#57: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Source Material, Volume 2
Chances are you’ve seen the movie but haven’t read the book. And why should you? The movie is a Spielberg classic that won 3 technical Oscars. It’s a masterpiece. Why read a book published in 1990 if you’ve already seen the movie and may be tiring of the sequels?
Why you should read Jurassic Park
The best reason I can give you is Ian Malcolm. You already have the image of Jeff Goldblum in your head. You can see his smug face and hear his voice with that trademark stammer that’s honey-smooth. He has some of the best lines in the movie…
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
What you call discovery I call the rape of the natural world.
Life, uh, finds a way.
Dr. Sattler, I refuse to believe that you are unfamiliar with the concept of attraction.
These classic movie lines are, in fact, parts of much longer Malcolm speeches in the book (except for that last one). They are all great monologues, especially when I brought Goldblum with me to the experience. I recommend it for this reason alone.
Other reasons to read
It’s intense and suspenseful! The action is not the same and not all the same characters live or die. While the velociraptors and T-Rex are the stars of both, the book has a lot more action with each of them. I also found that Grant and Sattler got to actually use their expertise rather than just being action heroes. The children also struck me as more intelligent and useful and less of a liability.
Finally, I appreciate the movie more after reading the book. It managed to take the source material and distill it perfectly. All but one of the named characters on the island are in the movie along with most of the key themes, intense dino action, humor, and that iconic John Williams score (which you can listen to while reading).
As summer winds down, this is a classic summer thriller you can dip in and out of. There are many more reasons to read it, but I’ll leave it at that! I’m trying to cram in a few more best-selling male authors before 2022, where I’ll be reading non-male authors the entire year! I’ll be publishing the full schedule for that shortly and I hope you’ll read along when you can.
I leave you with this amazing image I found on the internet that needs no explanation.
Thanks for reading,
Kyle
Additional Jurassic Park material
The Netflix series The Movies that Made Us has an episode on JP. I hate the style of the show itself but I learned a few cool things that made me want to learn more about how it was made.