my preference. Is it also like that for you?
What book have you read and also seen the movie that you think should have just stayed as a book?

I always want to hear from you. Kindly leave me your thoughts.
xxx