Jason Bourne

Hooray! After endless hours of reading, I’ve finally completed the Bourne series written by the famous Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and The Bourne Legacy. Needless to say, I enjoyed each and every one of them – with Supremacy being my favourite!

For the uninitiated out there, I’ve copied the synopsis of the last book (Bourne Legacy) to quickly bring you up to speed with who Jason Bourne is all about:

“A man without a past is washed into the nets of a fishing boat. He is barely alive and has no knowledge of who he is or how he got there. Over the course of three books, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, he gradually comes to realise who and what he really is – a strange amalgam of a man named David Webb, and a deadly killer: Jason Bourne.

Now David Webb is living a peaceful life as a university professor in the backwoods of America with his wife and children. But someone plans to take him out of the game for ever. A deadly assassin is on his trail and David Webb must once again turn to Bourne to save his life and family…”

For all the action-thriller fans out there, this series is a definite must read. Some of you may think that you’d much rather watch the movies than read the book. However, I should add that the movies are based loosely – very loosely – on the books. In fact, the film and the books draw very few parallels with each other. One might be forgiven if he assumed that the movies were made independent of the books – save the use of the title, and character names.

In terms of preference, I’d say that my heart lies more with books than with the films – especially with the amazing level of detail and description portrayed in novels. This is always the case, provided the books were written prior to the movies. It’s not uncommon for me to get all excited after reading the books, only to find the films disappointing. And mind you, this includes award winning films like Jurassic Park and Harry Potter. Well, I guess it’s not the fault of the movie producers and directors – for there is only a limited amount of detail which you can capture in the short 2 hours’ duration of a show…

But still, I’m sure we all still love the movies – regardless of whether we are bookworms or not. Some enjoy the visual feast of action scenes like the Quidditch games in Harry Potter and the Jedi Battle in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (Episode 2), while others are out to see how the scenes described in the books are brought to life. Some also watch movies just to see their favourite stars in action. :)

All in all, whatever your take on books-turned-movies, the Bourne series is definitely a recommended read. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.