Task 18: Read a Book That Was Adapted Into a Movie. Then Watch The Movie. Debate Which Is Better.

[Angela]

Julia wrote: "I finished and loved The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, but beside Sean Penn's "Milk," there's also a documentary, which won an Academy Award. too, which I..."

I've got this one to read for the Biography part of the challenge....looking forward to it :)

[Kristine]

Just watched the movie of my book for this challenge, The Road to Wellville, and I have to say I enjoyed the movie more, which is unusual. I tend to be a 'the book is always better' person, but the movie fixed all my key problems with the book and the main characters were all a lot more likeable. The casting was great - Anthony Hopkins had a field day with Kellog. Neither the book, nor the movie are earth shatteringly good, but the book shares a fascinating history and the movie is pretty fun.

[Patricia]

I read and watched Momo by Michael Ende. I enjoyed both the book and movie. The movie gave me more warm and fuzzies just because the girl that played Momo and the man that played the street sweeper were so convincing. Great storyline about valuing what's important and spending more time on the people and things you love.

[Nina]

I had long wanted to read Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca'. She is a very underrated author. Then I watched the Hitchcock version of the movie with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine from 1940. The book was simply too hard to beat!

[Katie]

So many good ideas here...I could probably fill my whole year with this category!
At the moment I'm leaning towards Rebecca or Cloud Atlas as they've both been on my TBR for ages.

[SibylM]

I'm doing a double version of Read Harder this year -- one where I complete all the tasks using women authors, and another where I complete the tasks using authors of color. Can I just say, you know who gets their books made into movies? White men. Lots and lots of white men. This has been one of the hardest tasks for me to find likely prospects, particularly for authors of color. Right now I'm leaning towards Push which was made into the movie Precious, and either Olive Kitteridge or The Price of Salt.

[Bianca]

I'm going with The Light Between Oceans. It's been on my tbr list for a while (as have many other books) and seeing how the movie is coming out, figured I do it for the challenge.

[Dominique]

I'm going with Ethan Frome for this one. I loved the 1993 movie (mmm Liam Neeson pre questionable movie selection days. What's not to love?) but it's been ages since I've seen it and it's been on my TBR for even longer. Also I've decided to do a bunch of challenges this year and am off to a really slow start so I need something short to help me build some momentum.

[Cheri]

I read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and didn't much care for it. As I was reading, I kept thinking it was way too long for what it had to offer, and had a lot of physical humor, so would probably be a better movie. And I discovered there is one! Just watched the DVD (from Netflix). It's subtitlted, but was indeed more enjoyable than the book.

[Ramona]

SibylM wrote: "I'm doing a double version of Read Harder this year -- one where I complete all the tasks using women authors, and another where I complete the tasks using authors of color. Can I just say, you kno..."

I read Olive Kitteridge in December. It was fantastic. I highly recommend it!

[Ramona]

Cheri wrote: "I read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and didn't much care for it. As I was reading, I kept thinking it wa..."

Bummer. I read the book last year and absolutely adored it. I can't wait to watch the movie, but thanks for the heads up on the subtitles!

[Cheri]

Ramona wrote: "Cheri wrote: "I read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and didn't much care for it. As I was reading, I kept ..."

Ramona, if you loved the book, I think you'll really love the movie! And even though the movie is subtitled, the occasional narration is done in English (with a Swedish accent), which is really nice.

[Cheri]

SibylM wrote: "I'm doing a double version of Read Harder this year -- one where I complete all the tasks using women authors, and another where I complete the tasks using authors of color. Can I just say, you kno..."

Awesome challenges! I can think of a couple other books/movies by women of color, but as you say, there aren't very many and you may have already decided against these: Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake was made into a movie, as was Alice Walker's The Color Purple.

[Meghan]

I just finished reading The Revenant and absolutely LOVED it!! Great storytelling! I'm going to see the movie next week :)

[Julia]

Sibyl wrote: I'm doing a double version of Read Harder this year -- one where I complete all the tasks using women authors, and another where I complete the tasks using authors of color.

Maybe next year I'll do this, it's such a cool idea. You've got a bunch of good books and movies, but also look at genre novels and novelists, like Ursula K. LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, Lois McMaster Bujold, Lois Lowry, Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Michael Dorris, just to name some. Oh and George Takei!

[Shannon]

I am so a product of the '80s!

