"The Book Was Better"

Recently my best friend noticed that in many cases if there is a movie or series that's reasonably popular, I've read the novel equivalent. So now I can't stop thinking about all the books I've read that have gone to the screen, and I felt like making a list of the ones I can remember. I'm just gonna be pushing my glasses up every so often like a hipster.

In no particular order:

 1. Practical Magic. I actually grew up listening to the soundtrack of the film, but my mom never let me watch it because she sheltered me thru most of my life. But I finally did see it, and loved it, and read the book and loved that even more. The book extends the story a generation so it's a lot more involved.
As you can see in the picture, the book is by Alice Hoffman.
I love that in the film Camille Belle plays little Sandra Bullock. She's so adorable. She was also involved in my next listing. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
If you don't know, it's pretty obvious it's about witches. Two girls grow up with their magic casting aunts to learn their ways and one of them is searching for love and one never wants to find it. They have to deal with being different because most people know something is off with them. I love pretty much anything magical but it really is a good story.

2. A Little Princess. If you've never heard of this...holy jesus. The movie wrenches my heart out every damn time. But I have in fact read the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. There's lots more to it and a few interesting victorian style drawings to go with it. There's more about the indian guy across from her, and fancy stuff shows up one little bit at a time in the book instead of all at once like in the movie. Camille Belle was one of the girls in the movie.

3. City Of Ember. This was one of those cases where the movie was almost better than the book. The book was pretty short and I noticed they stayed very true to it in the film. When I heard the movie was coming out and there was a book (by Jeanne DuPrau) first I went out of my way to read it before I saw the movie. I don't know, it's just sort of a hobby of mine I guess. I never really thought about it. The concept of City of Ember is really interesting. It's a post apocalyptic time and the only people in existence live underground and have for two hundred years. There's plans to resurface but it's been forgotten until a young girl finds them in her house.

4. The Devil Wears Prada. Originally a book (series, apparently) by Lauren Weisberger. And it was definitely better. I mean the movie had its own charm and whatnot but they left quite a bit out and changed the ending a tad and I wasn't entirely happy with it. You couldn't get into the world as much in the film as in the novel. I think it was the first movie I saw Emily Blunt in tho, and I like her. Meryl Streep is fabulous as always. And Stanley Tucci is sneaking into everything I watch but I love him so it's okay. 

5. The Notebook. Yes yes, guilty. One summer I spent in Mexico at my grandma's house this movie was on TV and I noticed she had the book, so I got curious and read it. To be honest I don't remember which I ended up liking more. I think the book was kind of boring. It's full of sappy quotes for die hard romantics but even though I'm a lot sappier these days it's still not quite for me. The movie is a classic and will probably go down in film history but the book must not have been all the great or I'd remember.

6. The Nanny Diaries. This was a very very cute movie and I recommend it. The book differs in a way that you can't really compare the two. It was written by two people, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, and the movie definitely does it justice in a lot of ways. But in this case I liked the movie more. Maybe it's because it took me a while to read the book, I'm not sure. I think both are underrated. 
Also I kind of have a girl crush on Scarlett Johansson. Just sayin'. The major parts of the book were in the movie and I was overall pleased with the transfer. 


So these are just the major ones I can think of off the top of my head. A few others:
-Holes. Book or movie? Both are awesome. Movie is a little bit better.
-Bridge To Terabithia. Book or movie? The book was very short and so the movie had a chance to expand and had beautiful effects. I choose movie. Very sad story tho. 
-Harry Potter. Duh. I'm very picky with this one. Personally I thought the best book adaptations were the first and the sixth, and the two parts of the seventh. 
-The Spiderwick Chronicles. I've only read the first few but the movie had a different feel to it. Still kinda cool. I'd say books were better, even tho they're short.
-Wizard of Oz. It's not that I don't have a special place for the movie in my heart, but the books are entirely different. And yes I say books, because there's several of them and most of them don't involve Dorothy. Books are so much better.
-Alice in Wonderland. Even tho there are at least three film adaptations of this I can think of I still say the books are more interesting, but slower paced. The movies can never get it quite right. 
-Peter Pan. Love love love everything about Peter Pan, I can never get enough. The book is wonderful, and my favorite film version is the live action one with Jeremy Sumpter. I also love Hook and Finding Neverland, the story about the author JM Barry. 
-Home Is Where The Heart Is. The book is just called Where the Heart Is, and it's by Billie Letts. *pushes glasses up* The book was better, but the movie was pretty decent too. Natalie Portman plays a pregnant woman who gets ditched by her dumbass boyfriend at a Walmart and is too afraid to ask for help so she has her baby at the store in the middle of the night (she somehow gets away with living there for a while). People find her of course and she's embraced by the neighborhood.
-Ella Enchanted. A book by Gail Carson Levine, I read it in elementary school. The concept is really cool tho. It's a world where magic is normal and there are ogres and faeries. A baby named Ella is born and a faerie notorious for causing trouble gives her the "gift" of obedience. She has to do what people tell her to. She spends her adult life searching for the faerie so she can fix it. Ahem, book was better. 


I could do this all day, really. I've read a lot of childish things but some serious stuff too. It's a fun hobby, gives me something to do. I do kind of feel pretentious but what the hell. Who doesn't like to feel like that every once in a while?