What three books will you choose for Survivor: Book Island?
What three books will you choose for Once Was Enough?
Which Was Better - the Book or The Movie?
The Book Was Better
Has your favorite book been turned into a movie?
We asked Habitual
Readers to tell us how the movie
adaptation measures up to the original
book in a contest
to win a Habitual Reader t-shirt.
Our five winners (in alphabetical order) are:
| David Barton, Eragon Jon Baxley, The Sum of All Fears Kim Griffis, Sahara Jan MacLeod, Skipping Christmas Marilyn Victor, Gone With the Wind |
Tell us how the movie adaptation measures up to the original book.
| Name: David Barton |
| Book: Eragon |
| Author: Christopher Paolini |
| Movie Title : "Eragon" |
| Version: 2006 |
The book was much better than the movie because it gave a greater depth to the characters, their feelings, their motives, the outside influences. I was so utterly disappointed in the movie. First, in the movie, Saphira the dragon told Eragon that her name was Saphira. In the book, Eragon named the dragon, and had to try several different ones before they found the one she was meant to have. The movie completely skipped or left out the existence of the were-cat who was fundimental in showing Eragon the path he would take. Lastly but not least important, when Eragon decided he must go to the Varden, in the movie, he says, OK i will take you. In the book, he knows he's a wanted man, and he says there is no way he will go to the Varden, and finally only agrees to accompany Eragon to the doorway which he is then accidently plunged through. Oh yeah, and the movie also leaves out the mind probing brothers. I tell you, the movie, though neat to the casual observer to see, fell way short of my expectations from reading the book.
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| Name: Jon Baxley |
| Book: The Sum of All Fears |
| Author: Tom Clancy |
| Movie Title : "The Sum of All Fears" |
Clancy must have needed a facelift for his new girlfriend or another new Hummer when he made the deal for this book-to-movie conversion. Why? Because the movie version is a stilted, poorly acted and somewhat politically motivated rendition of what was a pretty good book.
I could elaborate more, but I'll focus on one key element to keep this brief. When you change the backstory of why bad guys are doing whatever they are doing (nuking the Super Bowl) you change the whole thrust of the novel. SUM originally took the standpoint of Muslim extremists looking for a way to get the most bang for their buck. The movie's producers changed that to a gang of ne'er-do-well white supremacists whose motives are dubious to say the least and far more political than problematic.
Think of it as Charlie Brown versus Lucy, but Lucy has become a junior IRS inspector and could care less if Charlie ever gets to kick his football or not. All she wants to do is audit his books. Make sense? Well, it didn't to me either, and I really LIKED the book. The book was/is a reality tale. The movie is, well, over written and underdone. Fade to black...
| Name: Kim Griffis |
| Book: Sahara |
| Author: Clive Cussler |
| Movie Title : "Sahara" |
| Version: 2005 - Breck Eisner |
The book is much better than the movie. The casting of the characters was all wrong and they screwed up the storyline. Dirk and Al were tracking the source of pollution when they ran across the evil dictator and the man propping up his regime. The WHO team was looking for the source of the plague outbreak when they got captured because they found out too much. The paths of the WHO team and Dirk and Al crossed after they were both imprisoned in a gold mining operation. The Civil War ironclad was a curiosity that was found almost by accident.
| Name: Jan MacLeod |
| Book: Skipping Christmas |
| Author: John Grisham |
| Movie Title : "Christmas With the Kranks" |
| Version: 2004/directed by Joe Roth |
What an incredible disappointment this movie was! I had high hopes since Skipping Christmas is the ONLY book I have ever read more than once - it makes me laugh out loud! But even a screenplay by Chris Columbus couldn't save this movie. It even had a decent cast, but it was played like an idiotic farce. Before the movie came out, I had lots of success recommending the book to library patrons, but now, when I mention it, all they remember is that it was made into a bad movie. This is a classic example of not judging a book by the awful movie experience. READ THE BOOK!
| Name: Marilyn Victor |
| Book: Gone With the Wind |
| Author: Margaret Mitchell |
| Movie Title : "Gone With the Wind" |
| Version: 1939 |
It's a tie! This is one of those rare instances when both versions are wonderful. I love them both. Gone With the Wind is one of the only books I've read twice. I loved the gutsy Scarlett O'Hara. When the movie was cast, Viven Leigh captured her perfectly. And I can't imagine anyone but Clark Gable playing the lovable rogue, Rhett Butler. The collective sigh of the women in the movie theater when he first appears on the screen bears this out.
