Comments on: Books on the Nightstand Podcast, Episode #15: Is the Book Always Better?

By: 15 Awesome Literary T-Shirts | Brews and Books

15 Awesome Literary T-Shirts | Brews and Books — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:30:39 +0000

[...] Book Since 1920, from Typetees – Is the book always better? I’ll direct you to these blog posts for more analysis. Either way, it’s a cute [...]

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:29:04 +0000

Graceann, thanks for weighing in with your opinion — we love it when people gently disagree, LOL! I confess that I did not read either of those books, so I’m going to assume you are right about the movies being better than the books. Thanks!

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:29:00 +0000

By: Graceann

Graceann — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:05:36 +0000

I must gently disagree regarding the book ALWAYS being better than the movie. There are two notable exceptions. Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom is a terrible book, and the film is wonderful. Where the film character of Forrest is simple and loving, the literary character is just a stupid jerk.

Field of Dreams, which began life as a boring slog called Shoeless Joe, became a film that I love and re-watch, and get something new out of every time I view it. It took me *ages* to read Shoeless Joe, just because it was so terribly dull.

By: Graceann

Graceann — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:05:00 +0000

By: stephen

stephen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:51:33 +0000

I had this conversation on twitter and came to the conclusion that, while it can be as “good” as the book, the movie is never better than the book.

The only conceivable counter-example to this statement would be The Godfather. I’d find it hard to believe that the book(s) could be better than the first two movies. Though I notice Dreamybee preferred the movie version of The Hours. Didn’t that novel win a Pulitzer or something?

By: stephen

stephen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:51:00 +0000

I had this conversation on twitter and came to the conclusion that, while it can be as “good” as the book, the movie is never better than the book.

By: Taueret

Taueret — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:03:56 +0000

I thought the adaptation of ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ (going back a fewww years now) was great and really used the cinematic medium to tell the story well.

Michael, I am with you on ‘The Road’. It was one of the best books I have ever read, but it REALLY did my head in (to the point where I wish I hadn’t read it), and there is no way I could see the movie. In fact in the book the man says to his son something like ‘you have to be careful what images you let into your head’ and I couldn’t agree more.

By: Taueret

Taueret — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:03:00 +0000

I thought the adaptation of ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ (going back a fewww years now) was great and really used the cinematic medium to tell the story well.

By: Lertad

Lertad — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:23:04 +0000

Isn’t it natural that a the book would be better than the movie though? If the book was not intriguing, it would not have inspired someone to turn it into a movie.

I guess it’s like a song and a music video. One is the source of inspiration, the other is the visualization of the feeling stemming from that source.

So, I wonder, does anyone know if there has ever been books written as a result of inspiration from a movie? Which is better? Companion books released at the same time don’t count.