Which came first: the movie or the book?

Here is my bookshelf.

 I love it! I love that it spills over and book are stacked on top of each other, like they are bursting to be read and the shelf cannot contain them. 

I have always wondered what it would have been like had I been able to watch the movies of popular books before I had actually read the books. Ex: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, mainly a lot of the recent teen drama young reader stuff... The quick reads that take me only a day or two. In most cases, I read the book first (sometimes not knowing there will be a movie) then watch the movie later and am sometimes disappointed because the characters are different than I expected, or the director left out something that I thought was crucial to the plot. There have even been cases where I see a trailer for a movie, and realize its a book, then I buy the book before the movie comes out and read it first. I did that with Divergent, I am doing it right now with The Maze Runner, and really really want to go out and buy the new one about the girl with cancer and she meets a boy who falls in love with her... The title has something about time... I'm not exactly sure. In the movie it's the same actress as the girl in divergent. I saw the book on the shelf a couple weeks ago and was interested, but did not end up buying it. Then not even a week later I was a movie trailer and screamed that I should have bought the book!! Arg.  Anyways..... Sorry bout that. I will remember later... Or just google it.

But then there are the very very tiny handful of movie/book combos where I did not know about the books til the credits of the movie were rolling. Namely Nicholas Sparks. Seriously this guy..... Talk about me being a cry baby! I love (most) of the movies, and I can't bring myself to read the books! I don't know why, and I have a few of them on my bookshelf...

...I just can't get myself to read! It's so weird....

So now my dilemma. I have the opportunity to not read the book first of a very popular series that will shortly be a movie and I don't know what to do. It kills me when people have not read the books of some of my favorites... Especially Harry Potter. Seriously people, just read the book! You have no idea what you are missing!! *cough Dalton cough* 

But now I don't know what to do!! The book is the second of the Divergent series, Insurgent. The reason why I have been able to hold myself back on this one is simply because I bought Divergent after standing in the book section for no joke, less than 3 minutes while Dalton and Jason were looking at kids books for a road trip. I kid you not I read 2 pages and put it in the cart. At the time I had seen the trailer but did not know that I would want the whole series....

So I bought it in paperback. (That is important) Got home and read the book in less than 2 days. I wanted more!!! Of course I did... That's how it always happens! Gah I should have just bought them all...in hardback!!!!!!!!! BUT America does not have the others in paperback yet. They want to get you hooked on the first one of the series, then make you want to shell out a bunch of doe for the hardback because you need another hit! (Wow I sounded like a drug addict right there...interesting) 

So I made Dalton go hunting online for paperback versions of 2&3 (because I am weird like that and don't like having the same series in both paper and hard backs. Seriously I have the first 2 Harry potter in paperback

and sitting them on my bookshelf next to the others is gross. And so unfair to the look of my bookshelf! Look! It's like I try to hide them in shame. I am sorry little books!) , but he could only find #3, Allegiant.

We bought it, for super cheap mind you because it was from the Uk or something like that. And ever since, it has been haunting me because I have not read the second one! I can't find the second one in paperback, so I have tried to forget about it.... And I have for a while until about 23 minutes ago when I couldn't sleep. So now they are making the movie.. And I can't read the book yet, so can I do it?! Can I see the movie then read the book later? I have tried to imagine what it would have been like to do that with Harry potter, and I don't know if I would have been able to pick up the book afterwards. (Movies get to the story a lot faster than books, and if you are not really dedicated, the first chapter of the book would be hard to read after seeing the movie) 

If I can manage, I would not have to worry about being disappointed with the movie living up to what I have imagined in the book. I can enjoy the movie for what it is worth first, then go back to the book and be blown away with how much was left out of the movie. 

But then I have the worrying thought that if I don't read the book and watch the movie first instead, will I not want to read it? The only thing i a am going off of here is my experience with the Nicolas Sparks stuff, and I am not sure if that's enough to base my worry on. Oh why does my brain have to be so complicated?! Ant thoughts on my dilemma? Anyone else had that same thought of what it would have been like to see the movie first? I just keep going back to Harry Potter when I think of that...re-reading those after years of just the movies for a while was a whole new experience..

Oh and I google the other book. "The fault in our stars." I dunno where I got time from. Anyway, it looks good!

Until next time, Cheers from the Checketts!