Never judge a book by its film adaptation. Do you concur?
(submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)
My Answer:
I do agree. I’ve seen a number of film adaptations that are very good and keep very close to the book they are based on but I’ve never seen one I considered better than the book.
Books explain fictional worlds better than a movie ever could, I think. Take, for instance, Dune. I’ve read the whole series – I binge read it even and I completely understand how the world works and the motivations of the characters, etc… but if you were to judge the book by any of the film adaptations, you would never read it because you’d think it was just too confusing to enjoy. Books just have more room to explain things than a film adaptation ever would.
What do you think?
Last week, I didn’t post on Friday because my allergies got the best of me, and I was bedridden from Wednesday night through Friday mid-day, sucking down medicine and just waiting for those meds to fully kick in and get my beast of burden under control. The only reason that Thursday’s post went out was because it was already done and scheduled, which was a good thing since it was a blog tour review.
My daughter #1 and I had already made a plan to meet up at a Book and Author Festival on Saturday, and that almost didn’t happen – between the weather (Ophelia’s outer rings extended all the way to my area) and how I had been feeling. But I was feeling do-ably better by Saturday, so off we went, and we had a great time, met lots of authors, got lots of books signed, and watched a few panel talks. Very annoying light rain came down til mid-afternoon, so we felt somewhat soggy but not too bad. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but I loved meeting Megan Miranda and Kathy Reichs, in particular, and Abby Jimenez was a hoot!
My allergies have stayed under control this week, which is good. Looking at the allergens in the area, the culprit seemed to be an unidentified mold that was high in the area while I was feeling so bad and quickly dropped down to barely there levels around the time I started to feel better. Fingers -crossed those numbers stay down!
- Monday, Sept 25, 2023 – Book Reviews of 3 Holiday Books: Bright, Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews, Unleashed Holiday by Victoria Shade, and a spotlight on The Ex-Mas Christmas by Zoe Allison
- Tuesday, Sept 26, 2023 – Book Review of Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
- Wednesday, Sept 27, 2023 – WWW Wednesday and Book Haul
- Thursday, Sept 28, 2023 – Book Reviews of Thieves Gambit by Kayvion Lewis and The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie
- Friday, Sept 29, 2023 – Book Blogger Hop and Updates
- Monday, Oct 2, 2023 – Book Review of The Takedown by Carlie Walker
- Tuesday, Oct 3, 2023 – Book Review of The Intern by Michelle Campbell
- Wednesday, Oct 4, 2023 – WWW Wednesday and Book Haul
- Thursday, Oct 5, 2023 – Book Reviews of A Cold Highland Wind by Tasha Alexander and Maybe Once Maybe Twice by Alison Rose Greenberg
- Friday, Oct 6, 2023 – Book Blogger Hop and Updates
12 responses to “Let’s Discuss Film Adaptations plus my weekly updates”
Hope you stay well, and looks like you had a great time at the book festival. Have a great weekend 😊
The book fair sounds like a blast! I’ve never seen a movie that was better than the book.
Absolutely agree with you about film adaptations – I’ve never liked a movie better than the book. Glad your allergies allowed you to go to the book festival. After you mentioned going yesterday, I looked it up and saw a list of all the wonderful authors attending. Have a great weekend, Tessa!
One of my favourite weirdo detective novels is Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. I was so excited in 2019 when Edward Norton made a movie out of it, but the whole thing is a hot mess, with a real white saviour complex. Super disappointing.
You know I would have a lot to say about film adaptions compared to the books 😀 but I will say that there are a very small number of films I consider better than the book.
Totally agree with you about adaptation. It’s great you could feel better and attend book festival. Have a lovely weekend!
I agree with you about book adaptations. The only book adaptation I ever came across that I enjoyed more than the book was Picnic at Hanging Rock. I thought the Amazon Prime series delved more into the story and the characters than the book did.
That book festival looked like so much fun! That’s so cool that you got to meet all those authors! Have you read Megan Miranda’s latest book The Only Survivors? It sounds good.
I generally agree that the books are usually better than the adaptation but I have watched some adaptations that are just as good as the books and there have been a couple that I think were way better than the book.
In fact, there are a few cases where the movie is just as good, if not better, than the original book. The Godfather, Train spotting, LA Confidential, Death in Venice, Jurassic Park, …
Super cool to see!! 🙂
I’m glad you are feeling better, Tessa. My allergies have gone haywire as well lately. So many headaches and no energy. I have loved some book adaptations and been disappointed by others. For me, it depends on whether they stay close to a book or not. What an amazing author event. You met three of my favourite authors. So lucky to have that opportunity.
Oh my gosh! That festival sounds like a lot of fun, and like my kind of festival! Where was it, if you don’t mind me asking? Or did I miss that completely in your post?