I’ve always been an avid reader. I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t have at least one book on the go. And, I loved my movies.

When I was a kid all the way up through the end of high school I was a devout fan of the movie tie-in book. In Bermuda, the American base which we had access to had a theater, though they were still a little behind the curve in releases (usually a couple weeks to a month). There were times, however that I just couldn’t wait to see the movie (or had seen the movie and wanted to relive it with the book, or see how the adaptation differed from the film).

My Scholastic account, and my babysitting money, and then money from my job… they all went to my book (and music addiction) much to my father’s chagrin.

I remember a road trip reading the novelization of Dragonslayer (Wayland Drew) and another reading Krull (the king of adaptions Alan Dean Foster). There was Aliens (Foster), Explorers (George Gipe), Back to the Future (Gipe).

Having typed those sentences, I remember my grandfather, my dad’s dad, devoured paperback books. There were stacks of them everywhere around the sprawling house he’d built for his family. And I would often find countless things to read amongst the piles (and I wish I’d had the chance to go through them before he passed).

I found, amongst them, and devoured what may have been my first movie adaptation, and possibly my first horror novel, Damien: Omen II (Joseph Howard). I remember the picture inserts in the middle, and something with a crow or raven in one of the pictures that I had to keep going back to in morbid fascination.

It may have been the first one I read, but right after that, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Gene Roddenberry with help from Foster), and The Black Hole (Foster). I didn’t get my Star Wars (George Lucas) adaptation until the early 80s.

I don’t know if it’s because the times have changed, but I don’t think we see much in the way of movie tie-ins anymore. Sure there are Star Wars and Star Trek ones, but that seems to be the end of them. But wow, I remember them everywhere growing up, on grocery store spinners, on sales shelves, and even occasionally on library shelves (which is saying something considering I went to a Catholic High School).

I do remember a few mornings reading Back to the Future on the number 7 bus to Hamilton…

I had piles of them. I remember Starman (Foster), and The Last Starfighter (Foster). I loved having those on my shelf, alongside The Jewel of the Nile (Catherine Lanigan writing as The Joan Wilder), Gremlins (Gipe), and some Ian Fleming James Bond novels I had found (and since lost) with movie images on the cover.

They were a bit of an art form, and Alan Dean Foster seemed to be the king of all of them. If there was a film adaptation that needed writing, it was probably done by him.

And I also loved that sometimes you got different poster art for the film on the book cover. Sometimes they just went with a photo cover, which is a little disappointing. The other thing that was disappointing was when they didn’t include a photo insert section. I wanted to see pictures from the film as I went on the adventure.

Movie tie-in books were the thing for me! I loved my movies, but couldn’t watch them all the time. There was school, chores, babysitting, working, homework, and we only had two televisions in the house, and neither were in my bedroom.

So these books, which always had me reading, let me enjoy movies all the time – I was never without a book. Was it just me or were you the same? Did you have a favorite?