For this challenge I read the book Eddie and the Cruisers because I did not know it was a book until I read the credits after seeing the movie for the thousandth time the first week of January after buying it for my husband for Christmas.

I'm glad that I read the book; it was good, but I L-O-V-E the movie. Although there were some noticeable differences between the two, it wasn't enough to change the concept at all.

The movie just brings back so many memories from my teenage years. When I hear The Dark Side come on the radio, it reminds me of the movie. When I see Michael Pare' or Tom Berenger in anything, I think of that movie.

[TL]

Just finished A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Now I have to see the movie. (With Robert Redford and Nick Nolte)

[Kimberly]

What about tv adaptations? The Magicians just started on SyFy and the book has been gathering dust on my shelf.

[Jamie]

Kathryn wrote: "I'm going with Room by Emma Donoghue."

I just finished this book. It was wonderful, smothering, intense...
Now to see the movie!

[Bobby]

I read In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex at the beginning of January and finally had an opportunity to see the movie when it came to the local dollar theater. The movie was okay, and had excellent cinematography and a wonderful cast, but it was far inferior to the book. It left out many characters, events, and other details, which made it seem much thinner and lacking in depth than the book. Even at 2 1/2 hours the movie seemed to zip through everything too quickly. The scriptwriters also made several changes, some of which worked and some of which only made the story seem contrived and artificial. I did enjoy the movie, but I think I might have liked it more if I had seen it before reading the book.

[Jan]

I chose "The Lincoln Lawyer" for this challenge, it was a quick read. Haven't seen the film yet. Discovered I couldn't stream it, waiting for DVD to arrive.

[Mark]

A task that I normally do once or twice a year anyway.

Completed it with 'Room'.

Absolutely floored by the movie. Loved the performance from Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson was absolutely sensational.

I would love to write some more regarding the feel of the 2nd half of the movie which frustrated me but I don't want to spoil anything for anybody...

I didn't enjoy the book quite as much - for me, I'd have liked it to perhaps switch between narrators rather than have it all from Jack - I was quite frustrated and felt like a lot of the subtleties that went into the performance of 'Ma' in the movie were missed in the young voice of Jack throughout the book.

Recommend the movie.
Brie Larson for a Best Actress Oscar please.

[Bonnie G.]

Mark wrote: "A task that I normally do once or twice a year anyway.

Completed it with 'Room'.

Absolutely floored by the movie. Loved the performance from Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson was absolutely sensatio..."

I totally agree! My issue with the book was that Jack was a genius when he needed to be, and totally stunted when Donaghue wanted him to be for the sake of the story. It was sloppy and inconsistent. This was fixed in the movie, which I thought was spectacular. It is really rare I like a movie more than the book source, but that was definitely the case here.

[Robin P]

Mark wrote: "A task that I normally do once or twice a year anyway.

Completed it with 'Room'.

Absolutely floored by the movie. Loved the performance from Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson was absolutely sensatio..."

I haven't seen the movie yet but plan to, i'm glad it was good. I thought the later part of the book was less convincing, that Jack adjusted way too easily. Still it was an amazing book, I stayed up late reading it, although if I had just been told the subject I would have said "No way will I like that"

[Becky]

I selected Wild to complete this challenge.

[Jackie]

For this challenge, I read The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge. The book is amazing! The movie was also great, but was SO different from the book. Everything about the book was better except for the ending.

[Leslie (updates on SG)]

I'm thinking of using Watchmen, which I've been meaning to reread for a while.

[April]

I wasn't sure if I wanted to see the movie, but I've heard so many good things about The Martian that I decided it was worth watching and reading for this challenge.

[Jackie]

April wrote: "I wasn't sure if I wanted to see the movie, but I've heard so many good things about The Martian that I decided it was worth watching and reading for this challenge."

Listening to the audiobook now and it's great! I also really loved the movie so great choice for this challenge :-)

[Carolyn]

I haven't seen the movie yet but I listened to the audio last year and really liked it!

[Tina]

Tina wrote: "I'm going with The Reader by Bernhard Schlink"

Finished The Reader

[Danielle]

So I read A Whole New World. It isn't exactly an adaptation, but I'm counting it anyways (I will probably read more actual adaptations as the year goes on)! It is based off of Disney's Aladdin. The beginning is basically the movie, but then a key element is changed to change the whole story. It doesn't have great reviews, but I liked it because I LOVE Disney and I didn't give myself high expectations. FYI-The movie is better!

