Time again for Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week, we have an adaptation from novel to screen freebie. It’s easy to say the book is better and in many cases it is. But there are times when the screen adaptation ends up being more enjoyable than the source material. Here are a few:
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Given the iconic status of the movie version, it’d be easy to assume the book is awesome too. After all, Puzo did adapt his novel for the silver screen. And yet, reading the book, I wasn’t overly impressed with it in quite the same way as I was with the movie.
- Jaws by Peter Benchley. Another iconic film that you’d assume the source material is awesome. The screen versions hones the book down to its essentials and it’s much better for it. The book has so many unlikeable characters that by about halfway through it, I was rooting for the shark to just eat everyone already and be done with it.
- Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. If you love the movie, avoid this book at all costs. Forrest goes to outer space, is lost on a deserted island, and becomes good friends with a space chimp. Oh, and the reason Jenny loves him in the book has less to do with the size of his heart and more the size of something else…
- The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming. Even Fleming knew this was a terrible book. When he sold the screen rights to the Bond books, one of his demands was that while they could use the title from this book, the book itself couldn’t be adapted. And it’s a good thing since this one is a first-person narrated story by a woman, trapped in a hotel with some killers until Bond shows up in the last few pages to save the day.
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. The movie takes the basic premise and runs with it in an entirely different direction. Thank heavens. This one tries hard to have a twist, but it’s so silly.
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R..R. Tolkien. Before Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters, I joined a Barnes and Nobel on-line read-a-long of the books, hoping this was the time I could slog through them all. I left the group when some participants were posting long diatribes that the movies were leaving out small details from the books and, thus, ruining them. Again, this was BEFORE the movies came out. I’ve tried hard to enjoy the books but find them a bit of a slog. The movies eliminate page upon page of walking around and simply get us there.
Nashville Book Worm 
I thought about doing this as a prompt, but changed it last minute. Lord of the Rings would have been on my list, too. :3 I enjoyed the books, but to me, they’re separate from the movies, because both brought their own unique things to the table. Yes, I thought the books were great (and poor Tom Bombadil was left out), but the movies had everything going for them, too, and they were just so beautiful in their own right.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually liked any sort of “monster” book (ie. Jaws, The Meg) more than the film. I mean, they’re my sort of films. Slightly cheesy, maybe a little predictable, but let me quiver in my shoes over giant monsters who can kill me for just a moment and I’m happy. Oddly enough, though, I don’t like that so much in book form. It just doesn’t come across the same to me.
Here’s my TTT post.
I listened to the audiobook version of Jaws, so some of my issues with it may stem from that. But I really found it absurdly silly that we had a couple of passages of Helen reflecting on people going to the bathroom. Had I been reading, I may have skimmed past these…but audiobook meant I listened to every single word of it. But this and other things made me not care if the shark ate everyone.
I don’t do audiobooks, and that’s one of the reasons. I am horribly guilty of skimming, probably more often than I should. xD I also read a lot faster than audiobooks read, so it sometimes frustrates me that it’s so slow. I can imagine it’d be frustrating not being able to skim the really weird passages like that.
Half the fun of the giant monster movies, though, is that there’s always that one person you’re willing to sacrifice to the beast and then seeing if it actually happens. xD My experience is the ones I actually like are usually those who die, but hey, can’t win them all.
I had no idea Forrest Gump was a book. How neat. Too bad it wasn’t good like the film, though.
My TTT.
I tried to read The Godfather too and it’s not very good at all!
I haven’t read any of the ones on your list, but True Blood is way better than the (Sookie Stackhouse) books it was based on
I couldn’t agree more on LOTR I had a really rough time reading the books. I ended up listening to them as a a full cast audiobook it made it much easier to push through. However I did really enjoy The Hobbit for sure one of my favorite reads by J.R.Tolkien.
Ahh, I loved LotR but it isn’t for everyone. To be honest I thought the adaptation was really well done and obviously it didn’t include everything and made some changes but I think that’s inevitable really. I also didn’t know Forrest Gump was a book but I’ll avoid that – thanks.
Lynn 😀
Hi, I’ve read an seen all of them. On these blogs I’m lucky to recognize one. Good list. I’m at pmprescott.blogspot.com