Day 3 of Armchair BEA!

Beyond the traditional form of the novel, what are your favorite alternative forms (graphic novels, audiobooks, webcomics, etc)? Do you have any favorite works within these alternate forms? How do you think the changing format affects the reading experience?

I’m a traditionalist, through and through. The original format is almost always my preference — that’s what the author intended, and I prefer to honor the author’s intent.

I will admit that I’ve used audiobooks on occasion, and really, I never would have gotten through A Tale of Two Cities or The Count of Monte Cristo without them. I find classic novels work better with audio than more contemporary works, but that’s just my thought.

I am a little curious about the graphic novel adaptations, like this:

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I have yet to read one of these, and I’m not sure I’d ever be willing to. Anyone have opinions on them? Are they worth it? Do they summarize the content? I can only imagine that they lose so much of the beautiful language the author originally wrote — descriptions, settings, actions. You get a visual representation, sure, but at what cost?

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Our secondary topic, beyond the blog could focus on the ways you engage in talking about books outside of your blog. Do you participate in book clubs, take classes, meticulously maintain your GoodReads profile? Let the world know!

For the last several years I was in an awesome book club, mostly friends from library school. Our theme was books-to-films; we would read a novel, and then once a month meet to chat about it (briefly) and then watch the movie version and eat. We didn’t always dig in deep on analysis, but it exposed us to a variety of stories and a variety of movies.

Sadly, when I moved to Chicago last year, I had to leave my book club behind. 🙁 Maybe I’ll find another club, but it could never be as awesome…

I’ve re-booted my GoodReads with a new profile, as the other one is all gunked up with me trying to read every single book in existence. Instead of weeding, I’m starting over from scratch; I still need to find some new groups to join and really get involved.

Otherwise, my blog and my linkups are the way I’m starting to talk about books (and writing books).