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My Favorite Book to Screen Adaptations

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is a freebie topic, but I saw the Chocolate Lady doing book to movie adaptations, so I decided to list my favorite book to screen adaptations, which are often TV series. However, I won't get into the ones I hate, which my husband finds an endless source of amusement.

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl!

My Favorite Book to Screen Adaptations
  1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Netflix's adaptation is quite true to the story, leaving out only some extraneous details and characters, and upping the gorgeous Guernsey scenery!
  2. Game of Thrones/A Song Ice and Fire-I know people are divided on this, especially since the book series isn't finished, but having read all of the books, I frankly thought the TV series was better and much less convoluted.
  3. The Witcher-I've only read one of the Witcher books, but I loved the Netflix adaptation and hope there's more.
  4. To All the Boys I've Loved Before-I LOVED these books, and I adored the Netflix adaptations of the first two books. I do think the books were better, but the movies were fairly faithful and conveyed the cozy aesthetic really well.
  5. The Hunger Games-I loved the Hunger Games books, but I also thought the movies were well done and even added a level of context for what was going on in Panem society.
  6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--an oldie but a goodie. I grew up on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the movie) before I read the book, so I may be biased, but it's full of so much love and quirk. The more recent Charlie movie is more faithful to the book, but just doesn't have the panache of Gene Wilder. 
  7. The Magicians-I've read the whole trilogy, but haven't yet seen the whole TV series. Still, from what I saw (the first season and a half), I thought it was a great adaptation that managed to make Quentin more likable and Julia more of a character right off the bat.
  8. The Silver Linings Playbook-I've seen the movie and read the book and loved both. The book is more in depth and does a better job of delving into Pat's and Tiffany's illnesses, but I still think the movie is charming (plus I love Jennifer Lawrence).
  9. The Fellowship of the Ring-I will say that I specifically enjoyed the Fellowship of the Ring movie, because I have some distinct issues with nonsensical digressions in The Two Towers movie. The Return of the King was fairly well done, not long enough for me, but understandable.
  10. Little Women-the most recent adaptation of Little Women, by Greta Gerwig, (incidentally, the last movie I saw before lockdown, heh) was truly groundbreaking. I love what she did with the story and how she framed it, while remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the text, characters, and author. Highly recommend!

Comments

ichlese said…
Books and movie combos seem to be a beloved TTT this week. I did something similar and I also mention the latest Little Women adaptation. I really liked your list and have several of the books on my TBR and am currently avoiding reading anything about their movie/TV adaptations to avoid spoilers.

Here is my TTT: https://ichlese.blog/2020/07/28/top-ten-tuesday-my-favorite-seasonal-book-movie-sustenance-pairings/
Thanks for reminding me I never saw the movie for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the book was quite good.

Here's my TTT if you want to have a look https://readwithstefani.com/10-books-i-want-to-read-by-the-end-of-2020/ Have a great day ahead!
Lydia said…
Yes, the film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was excellent!

My TTT .
iloveheartlandX said…
I love the Hunger Games films, I know there's stuff they left out but they did a really good job at staying true to the books overall. I've never actually read the Guernsey book, but I did really enjoy the film.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/28/top-ten-tuesday-274/
Marg said…
Guernsey was such a fun adaptation! I really liked it.

We enjoyed The Whicher and To All the Boys I Loved Before but I haven't read those yet.
I agree with all of these, and I like very few adaptations.

I have a big author party going in Paris, after the pandemic, and I'd love to have you stop by and join in. All our favorite writers are there. Join us here!
P M Prescott said…
Great topic. I liked LOTR too. https://pmprescott.blogspot.com/2020/07/ttt-072820.html
Astilbe said…
Guernsey was great!

Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
I really like what they have done with The Magicians. I only read the first book, though.
Lectrice Vorace said…
Great idea for a topic! (I prefer the more recent version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.) Here's my TTT list this week.
I was nervous about The Hunger Games movies because I loved the books, but they did an excellent job with the adaptations. I love the movies enough that I own them. That doesn’t usually happen.

Aj @ Read All The Things!

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