Proof that Great Books Can Make Great Movies

As we enter the season of the summer blockbuster I thought it would be fun to reflect on how many of the books that have been featured on my blog have also been made into movies. It seems that movie and TV show adaptations of books are becoming increasingly popular.

Some of these movies and TV shows listed below have been ones that I have seen and enjoyed; in some cases, seeing the movie first has prompted me to read the book just for comparison’s sake.

Have you seen or read any of the movies or books from my list? I’d love to hear your thoughts but I also want to know which ones I’m missing or you think I should read. What’s your favorite movie adaptation of a book?

Fiction

• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (pre-production)
• Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler
• The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis (Canada)
• Blindness by José Saramago
• The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (Canada)
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (U.K.)
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (adapted into Blade Runner)

• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (adapted for TV/big screen)
• Last Orders by Graham Swift
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• One Day by David Nicholls
• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq (France)
• Room by Emma Donaghue
• The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
• Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple (pre-production)
• Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (adapted for TV/big screen)
• The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Sweden)

Non-Fiction

• Wild by Cheryl Strayed
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Kid Lit/YA Fiction

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Canada)
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien (adapted into The Secret of NIMH)
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare (not pictured)
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (not pictured)

Graphic Novels

• Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley
• Watchmen by Alan Moore
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• The Original Frank Miller Batman by Frank Miller

Psst- wanna see which books have previously graced my bookshelves? Click here. Want even more fun reading recommendations? I’ve got some for you here. Don’t forget to find me on Goodreads so we can snoop each other’s bookshelves and dish about our favourites.

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Winter 2017 Reading List

Will you guys let me get a little patriotic here? As I’m hunkering down for another long, cold, Canadian winter I can’t help but reflect on how fortunate I am to have been born and raised in a country that boasts so many great writers. We’ll start with the Margarets- Atwood and Laurence- and then there’s Emma Donaghue, Carol Shields, Richard B. Wright, Mordecai Richler, Timothy Findley, L.M Montgomery, Heather O’Neill, Steven Galloway, Douglas Coupland, Andrew Pyper, Pierre Berton, Michael Odaatje, Yann Martel, Miriam Toews, Anne Fortier, Leonard Cohen and Claire Cameron.

Oh, and don’t forget my homegirl Alice Munro. (She and I share a birthday!)

And if you thought that list was exhaustive, it turns out I found five more books on my bookshelf that I have yet to read. Yep, they’re all by Canadian authors too.

1. Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
2. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
3. The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels
4. The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
5. The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

So pardon me if I happen to think that Canada is a great place to live for a reader like me. If you’re looking for a little taste of Canada, I highly suggest you check out one of the titles (or authors) above. It’s a lot better than a visit at this time of year! (Unless, of course, cold weather is your thing.)

Psst- wanna see which books have previously graced my bookshelves? Click here. Want even more fun reading recommendations? I’ve got some for you here. Don’t forget to find me on Goodreads so we can snoop each other’s bookshelves and dish about our favourites.