Ten Movies I Liked as Much as Their Books

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is about book-to-screen adaptations. I've written before about books whose adaptations I liked better than the source material and also adaptations I hadn't seen yet but would consider watching. I don't watch a lot of movies generally, but I'm most likely to watch one if it's an adaptation of a book I like. It's often hard to make a movie that does the book justice, though! I usually like it better in one format or another. Here are ten rare ones that I enjoyed as books and enjoyed again as movies.

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Not the Johnny Depp version (which I've only seen part of) but the classic 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. It's one of the few movies I've seen multiple times and it will always be a memorable childhood classic, just like the book.

2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
I read the book in middle school but finally saw the movie for the first time last year. I'm sure they had to cut out a lot of the plot since it's a giant book and they made it a normal-length movie, but watching it reminded me what I liked about the story in the first place.

3. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Although I do not lose my mind over John Green's books like a lot of people, I did genuinely like this book and thought they did a nice job with the adaptation. I liked it better than the adaptation of Paper Towns that came out the next year.

4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I just recently reread this book, which was as delightful as the first read-through, and then I got my husband to watch the movie adaptation with me. Although they had to change a lot of the plot to avoid having the movie be mostly people writing letters to each other, I still thought it captured the heart of the story.

5. All the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling (except the sixth one)
By and large, I thought the movie adaptations, while simplifying the plots of each book, did a nice job of creating the same sense of magic and adventure that the books do. (I will spare you my rant about how they utterly ruined the adaptation of the sixth book.)

6. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I was nervous that the movie adaptation wouldn't do this amazing book justice, but it was carefully crafted and stayed true to the story.

7. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
This is another case where they had to rework the plot pretty substantially in order to make it fit into a typical-length movie, but the humorous spirit of the book was still evident in the movie version, and my husband (who had never read the book) enjoyed the movie a lot.

8. Matilda by Roald Dahl
The book and the movie each have a different feel and a different focus, but I love them both for different reasons. This is another one of the few movies I've seen multiple times, and I've reread the book several times as well.

9. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
This is one of Christie's most famous works for a reason, and I was glad that the star-studded movie a couple years ago kept the same general rhythm of the book, even if their Poirot was a nearly unrecognizable version (crying over a long-ago love and his inability to solve the crime — what?).

10. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
I went and saw Love, Simon twice when it was in theaters. It was just so good! Becky Albertalli is one of my favorite authors, and I was happy that they'd taken her first book and given it the feel of a classic teen rom-com.

Which good books have been made into good movies?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: A Soldier of the Great War and Half the Sky
Five years ago I was reading: This Star Won't Go Out, Ivanhoe, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Ten years ago I was reading: The Book of General Ignorance

Top Ten Books That Were Better as Movies (or Musicals)

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Inspired by a recent Modern Mrs. Darcy post, I'm using this week's freebie to share my picks for the ten books I liked better on screen or stage. Let's face it — the book is almost always better. Here are a few times when that's not the case.

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I know everyone loves this book to pieces, but I've read it twice and the writing just got in the way of the story for me. Even though a lot of details were changed in the movie, I was able to experience the heart of the story so much better on the screen.

2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
This is not to say that the book's not enjoyable, because it certainly is, but you simply can't capture the magic of Gene Wilder's facial expressions on paper.

3. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
The movie did a much better job of showing Andy slowly getting sucked into the world of her job, whereas in the book she just suddenly becomes a different person overnight.

4. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
This is one of my husband's favorite movies, and while it wasn't nearly as memorable for me, it was definitely better than the book. The plot of the movie is just a small part of the book, which consisted mostly of a lot of whining and talking about sex.

5. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
The original book is pretty weird, and there isn't really a coherent story arc — it's just a series of other-worldly adventures, some of which don't even involve the Banks children. The movie is much sweeter and more rewarding as a story.

6. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
It took me literally years to get through this book, as I kept putting it down. I am a huge fan of the musical, which takes a so-so plot and dresses it up with amazing music and wonderful special effects.

7. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The movie captured everything that was good about the book and cut out the less interesting parts. I particularly couldn't stand how much of the book was devoted to author's commentary that took the blending of fact and fiction way too far for my taste.

8. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
A plot and characters that fell flat in the novel came to life in the actors on screen. The small changes that were made for the movie (Jamie gifts Landon her mother's journal rather than a Bible) were well chosen and made the story much more realistic.

9. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
This is my favorite musical ever, and I couldn't believe how awful the source material was. All of the clever wordplay and sly links to the original story are absent in the book, which drops a bunch of obscure hints but manages never to answer any of its own questions.

10. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Although much of the movie comes from the book, there are plenty of parts that were altered or not included, and for good reason. The book gets quite dark and complex at times, whereas the movie manages to stay lighthearted even though the scarier moments.

Which movies or musicals do you like better than their original books?

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Top Ten Book to Movie Adaptations I Would Consider Watching

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

My husband and I are opposites when it comes to books and movies. I read voraciously but only watch about two movies a year, while he is a movie buff who might make it through a couple of books in the course of a year. We are most likely to enjoy the same stories if they're available in both print and film.

For this week's topic, I looked over some lists of books that have been made into movies, and quickly determined that the majority of them fell into two categories:

1. I have seen the movie.
2. I chose not to see the movie because I could only deal with the story's violence/gore in a book, not on screen.

That left me with only a handful of books whose movie adaptations I have never seen, but which I would consider watching.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
This is one of the top books I want to reread because I don't remember much except that I liked it a lot, and it was super long. If I never get around to rereading it, I should at least watch the movie.

2. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
My husband watched this movie in high school, and when I was reading the book he was like, "Did you get to the part yet? You'll know what I mean." I never could figure out which scene he meant. Apparently there is a classic climactic scene of Miss Havisham on fire that is really not as interesting in the book. So I guess I need to see the movie to appreciate it.

3. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
I'm a fairly reluctant reader of fantasy, but this one is all about books and reading, and I'd be interested to see how it translates to film. Somehow I doubt it quite captures the essence of the story, but it could be fun to watch anyway.

4. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I read this book about five years ago and I didn't really understand the hype about it. Maybe I would appreciate it more as a movie? I tried to watch The March Family Letters but had to stop because the acting was so bad, which is unfortunate because I heard that it did some cool story-bending with sexual orientation.

5. Marley & Me by John Grogan
I am not the kind of person who cries every time a dog dies in a book or movie, but I did enjoy this memoir and would watch the film adaptation because puppies are cute.

6. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
I liked this book a lot, even the controversial ending, but I heard they changed the ending for the movie, which was its own controversy. I'd be interested to see how it was changed and whether it still works.

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I know, there are multiple film adaptations of this, and people have big arguments over which is the best, and there's a thing about Colin Firth being in a lake, and I still haven't seen any of them. I did watch — and love — The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but that was a web video format, not a movie. I would totally watch a movie version, though — tell me your favorite in comments.

8. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
My husband got me a copy of this movie when we were in college (back when I still thought I should buy him books and he thought he should buy me movies), and I never watched it. I eventually got rid of it. The book was good enough that I would still be interested in watching the movie, but I just never have.

9. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The ratings of this movie adaptation aren't great, but I wonder if knowing a lot of the details and backstory from the book would make the movie easier to follow. It's one of my favorite books, so I'd give the movie a shot.

10. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
I think I might have heard of this movie before I even heard of the book, but I've still only read the book and never seen the movie. I liked the book and thought it was interesting, so I would watch the movie as well. And apparently it's going to be a musical soon? I wonder how that will be.

Which of these movie adaptations should I watch, and which should I take a pass on?

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