A Walk To Remember

Right after my dental appointment at 5 something, I went down to the flea market, made two rounds of tours and then stopped by this secondhand bookstore, again. Just like my last visit, I scanned through the rows of books and was delighted to find about 4 Nicholas Sparks' books sitting almost untouched on the front row. So I picked out this one entitled "A Walk To Remember", bought it for twelve bucks and went home straight away. Maybe you have read about my weird thing for secondhand books; I was really eager to get my ass onto my bed and start reading that book. A few chapter at first, then I stopped to chat with a couple of people, read a couple more, then checked my facebook. Before I knew it, I was almost in tears when I finished reading the last line of the book.

Now, the book is entirely different from the movie, very much unexpected if you ask me. I'm sure 3/4 of wesleyans have watched this from last year's movie treat, and we had some students who came out of the hall with tears in their eyes (I wasn't one of them, by the way). In the movie, the story was probably set in the late 90s or the 21st century, BUT, in the book, the story didn't happen that late and in fact, it was set in 1958! What a shock. I WAS wondering how did they get computers to photoshop Jamie's photos and how on earth did they gain access to beautiful and modern-looking vehicles. And that's not all, the plots and themes were almost the same, but the details were totally different from the movie. Landon didn't hate or dislike Jamie in the beginning. In the movie, Landon was portrayed as a rotten apple but in the book, Landon was just another kid in school trying to understand Jamie's way of life. Landon approached Jamie not because he needed help with his lines but because he was elected the class president and he figured that he should get a date for the homecoming dance. And of course, the little incident of pressuring a certain someone to jump into the water in the beginning of the story didn't happen at all. There wasn't anything about being in two places at once, getting a butterfly tattoo, or building a telescope in the book; they were never mentioned at all. And there is no such person as Belinda, instead there was a girl called Angela. The school play was not actually a school play but a Christmas Play associated with the church where Jamie's father ministered. And they did not kiss on stage. Oh and Landon's parents weren't divorced, his father was just in the politics and was living in Washington.

There are something else the movie didn't show too. In the book, Landon and Jamie made frequent visits to the orphanage, collected money and bought them presents for Christmas. Landon didn't give Jamie the sweater out of nowhere. He gave her on Christmas, and Jamie in return, gave him her Bible, not a book of quotes by her mother.

I think if I were to write an essay to make comparison between the movie and the book, I would probably come up with scrolls of it. Anyways, sad to say, I think the movie is more meaningful than the book, in the sense that it actually focuses on the miracle thing, and of course, more romantic moments. The book is obviously lack of details and it was written in P.O.V form, not something that I am too fond of. Also, I think it has too little dialogues, but it's not that big of a problem for me. The book started out funny, with lots of weird things that only a teenager would say, then things slowly turned serious, then sour. The title of the book is about Jamie's wedding.

All I have to say is, Sparks' books never failed to amuse me. My favourite one is still The Message in the Bottle. Something I stole from my mum's cupboard.

p.s the last post of 2009. And did I mention I was the last patient of 2009 to my dentist too?