The Reason I Have Favorite Movies and Not Favorite books
It’s not because I do not read.
When I was a kid, I could get lost in a fictional book. I would imagine the whole universe, befriend the characters, and sometimes place myself in the story. I could entertain myself for hours just reading, even sometimes getting in trouble for staying up too late. However, as I grew up, things changed for me.
If you ask me now what my favorite book is I would say Blink by Ted Dekker. It is a story of a genius college kid who gains the ability to see the future and through a series of events works to save a Saudi Princess. I read this book twice in middle school.
It skyrocketed to my favorite because of how it questioned the existence of God. As a kid in the South, I lived in a strict, religious household. The idea of questioning God wasn’t really allowed, but this book did it in an existential and humane way. Essentially, the main character, Seth, is an atheist and explains that science proves that there is no God. When he gains the ability to see the future (through multiple visions), he uses the idea of multiple futures as proof that there could not be an all-powerful God. However, when Seth and the princess are trapped and Seth cannot see a vision where they escape, he prays to multiple Gods. First, to the God in Christianity and then to the God in Islam. He later reveals that it was only when he prayed to the God in Islam that his visions changed and he saw a way to escape. This idea of the questioning of God, especially the God in Christianity, became transformative for me in my spiritual journey.
Despite the impact of this book on me, I have not read it since I was in middle school and I have no intention to read it again. I do not know if I would even count it as my favorite book anymore, except that I made the decision it was in middle school and it makes answering the question easier.
For a long time in my high school years into adulthood, I did not read outside of schoolwork. Now that I have finished my Ph.D., I have the time to explore reading as a hobby and I have read multiple books. However, what I choose to read has greatly changed.
When I want to relax and get lost in a story, I prefer to watch TV shows or movies vs. reading. I find it very difficult to get into a fictional story as well as I did when I was a kid. In fact, if I do read fictional stories now, I have probably already watched the movie and I want to immerse myself further into the fictional world.
If you ask me about my favorite movies or TV shows, I could give you a long list. In college, I decided my favorite movie would be The Perks of Being a Wallflower. There were so many trials that the people in the movie were dealing with that I could relate to. I highly suggest watching it if you haven’t, but I do warn there are several triggers.
However, I could also list the whole series, such as most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the X-men, as my favorite movies. I started watching the X-men around middle school several years after they were released. I fell in love with the world and my favorite superhero switched from Superman to Wolverine. However, you would likely never catch me with a book or comic book about the X-men.
Instead, my current reasons for reading are to gain information. I read personal development books, books about entrepreneurship, and non-fiction books regarding topics I am interested in. However, if you ask me which of these books is my favorite, I could not tell you. I do not have the same emotional connection with these books as I did Blink or fictional movies.
There are books I would recommend reading, but they are not my favorite books. Similarly, while in graduate school, I had scientific articles that I knew like the back of my hand and would reference often and recommend reading, but these weren’t my favorite articles. There was no emotional favoritism. They were simply very important or helpful articles.
For this reason, I have favorite movies that I can talk with you about, but I really don’t have favorite books, outside of a book that I barely remember. My relationship with movies and books have changed as I grew up, where reading became a method of attaining information vs. movies being a source of relaxation and imagination.
For a long time, I was ashamed of this fact, because I thought that I was seen as a person who doesn’t read. People always mentioned that successful people are those that read like crazy, but I was never that person. This is probably why, as a middle schooler, I established my favorite book and never let go. That way, I could always be perceived as a person who reads and could be successful.
Lately, I have realized that there are individual preferences in reading. This does not indicate that you are going to be more or less successful than a colleague that reads more or reads more fiction. The world has truly changed since I was in middle school. Even this site is an example of that, where I have more Medium articles that I continually reference than I have books. Instead, I believe the key to success is making a conscious effort to take in information, process it, and take action on it.
This process can take place, whether the information comes from a movie, TV show, documentary, book, or online blog. Therefore, I have lost my own shame around how, how often, and when I read.
The next time I am asked for my favorite book, instead of detailing a book that I have no connection with anymore as a canned answer, I plan to unashamedly pronounce that I don’t really have one. But, I can tell you about my favorite movies and how they have changed my understanding and perceptions.