I get this question often, from the folks who like to say "Shakespeare was meant to be seen, not read, you know!" True (to a point). But the glorious thing about reading is that *you* get to play director and stage manager and all the actors, inside your brain. What does Hamlet look like to you? Just how crazy is Ophelia? When you see the movie version, no matter how good it is, you are stuck with just a single interpretation of every imaginative decision that could have been made. When it's in your head you get to pick them for yourself, and change them at will. I can read Shakespeare over and over again, wondering how it plays out with a young Hamlet versus old, a mama's boy wimp or the popular tough kid with lots of friends, and on and on and on.

But your question was, does reading change you. Yes, I think it does. Because "movie people" (i.e. non readers) end up as followers, not thinking for themselves, far too willing to be told something and just say "Oh, ok. That person told me that the detective guy in DaVinci Code looks like Tom Hanks. That's what it is, then." For a great look right at that line where that happens, go to one of the fan boards where fans of the *book* predict the casting for an upcoming movie version. They go deeply into it, they discuss, they argue. When the movie comes out and it does not match their optimal choices, they go bananas. You just can't do that unless you've already built up the world of that book inside our own head.

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