[Viv]

I read The Martian and watched the movie last night. I thought the movie was pretty true to the book (though it did leave a fair bit out or it would have been waaay too long I guess!) and Mark Watney was played perfectly by Matt Damon. I am glad I read the book first as it meant I understood more easily what was happening in the movei & that allowed me to enjoy it even more.

[Tamara]

I got another friend and my daughter interested in this challenge so now I'm reading 3 books for this part of the challenge. I was planning to read Fight Club with my friend Laura. Then Michelle wanted Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story and my daughter wanted The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story I've finished Midnight in the Garden Evil and just started The Woman in Black. Still looking for a copy of Fight Club in the used bookstores in my area. May have to get a library copy.

[Emily]

I just finished The Road for the dystopian challenge so will use it for this one as well because I really want to watch the movie. According to the rules, it's acceptable to use the same book for multiple categories if it fits. :-)

[Mary]

I read War Horse by Michael Morpurgo and watched the movie. Book won once again. You can find my thoughts here.

[Megan]

I'm reading The Green Mile.

[Sk888888]

Just finished reading Stephen King's novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, and watching the movie, Shawshank Redemption. I honestly cannot decide which I liked better. Both were terrific. King can sure write, no doubt about it - the movie used a lot of the lines from the book, the actors were wonderful. I made a great choice for this topic!

[Teresa]

I will read and watch Canterville Ghost, because humor and Patrick Stewart :-)

[Carol]

I read and then watched the Lifetime movie. They were both pretty cheesy but the book was way better. Fun Fact: this one was written by the real V.C. Andrews before she died not her ghostwriter. It was really fun to read, I felt like I was 12 years old reading Flowers in the Attic again.

[Bryan]

My intent for the 2016 challenge was to choose as yet unread books from my personal 4000+ volume library (I was a literature major in college, so sue me). For this challenge, I stepped away from that goal because one of my weekly tasks is to write a blog post about the upcoming movie at our local small town theater. The Valentine's Day movie was Brooklyn, and when in doing my research for the blog I learned that this was a Colm Tóibín novel, and one I didn't already own, I quickly bought it for my Kindle and proceeded to read the novel before seeing the film. Since the challenge says to "debate which is better," I'll say that first, I've done this in the reviews I posted to Librarything.com, Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook, but in short, I find it an impossible task. I loved both. I will say that the movie dispatched fully 1/4 of the novel in its first ten minutes which led some of my friends to question why Eilis left Ireland in the first place. Also the book ends with Eilis on the deck of the ship taking her back to America, while the movie continues on to her reunion with Tony. All in all, I think the less-than-2 hour movie did well at adapting an almost 300 page novel.

[Kathy]

I've just read Me Before You. It really was fantastic. Can't wait to see the movie that is being released this summer.

[Audrey]

I can't use it for this task since I read it last year, but The Prestige would be a good fit for this task, and I would be interested to hear someone else's thoughts on the comparison between the book and the movie. I remembered loving the movie when I saw it, so jumped on the opportunity to read the book. Both versions definitely have something to offer while telling a very similar story.

[Sana]

I read The Man in the High Castle and I watched season 1 of the show on Amazon. I honestly didn't like the book. Did anyone else read it?

[Morgan]

I read The Girl on the Train for this and I thought it was overhyped. From what I gather about the movie, it seems like it might end up better then the book. The film is directed by director of The Help and the James Brown biopic, Get on Up. Emily Blunt plays Rachel and Justin Theroux plays Tom.

[Bonnie G.]

Morgan wrote: "I read The Girl on the Train for this and I thought it was overhyped. From what I gather about the movie, it seems like it might end up better then the book. The film is directed by..."

Interesting. I also failed to understand the appeal of the book, but there are a number of movies I like where I didn't care for the book, and most often I don't love the movie versions of books I thought were great.

[Britany]

Finished by Colm Tóibín-- 3 stars

Think this may be a case where the movie is better than the book.

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Lorna]

Kate wrote: "I got Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster for Christmas, so I'll be reading that and watching Everest."

Everest is based on Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest by Beck Weathers (2000).

Into Thin Air was made into a TV movie of the same name, in 1997

[Lorna]

My ideas are:

Labor Day
The Big Short
Brooklyn
The DUFF

[Denise]

The Princess Bride is what I've decided for this one. I've either seen the movie or read the book already for a lot that would go in this category and I've never read the book nor seen the movie for this one. I know...I know...crazy but true.