11 January 2010

Adaptations Lists and Giveaway

I love books and movies.  An entire wall in my family room is dedicated to them, with 6 bookshelves, a 46" flat screen television, surround sound, decorations like turtles reading books and monkeys with digital cameras, and the such not.  I teach Introduction to Literature and Introduction to Film, and either lit or film make it into my composition courses as well.  I have books about movies and movies about reading.  And of course, I have adaptations: books which were turned in to movies.  Currently, I do not have any of the reverse.  For me, if the book didn't come first, it almost doesn't count....

5 Books I Wish Were Movies

5. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman: What a wonderful setting for a film!
4. Naked by David Sedaris: How funny would this book be on the big screen?
3. Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins:  The characters and setting are great for YA films.
2. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: A great chance to be creative as a director.
1. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman: Just one of the best books ever.

5 Books I Wish Had Not Been Made into Movies

5. Christopher Paolini's Eragon
4. Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass
3. The Entire Harry Potter Series
Wow, I'm really feeling a young adult literature theme here.  I think it's partially because kids can rarely act and partially because you need to really kick ass on special effects for a lot of these to work. Anyway, back to the list.
2. Watchmen by Allan Moore - Not because I didn't like the movie, but because so many others didn't and it turned them off to an amazing graphic novel.
1.  Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

So what about all of you?  Do you have any books you wish were movies?  Any books you wish had not been made into movies?

Giveaway:

If you make a post about this topic and leave a link in the comments section, I will 1) add you to the list below and 2) enter you into a giveaway for one of the following books:

1.  It's Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask
2.  No Touch Monkey by Ayun Halliday
3.  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
4.  The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

The contest closes at midnight January 27.

Other Opinions
In the Shadow of Mt. TBR's Hit or Miss List
My Fluttering Heart discusses The Lovely Bones
Michelle at su[shu]
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousMon Jan 11, 08:03:00 AM CST

    I have Zookeeper's Wife and Eyre Affair on my TBR mountain range, and I'll be reading Good Omens soon for the Terry Pratchett reading challenge.

    I totally agree with you that Eragon, the movie, was a completely AWFUL book-to-movie. There was soooooo much of the story lost by making the whole cycle into ONE feature film. One of my favorite characters is Nasuada, and you don't get to see her at all in the movie.

    TBH, after watching Watchmen, I don't want to pick up the book, but after reading this, maybe I will.

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  2. The Great CatsbyMon Jan 11, 08:46:00 AM CST

    Would loveee to see Naked as a movie. However I sadly can't whole heartedly agree with you on Harry Potter. While obviously they will never ever touch the books in my eyes, its still nice to see it portrayed in real life (even if 3 was just the worst thing ever). I thought 6 was amazzzzzinggg with the special effects, if only the acting could have lived up to everyone elses efforts.

    Great post!

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  3. Sandy NawrotMon Jan 11, 10:22:00 AM CST

    I love this post! I too, am a lover of movies, however most book to movie adaptations scare me. One recent issue I had was in reading The Little Princess. My husband and I have always loved the movie (not Shirley Temple, but the more recent one), but once I read the book, I realize the whole story had been Hollywooded and bastardized. I was so disappointed! As far as the Harry Potter movies, I love them. I recognize you can't put an entire HP book into a movie, and with the exception of the 6th movie, think they did an excellent job of capturing the magic and the essence of the book.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMon Jan 11, 05:40:00 PM CST

    oooh add me Trish!

    http://myflutteringheart.blogspot.com/2010/01/thoughts-on-lovely-bones-movie.html

    thanks for the headsup!

    -Aimee
    http://myflutteringheart.blogspot.com
    myflutteringheart@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMon Jan 11, 06:00:00 PM CST

    Oh and PS. I'm totally with you on the Golden Compass thing. Philip Pullman's series is one of my favourites, and they just ruined it and now no one will put money into making a better sequel of the subtle knife.

    and as for Watchmen, I read the novel before seeing it, and while I enjoyed the movie, the pacing was certainly off and I can see why a lot of people thought it went for too long. People should defo read the graphic novel tho.

    -Aimee
    http://myflutteringheart.blogspot.com
    myflutteringheart@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. SerenaTue Jan 12, 09:16:00 AM CST

    I would love to see The Hunger Games series be made into a movie.

    no need to enter me though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Michelle (su[shu])Fri Jan 15, 03:41:00 PM CST

    Hi Trish. Read this post a couple of days ago, and when I started writing up my own post on this topic, I think I went a little.. um.. well, let's just say it looks a little on the long side. =)

    Do come visit and leave a comment. And add me into the hat?

    Link Here

    ReplyDelete

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