Confession: I Watched "Gone Girl" before Reading it

Maybe this is a dirty little secret I shouldn't be sharing online with my thousands* of avid blog followers, but there are times in my life, when, after loads of self reflection and a painfully meticulous decision-making process, I make the executive life decision that it is O.K. to see a certain movie prior to reading the book.

[Tangent: O.K. or okay? I use almost exclusively the latter, so have no idea why I just typed the former.]

This past weekend, I saw Gone Girl before even buying (or even attempting to read) the book. *gasp* The horror. I know, if Gillian Flynn were dead, she'd be rolling in her grave. Since she's not a dead author, but an alive one, she probably doesn't care at all. Famous authors who are alive never respond to offensive news such as this, but Shakespeare? He's done a hell of a lot of rolling.

image from amazon

Contrary to your (newly formed) opinions, I'm decidedly not starting a campaign to spread illiteracy in my spare time. Or a charity advocating for more screen time for our youth. Or secretly, slowly, and deliberately burning all of the books in the state of Wisconsin.

[Alright, you caught me, I did consider burning all my books, along with everything else I own, when I was moving.]

It's just...I was reading other things (this, these, etc.), and the movie came out, and my friends were going, and tickets were bought, and one thing led to another and the next thing you know...

image

I liked it. The movie was certainly disturbing, but indisputably held my attention. I also now trust approximately zero people on this planet. It turns out hiring a secret service body guard to follow me around 24/7 was rather expensive, but totally worth the investment, in my opinion. You just never know, you guys.

I don't think I'm going to spend my time reading the book since I now know the story. And Gillian Flynn did write the screenplay! So I got pretty close to reading it, you guys! I'll likely read something else instead. 

Admittedly, I'm a repeat offender to this heinous movie-before-book crime. I watched Devil Wears Prada before reading the book, have never read the book, and have even watched the movie several times! I bet some of you didn't even know that was a book. (I doubt Lauren Weisberger cares, either.) 

Is it weird I feel like this is some sort of skeleton in my closet that I have to justify? Or do other dedicated readers go through this same cycle of guilt when it's time for the show and they haven't cracked open the pages yet? One of my friends who saw the movie with me also hadn't read it, and she felt guilty too. She had considered rushing home from work on Friday and voraciously reading the book before the 9:45pm showtime, but she napped instead. I'm all for the "nap over anything else" mentality, and I'm glad I wasn't the only offender in the audience.

And you know what guys, I think it's fine. It's our choice. I can still love reading without reading every book every book ever published, and I'm here to tell you it's really okay if you do this too. (Or O.K. Whatever you prefer.)

*this number could be a slight exaggeration.

p.s. Gillian Flynn admits to being a "worst-case scenario-ist" (just like me!) and says she thinks we need to have more uncomfortable conversations in this Rolling Stone interview. (spoiler alert!) Even though I've never read one of her books, I'm officially a fan.

p.p.s. Obvious spoilers: 18 Ways the Movie's Different than the Book  (I read this one too - why not?!)