People should read more...including me.

Thinking about fiction the other day, I came to the conclusion (one that has most assuredly already been come to) that writing, and novels in particular, are the purest form of storytelling. The fact that an author is essentially in control of everything allows for a story to be told in its truest form. The author creates the world in which the reader loses himself.

This fact is not present anywhere else in fiction. Whether the story is played out on stage, on television, or in the movies, so many hands are working to create this final product that it becomes impossible for there to be a singular vision. Of course in most of these cases the director is the one who brings all those hands together to make a cohesive product, but along the way things are bound to get lost in translation. An actor makes a choice that completely changes the tone of the movie. A director's blocking alters the intent of a scene. A new writer is brought in to tighten up dialog.

None of these things are inherently bad, of course. Movies are by far my favorite form of storytelling and one in which the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. But by no means is it a direct link to an individual artist in the way that books are.

I look at worlds like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Here you have one woman whose head contains the rules and history of an entire universe. And upon retrospect, you see how clearly these books provide a tightly plotted and rich fantasy world where every choice is deliberate and each book informs the next. Anything and everything can work in a book. The movies on the other hand do not have that luxury. They must fit into cinematic guidelines that do not necessarily suit Rowling's originally explicit guidelines. This does not mean the movies are poor. On the contrary, they are excellent movies in their own right. But again, they're the result of the collaboration of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Certainly novelists have to deal with editors who will assist the author in creating their story and providing ideas. And sometimes it is not the author's choice to remove or change or add something. Yet, when all is said and done, the words an author chooses to use are ultimately their own. The language comes directly from them and onto the page to ultimately end up in the mind of the reader. And I find that it is in this direct link that makes books such a fascinating way of telling a story.