Favourite book turned into a movie (19)

button 30 Day Book Challenge

Welcome to the Moonlight Library’s 30 Day Book Challenge!
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Day 19: Favourite book turned into a movie

I actually went to university and specialised in page-to-screen adaptations, which is why I’ve started my new feature Page to Screen to talk more about literature and its many, many adaptations to screen and stage.

9920789O706457riginally I thought I was going to put New Moon, of the Twilight series here, because I think it’s the best adaptation of the source material of that series, but I don’t care terribly for the books. They’re all right, but they’re not among my favourite.

I think the Lord of the Rings adaptations are near perfect, but I don’t much care for the books. Yes, I’m a fantasy lover but I’m also over textbook-dry narratives driven by testosterone. I agree with all the changes made to the source material to make the films the best they can be.18661631

But then The Hunger Games came out and wowed everyone. Though Catching Fire is technically my favourite of the book trilogy, I think The Hunger Games was the best adaptation. I liked the small things added and changed to make the narrative flow better and give the story more strength, substance, and subtext. I’ve not read the book since I saw the film, but I’d really like to have a day off to do just that and really study the changes and similarities. I think the film was phenomenal and the source material was fantastic.

Nemo
Nemo

About Nemo

A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.

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6 thoughts on “Favourite book turned into a movie (19)

  1. Tanya (Read. Run. Study.)

    I definitely agree that the Hunger Games movies have been done very well, though I wish Katniss’s thoughts/intentions would come across a bit more in the movie.

    I’m not sure if I could pick my own favorite book-to-movie adaptation (I hate trying to narrow that kind of thing down), but The Princess Bride would be a strong contender.

    Tanya (Read. Run. Study.) recently posted: Bout of Books Read-a-Thon 12.0
    1. Nemo

      I don’t necessarily agree – I think Jennifer Lawrence has spectacular control over her emotions and displays them quite beautifully under the pressure of filming – I find reading her quite easy to read and piece together her motivation.

      I’ve never read the Princess Bride, but I do enjoy the film.

    1. Nemo

      I’d quite like to see Schindler’s List, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a sob-fest, and although I really adore The Green Mile film, I’m afraid actually reading it might wreck it for me.

  2. Chiara

    Specialising in page-to-screen adaptations is so awesome! I didn’t even know that was a thing.

    This is actually really hard for me to choose because most of my favourites … I haven’t actually read the books – so they don’t count at all.

    Of the three Hunger Games movies, the first one was definitely the best adaptation of the book (and the best in general, in my opinion).

    I also think the Twilight movie did a pretty good job of turning a book into a movie.

    For me, I think I would have to say Memoirs of a Geisha is the best book-to-movie adaptation I have seen. I saw the movie and adored it, so I went and read the book. I still love the movie more, for a few reasons, especially the ending. I think they changed it for the better!

    I look forward to reading more Page to Screen posts from you 😀

    1. Nemo

      My thesis was on page-to-screen adaptations and I did a lot of film and literature study at university.

      At the time of release, I thought Twilight’s New Moon was the best faithful book-to-film adaptation I’d ever seen.

      I don’t really remember what I thought of Memoirs of a Geisha. I loved the book, but I think it was so epic it was hard to squish everything important into one film.

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