Generally I am a read first watch second sort of person, but it hasn't always turned out that way and sometimes it doesn't matter to me.

My preference with most movies for instance, is get my own visuals in my head in first, and not the budget constrained visuals of a film maker. Similar with interpretations of various elements too, especially where the author is not really consulted in any kind of controlling way.

Because of that, I still haven't watched some things. Like the Game Of Thrones. I've read all the books released thus far, but as many know the TV Series went beyond the books, as the author could not keep up. I did watch the first episode of series one, just to get a feel for what everyone was raving about, and it was impressive enough, and I will eventually watch the rest, fate or luck willing. I have heard from many sources that the latter seasons of Game Of Thrones is much weaker, some say rushed, than the first few seasons that kept inline with the published books. That's not surprising I guess, as clearly the author got ahead of himself, bit off more than he could chew, did too many other things in his life at that point, and then lost his writing mojo.

I started reading the novels of Val McDermid after watching some of the Wire In The Blood TV series, which did not impact anything negatively, and I am fine seeing the lead actor etc in their roles, in my head.

I was a bit less happy with The Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit movies, even though I had read them a few times before their advent. Personally I wish they had gone full CGI for those movies, so they could stick closer to the books, and give me less realistic visuals (people etc) etc ... as I hope to re-read the books again one day, and not everything I saw in the movies was agreeable with my original interpretations etc.

That said, I am not someone who thinks a movie should stick religiously to a book. In fact, I'd rather they didn't, because that makes it easier for me to separate the two in my head. I am quite happy to see a great story, but as seen through the eyes of a different person ... providing it is different enough. The Hobbit movies were a bit more like that.

I usually prefer to read the book first. You only get to experience a story for the first time once, so the other is going to be "spoiled". And the activity I immerse myself more is reading.

However, it's impossible to keep up with all the movies/TV series based on books (especially in sci/fantasy). I watch a lot of them first without even knowing beforehand there is a book. In those cases, I will read the book only if I am very interested and I want to get the original take of the story.

On the other hand, if a book I have read and enjoyed gets a movie/TV adaptation, usually it's a no-brainer to watch it -even if the fear of its getting butchered never disappears.

I like to read the books first, if they would anyway be on my "to do" list. Otherwise I'm happy to experience them in either order.

Timboli, regarding Game of Thrones, if you wish I think you would be fairly safe watching up to Season 4. Up to that point they have mostly not gone past the so-far released books. There are naturally some things where they start to diverge early on, due to cutting some storylines etc.

I'm a *completionist* sort, I prefer to consume media and books in order to appearance when possible. For instance if a game is based on books, I would read the books released before that game first, then play a game and continue with my reading. Same goes for the TV series yet I might watch something before reading the books but if I liked it I will most certainly put a mark to read all the books later on. TV series based on comics or franchise does not count, for me it's a standalone art.

Look.
Some great series have 40+ books in them. Like Discworld. Or the Star Trek novels. And in the case of the latter, some of those books outright stink worse than Spock's Brain. Wheel of time has 4,410,036 words & would take 19d 5h 25m to listen to. But the series is exclusive to Amazon prime. Or how about One Piece or JJBA? Both of them don't exactly have an abridged manga that cuts all the chaff out.

The point I'm trying to make is that life is too short to be a media completionist.

I consider myself a quicksort type of person, divide and conquer...

I don't read books are for virgin nerds, If i had to go to a library ((If such thing still exists in 2021)) it would be to bang some lone milf that her ex died at war in afghanistan or she has 3 children and is lonely

You should be ashame videogames is bad and satanic (especially dnd)!

https://www.healthline.com/health/does-reading-make-you-smarter#vocabulary

Aside from that, I don't care what order I watch something in. Its all entertainment and sometimes its done better in one form than another. I think a lot of it depends on how internal a book is. Jane Eyre for instance is a terrible book for a movie since its about the inner torment of a woman being manipulated by a wealthy man who wants to dish his crazy ex. But something like Hitchicker's guide with its general stupidity and constant humor can make the transition without much issue. It really depends on the subject matter but in either case, they are different reflections of the same essential narrative and it doesn't really matter.

Why thank you gentleman m'sir m'lord

What, no love for Bubble Sort?

Some say the original bubble sort that was started all those years ago is still sorting to this very day.

Hmm hard to say. There's a number of sorting algorithms under the hood are actually bubble sort but done better. Like the Shaker (Goes back and forth, same process) Shell sort is just Bubble sort at several levels that move large jumps first and smaller ones later. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Bubble sort in Basic, except it's to move line numbers to their location and 1 item vs a bunch.

Actually having written several sorting functions for fun, Heap Sorts is one of my favorites.

Ehh.

I'm not much of a reader any more. I don't begrudge others going for the "read first" path, but I tend to watch a film/series whenever I wish and try to judge it on its merits alone. If the movie/series is too grounded in lore and feels like I'm missing something in the watch, then that's a let-down for me. Something on screen should stand on its own feet and be enjoyable as it is, not some kind of supplementary fan-service to the fans of the books or games (*groan*).

That being said, watching a film and not enjoying 100% of it doesn't mean it'd turn me off the books. I watched the first few Harry Potter films first and then decided to read the books after that... and found the books superior in story, but the films worked to enhance the imagery of the universe for me - both mediums were equally enjoyable. I enjoyed both right up until Order of the Phoenix and then found the changes between the books and films to be frustrating.

Sometimes the books are superior, sometimes the films are, sometimes both are great. It varies a lot to me.

I agree, it does depend on the subject matter, and of course if the movie or TV series came first, and the book is based on that, then order may not matter, though maybe watch first.

And of course, if you are not a reader, than it doesn't matter, because you would be unaffected.