From Paper to the Big Screen

One of the perks of being a second semester senior is having time to do whatever you want. One day while surfing the internet I came across the Oscar nominee list and it was crazy how many movies were based off of novels! With all of the "free" time that I have now, I decided to check some of them out.

I started with The Accidental Billionaires, the book that the movie The Social Network is based on. If you haven't heard of either, they are about the making of facebook and the struggles that occurred at Harvard between all of the people involved. Although the book was okay, I found myself comparing it to the movie and to me there was no competition of which one was better. The movie brought to life the personality of Mark Zuckerberg, the struggles of being a college student striving for success, and the sacrifices that you have to make. The movie was a little exaggerated,  but it was thought-provoking and there was a clear moral that they brought across. The book on the other hand seemed more biased, and although it was informational and written as an interesting story, it just wasn't as good.

After finishing that book, I decided to read something more fun: Eat, Pray, Love. Though not an Oscar nominee, there have been great reviews about the book and it has been a best-seller for a really long so I decided to check it out for myself. I'm in the middle of reading it right now, but from what I have read it's pretty good. I can't imagine leaving everything I have worked for in order to fulfill my dreams of traveling, but that is exactly what the main character, Elizabeth, does. Recently divorced, she decides to travel to Italy and fulfill her dreams of speaking Italian, travel to India to reach her spiritual side, and travel to Indonesia for reasons that are not yet apparent to me. I've been pushing myself for so long to get good grades so I can get into a good college and become a successful person, but she proves that success isn't everything. Like the essay we just read for class said, working hard all the time makes us forget about the important things in life. Elizabeth was unhappy with all of the stress in her life, so she decided to idle for a while and just enjoy what life has to offer.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but hopefully I will finish the book by spring break so I can check the movie out and not feel bad about spending two hours of my life relaxing rather than completing homework.

After I finish this book, I plan to move on to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I watched the movie a few years ago and it was too serious for me....but now that I older and seemingly more mature I'm going to give the book a chance. A discussion in genetics made me remember this book about an infant born as an old man who ages backwards. Although the plot is obscure, F. Scott Fitzgerald is a good author from what I can remember of The Great Gatsby, and now that I am losing motivation to do homework this seems like a good way to pass the time.