Is it worth reading the book "Friday Night Lights" if you have seen the movie?

Question

I liked the movie and i am watching the show and i love it.
But is the book too similar to them? Is the book worse? Or is it worth my money?

Answer 1

Well, I read the book (when it first came out in paperback) and then saw the movie. I'm glad I did both--in that order.

Of course, Hollywood fictionalized and glamorized the story just a little bit, not bad. Even so, I thought the book was much better. It just had so much more in it than you could ever get in a regular-length movie.

You get to know more of the team better, and I think both the coach, his wife, and several of the players were more complex and more interesting in real life than in the movie. The book has more about the West Texas background (I once lived in the area, and I can vouch for the authenticity), especially the economic, social, and "political" factors involved in their sports fever. The book is a page-turning story, but it's also a thought-provoking study of American values, especially in the age of a president who prides himself on being from West Texas!

But be warned: it is a long and detailed book. If you're looking for a fast-paced sports story, you might find this one a tough row to hoe.

In my mind, only one other recent sports book ranks anywhere near Friday Night Lights, and it comes in a distant second: Bill Reynolds' Cousy, which really is also the story of the struggling days of the NBA.

Here's what Booklist says about it, "Bob Cousy was the NBA's first fan-friendly star. George Mikan was leading the Minneapolis Lakers to championships, but he was a bespectacled behemoth with whom few fans could identify. Cousy, on the other hand, was only six feet tall, and he dazzled fans with his ball handling. Reynolds, a columnist for the Providence Journal, gives the NBA's first marketable star the full-dress biography he deserves. Working from material collected in a series of interviews with Cousy, Reynolds traces the star's early life and shows how he became, first, the Celtics' team leader and, later, how he merged his talents with those of Bill Russell to forge a dynasty. Reynolds also explores Cousy's close but not too close relationship with the baseline Celtic coach and general manager Red Auerbach. Cousy collaborated on a couple of earlier biographies, but this is clearly the definitive one. Reynolds brings a serious biographer's sense of balance to the task, as contrasted with a typical sports biographer's sense of hype. This is wonderful reading, both for old-time fans and new ones who wonder if superstars were always like Shaq and Kobe."

Answer 2

I think the movie is slightly dramtized for Hollywood. So yeah, read the book it might be different.

Answer 3

The book is going to be different,because you wont be seeing it you will be reading the script and imajining what's going to happen.