Looking at my list of books read and unreviewed, I find both The Golden Compass and Twilight.

I think it’s of interest that each of these is the first of a trilogy I haven’t finished, and each has a movie adaptation. I bought Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist when the movie came out and haven’t read it yet.

When I was reading The Lord of the Rings, I was careful to read each book not too long before the movie came out, so that I would have the book fresh in my mind when I saw the movie. I’m not a big re-reader; I have re-read only a few novels in my life (The Incarnations of Immortality series and the Harry Potter books). So it’s important to read a book-to-movie source close to the movie release.

It’s been a year since I read Twilight, which I enjoyed at the time but found flawed later. (I maintain that it is a good time, though, if you are looking for sickly sweet romance.) I donated my copy to a thrift shop. I hope it made someone very happy.

So the question is, do I go on and read the others now, or do I wait until New Moon the Movie is close to release, and so on? For His Dark Materials I will clearly have to go on and read them without waiting for more movies, because they aren’t happening. (Quick review of The Golden Compass movie: It was a very good book trailer.)

What do you do with big deal or popular books that are bound to be adapted to movies? Do you read them in the height of their popularity? Do you wait? Are you such a contrarian that you don’t read them at all?