by Robin Landry

Created on: May 03, 2008   Last Updated: April 22, 2011

Like the singer Jewel in her hit song "Intuition" I feel that, "I'm just a simple girl in a high tech digital world." As such I realize that my preference for reading books, actual physical, off-the-shelf books as opposed to e-books or audio books makes me an old fashioned exception to the rule that says that people would rather just "wait and see the movie."

But, frankly, I don't care. You see, I love books. I have always loved books as far back as I can remember. My earliest recollection of having a book of my very own was when I was about four years old. It was a very small, much abbreviated version of the Mary Poppins story (the one starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, not the original). When it was inadvertently left behind in a hotel room during a family vacation I was so distraught that once we returned home my mother actually purchased a replacement copy, something my "old school, tough love" mom almost never did.

The first motion picture that I can recall seeing in a theater was Walt Disney's classic, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" when I was about five years old. Only in kindergarten, I was not yet able to read so the movie was wonderfully exciting. However, a short year later, as I was about to complete first grade and was a proud member of the advanced reading group, our class read "Snow White" and then performed the story as our class play. I landed the role of Snow White's evil stepmother. My most difficult scene was with a boy named Walter who was supposed to be the Magic Mirror, but who couldn't seem to help giggling every time I looked at him.

As wonderful as the Disney movie had been I found the book to be so much more. There was more detail, more background information and more room for me to use my own imagination to picture how things would look and feel and sound.

The Disney animators were talented to be sure but I soon discovered that even they could not hold a candle to my own imagination. The other problem with the movie was Snow White's voice. I mean, what was up with that high-pitched cross between Alvin and the Chipmunks and Glenda the Good Witch sound? It just didn't seem right to me, even at the tender age of five. Snow White had escaped from the evil stepmother and survived a night in the scary forest after the woodsman spared her. Snow White was tough, in her own unique way. The little girl voice just wasn't cutting it with me. With the book I could imagine Snow White's voice sounding any way that I wanted it to. Personally,

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