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I read a lot of books and I write about them on here. Mummy Geek is sometimes a guest blogger....people seem to love her.....Oh and you can find me on Twitter.....@book_geek_says. Shortlisted for Blog of the Year by the 2015 Love Stories Awards...THANK YOU!!

Tuesday 24 January 2012

True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries: TV versus The Written Word

The Southern Vampire Books are usually £ 7.99 each, published by  Gollancz - So far there are 11, I'm sure more will be coming...well I hope so.

VERSUS

 I've only seen series 1 - 3, and a box set of them is £ 38.99 made by HBO. There is a 4th series but I've not seen it yet and the 5th one is in production apparently.

Southern Vampire Mysteries 
I know they are trash but I don't care. I think they rock. You can read one in a day, if that really, and they are real page turners. I have read all the ones that have come out so far and I've enjoyed every single second of them. It took a while to get used to the first person as I tend to avoid it if I can...well I did until I started reading the these books, they helped me accept the first person a bit more....still not completely sold on it.

The books are through the eyes of Sookie Stackhouse, a bar made in Merlotte's bar and grill, Bon Temps. Vampires have 'come out of the coffin' and as of book one she gets swept up in their world and brings several of her friends along for the ride. You'll encounter fantastic vampire characters, shape shifters, were wolves, fairies, were panthers and other things you never thought would exist or didn't know existed. There is bad language, violence and lots of sex, so, you won't want young 'uns reading them. 

Each book has a main story line and the overriding story of Sookie finding out who she is, what she is, who she loves, how she survives, etc, etc, etc runs throughout them all.

The books are obviously meant to be read as a series however, they can be picked up randomly to an extent as Harris makes sure that background history to Sookie's life and the events of the last novel is always briefly discussed. 


True Blood
I've only seen series 1 - 3 as I said before. What's good is that the series are very loosely based on the books. The character names and relations are the same and some plot threads are used but things are changed dramatically. This helps incredibly as it's different enough that I don't get annoyed.

The same as with The Slap is here though, characters don't look how they do in my head. In the books Sookie is a US size 12, UK size 16, and of course Anna Paquin who plays her is as skinny as a pole. Eric is as gorgeous as he is in my head...PHEW...that is VERY important! The series is VERY sexually explicit and violent and the language is strong but they all make part of its charm. As was said by my boyfriend's mate 'it's like soft porn.'

I hugely enjoy the show, each episode is around an hour. The costumes, locations and sets are great and they fit pictures I had in my head. The introduction of characters not found in the books help detach it further from the books and help me, at least, get other the fact that the show is not a literal adaptation of the book series.

I can't wait for series 4!!!

In this instance I'd say that the show and books draw equal so it's Written Word: 2 - TV: 1

Happy reading and viewing!!!

Book Geek

:-p

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