Do Movies & TV Inspire People To Read?

I was reading another blog asking the same type of question and I have to say, at least in my personal experience, it's a yes.

For example, when I heard that Guillermo Del Toro (one of my favourite film directors) was going to direct 'At The Mountains Of Madness', I went and picked up the original book by HP Lovecraft and the graphic novel by INJ Culbard, I enjoyed both.

Although he's one of my favourite writers from his days doing the Sandman comic books, I'd not read any of his novels, but when I heard that the Neil Gaiman novel 'American Gods' was possibly going to be turned into a TV series, I read that as well. Again, I'm glad that I did.

The same has happened for George RR Martin's first book in the Song of Fire And Ice series 'A Game Of Thrones', Edgar Rice Burroughs 'A Princess Of Mars' which is being made into Disney's John Carter (I've since read the first five books of the eleven book series and wholly recommend them) and JRR Tolkien's 'The Hobbit'. Add to that re-reading the 'Watchmen', 'V For Vendetta', '300' and 'Sin City' graphic novels when the films were out, picking up and enjoying Robert Kirkman's comic book series 'The Walking Dead' before the TV series started and the whole series of Bryan Lee O'Malley's 'Scott Pilgrim' after the film was released.

I guess it comes down to whether or not you would want to read the original source material, if you enjoyed the film or not and perhaps want to see what is different from page to screen. The success of the Harry Potter series, in both literary and film form, for example, would suggest that people are, a whole new generation picking up books (actual or ebook format these days - that's another discussion) and enjoying them! Long may that continue!