are books always better than the movies?

When an author puts their words into a sentence, then a sentence into a paragraph, and paragraphs into a chapter: they've done all they can do. Upon reading a story, everything is open to interpretation. The author can establish a tone, but from there on out, the mood is all to you (the reader). Every little detail is all to your imagination. One series that sticks out in my mind is the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. The minute details of each character and the thoroughness of the imagery used allowed my brain to come up with scenarios that I was transformed into. Patterson does a wonderful job of capturing you into a story that you almost believe you are living yourself. Hollywood does plan on creating a film off of the book series, but I already have in mind what I think every single setting and character should look like. As a control freak, seeing the film turn out differently is quite bothersome, especially when directors and producers miss details that I found to be crucial to the story. In my opinion, the images you see in your head when decoding a book are much more beautiful than anything a movie depicts. The creativity in deciphering a story yourself is priceless compared to the millions that actors make per second while filming a strict, "straight to the book" movie. The Host, by Stephenie Meyer is another one of my favorites that I could see perfectly in my head. I saw a preview for the movie, and decided to pick up the novel. In this case, I saw the characters depicted in the trailer as the faces to names in the story, which was pretty cool. I had no idea where the plot would go, but I already had the profiles of the characters imprinted into my brain. The background and plot just painted itself around them, which was interesting to me. Once my brain registered a certain character with certain face; there was no going back. No matter what I thought, I always went back to seeing Melanie Stryder's face synced up with Saoirse Ronan's. I still wonder how I would've interpretted Meyer's characters without a preconceived face in my head. Books also provide much more information as to what each individual character is thinking because you can be inside of their mind, while movies often skip key factors to the storyline.  Call me old school, but books are always better.