Because nothing stings quite like realizing you should have read the book first.
It’s an age-old dilemma: Do you read the book before watching the movie, ensuring you can side-eye every minor change on-screen? Or do you dive straight into the film, blissfully unaware of all the tragic omissions that will have book lovers in an uproar?
It’s a debate as old as cinema itself, pitting die-hard readers against those who believe in letting Hollywood do the work for them.
But with 2025 serving up a particularly enticing lineup of book-to-movie adaptations, the stakes have never been higher.
Get ready to either (a) smugly say, “The book was so much better,” or (b) scramble to read these stories before they become irrevocably tied to their film versions. Choose wisely.
The Great Debate: Read First or Watch First?
Look, reading the book first technically lets you experience the author’s unfiltered vision—every scene, every detail, every deep internal monologue that’s destined to get trimmed down to a meaningful glance on screen. It’s the ultimate flex when you can point out how the themes were much richer in the source material.
On the other hand, watching the movie first means you get to enjoy the story without nitpicking every creative decision. You won’t be that person whispering, “Actually, in the book…” every five minutes in the theater. Instead, you can sit back, let the film work its magic, and then circle back to the book for the ‘full experience’ (or, you know, never get around to reading it at all).
At the end of the day, the choice is yours—whether you want to dive into these stories before they hit the big screen or resign yourself to playing catch-up once everyone’s debating the casting choices. Either way, 2025’s adaptations are coming in hot.
