Quote of the Week...from Sue Grafton

Books are like movies of the mind and it's better to leave Kinsey where she is.
                                                         ---Sue Grafton

Sue Grafton is the author of the successful ongoing "Alphabet" mystery novel series featuring Kinsey Millhone as the resilient, blue collar Californian private eye.  Each successive book, starting with "A" is for Alibi, progresses further down the alphabet...we're now close to the end with "Y" is for Yesterday just recently published.  Grafton has stated that with the "Z" book, her series will conclude.  She has also insisted that as long as she lives she will never allow it to be adapted to movies or television...

I can sympathize with Sue Grafton's opposition to any film adaptation of her Kinsey Millhone mysteries.  Look at all the great Stephen King stories that made it to the big (or small) screen and how so many of them were drastically altered. The author himself allowed much of that to happen, but as a reader I still feel a bit put out by it, especially when some of those changes (like in The Mist and The Shining) directly affected the outcome of the story and the message I received from it.  Even when adaptations work well, as in the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series, an enormous amount of background material, large sections of the story, and even some characters may be trimmed in order to fit the movies into a reasonable time length: e.g. three successive chapters in The Fellowship of the Ring (which included the very interesting character Tom Bombadil) were completely omitted from the movie version.  But The Hobbit adaptation was a travesty, with entire subplots and new characters added with impunity...that was disgraceful.  I recognize that a lot of folks, while capable at reading, really don't like doing it for pleasure and would prefer a cinematic experience instead.  For me, though, when I read books, they are, as Grafton said, like movies of the mind...my mind...and I visualize for myself the various characters and scenarios, which to me is more fulfilling than having it already done for me on the screen...

As for "Y" is for Yesterday, its release back in August flew right by me...now I'm on a long waiting list to check it out from my public library...