Perks

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is one of my absolute favorite books. It is up there in my top five reads of all-time. I first read Perks when I was a young teenager in high school... it was 2000 (a year after its release) and I was finishing my freshman year of high school. I was 15. I was young and naive. Perks opened my eyes to a whole other world. Reading it changed me. The book literally altered who I was. This novel is as intense today as it was when I first read it. Every single time I read Perks, a little bit of me falls more in love. 

I do have one huge regret relating to Perks though.... when I was a senior in college I loaned out my copy to a friend. This was my only copy- the one I read at 15 and reread as time went by. It was beat up and dog-eared. I even had penciled notes, underlined quotes, and highlighted best loved sections. I lent it out assuming it would find its way back to me. It never did. College is funny like that... time moves too fast and before you know it you've graduated and are off to great places. This is one of my biggest reading regrets - the other being a similar situation: the gifting of my original set of Harry Potter books. Between those two things, you'd think I wouldn't loan as many books as I do. Yet, I still do and I still worry I will never see them again. While most of the time they find their way back, I did lose Perks for a SECOND time. Being a favorite book, I obviously have raved about it for ages to friends. Once again, not so long ago (last year, actually) I loaned out my copy of Perks.... and once again it never made its way back to me. So now I don't have a physical copy of Perks. I only have it on my Kindle. Lovely for the fact that it cannot disappear on me again, but also depressing because notes and highlights on a Kindle just aren't the same... and it just doesn't age. I liked when books age- show their love and the hours you've spent with it. I would like to find a well-loved copy of Perks to call my own again. I don't know if I'll buy a fresh copy or find a copy at the second hand bookshop... but either way, I will likely never loan it out again.

Well... now that I've professed my awkward love of a book and my (perhaps misplaced) regret over losing two copies, let's move on to the fact that I have now finally seen the movie adaptation.

Obviously I love the book. Pretty sure that is clear by now. I knew I wanted to see the movie- I was hoping to see it in the theater but just never got around to it. Once that happened (because I felt like it was out of theaters quick) I got skiddish. I started to think maybe the movie wasn't good- even though people were raving about it. But then I figured that Emma Watson is amazing, and I totally believe she would never choose to do a movie that was a poor adaptation of a book. So then the trouble was actually finding the damn movie. It wasn't on Netflix or Amazon Prime and I couldn't ever find it at a RedBox because it was always out of stock. Finally luck would have it that RedBox had a copy returned and was finally available! I did a happy dance and took it home- where it sat for a few days. We got it when there were a few really busy days ahead so we just never got around to it. FINALLY we were able to sit down and watch it the other night.

Barrett has not read Perks of Being a Wallflower. He knows the story and he knows I love the book. He also knows it makes me cry whenever I read it. He also knows that it got good reviews and he was actually pretty excited to finally sit and watch it. Let me start with the fact that it was adapted and directed by Chbosky, which is awesome. Plus, it had an all-star cast. All this had us both geared up for a phenomenal movie- and we were not let down. 

The film adaptation of Perks is one of the best I have seen. 
SO much translated to the screen. The movie was as magical as the book. I wept like a baby (of course) and even Bear got soft. He actually said the words "this is pulling on my heart" and murmured under his breath at Charlie as he watched the movie. He came away from the movie touched... and so did I. Perks was an amazing movie. By that I mean that I will be going out and actually purchasing a dvd of it. I don't do that anymore. I own what I own- I don't go buy new movies because rarely do I want to watch them again. However, that is not the case with Perks of Being a Wallflower. Much like the book, I want to watch it again and again. I am so pleased with the movie. Now, don't get me wrong- the book will always trump the movie, especially in this case. The writing in Perks is just so fluid. I love every word of it. Nothing can trump that.

If you have not read the book- you need to. It is one of those books that everyone should read. After you read it, go watch the movie. You will not be disappointed. I promise.

Oh, and one more thing- Perks has produced some of the greatest quotes and a cult-like following. I have many of those quotes scribbled down in journals, pinned on my Pinterest boards, and floating around in my head. Read the book and appreciate the words.

I hope you don't mind my book-crush and my jumbled thoughts as they spilled out while I typed. There is something about this that just does that to me. I am so in love with it, I get all sorts of flustered. Does that ever happen to any of you??? 

write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow