How many of us feel, time and again, that books that were made into movies later, were much better in print than the celluloid version? LOTR is one that sorta does justice to the book’s fantasy world, but that apart, invariably, books portray brilliant imagination with a vividness that surprises me time and again.

The difference, as one can understand, is that in books, most of the story-building is left to the reader. The boundless imagination of a million minds embellishes each printed manuscript with its own world, its own aura of an existence. Whereas in a movie, visuals, sounds, and experiences are defined by us, by the director, who also happens to decide the pace of consumption of the story.

As humans, stories inherently hold us spell-bound. And here’s something I chanced upon in the Afterword section of Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted:

A book is as private and as consensual as sex. A book takes time and effort to consume - something that gives the reader every chance to walk away.

A book is about slow consumption, reflection and construction, of an edifice that exists brick by brick, only in your mind; that only you can visit, experience and enjoy. Won’t take more from the Afterword, and yea, this is one book definitely NOT for the weak-hearted. But I loved it all the same, for its creativity. For the way, it kept me hooked, in spite of being one of the grossest books I’ve read.

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