Adapting the Book

Adapting the Book
Written by Charlyne Landgraff

Maybe it’s just me but it seems like more and more books are being adapted into movies. It’s kind of funny that this remains a trend since most people agree that the movie is never as good as the book!

Sometimes these books are best sellers in their own right prior to the movie (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Eat, Prey, Love ) but often it seems as though a book will experience an increase in sales after the movie is released. I agree that in most cases the book is better than the movie, with a few exceptions: The Virgin Suicides I thought actually complimented the movie, The Notebook was wayyy better with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, and Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island were almost Identical to Dennis Lehane’s books. I generally prefer to either read the book or watch the movie. Rarely both.

I’ve made my New Years resolution this year to read more and I find that the books adapted to movies are often a great place to find a good book. Hey, they wouldn’t have attempted to make the story into movie if it wasn’t a great story to start with!  And since the movies are readily available, if you can’t find the time to read the book everyone is raging about, you can always see the movie and at least keep up with the water cooler banter.

Below are the 2011 movies that were adapted from books as well as my personal favourites that are worth giving a read, even if you have already seen the movie. Click on the Name of the film to see the trailer.

2011

One Day- David Nicholls

Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte

Desert Flower – Waris Dirie

The Adjustment Bureau- (loosely) based on a short story from the 50’s

The Lincoln Lawyer – Michael Connelly

Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen

Something Borrowed- Emily Giffin

The Help- Kathryn Stockett

Moneyball- Michael Lewis (wrote The Blindside)

Too Big To Fail- Andrew Ross Sorkin

We Need to Talk about Kevin- Lionel Shriver

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson

Char’s Personal Picks

A Prayer for Owen Meany- John Irving (Screen name Simon Birch)

The Virgin Suicides- Jeffrey Eugenides

Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden

Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk

The General’s Daughter- Nelson DeMille

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter- Kim Edwards

How many of these films have you seen?  Have you read the books as well? And more importantly, what is your favourite film adaptation? We certainly have a few that we were disappointed with also.  Leave us a comment below or share the links to the trailer on Facebook or Twitter.

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