Best Book To Movie Adaptations

So, there was this list. A list of the best films adapted for the big screen. The jarring absence of the Lord of the Rings from this – all three should be here – makes me question whether the list has any validity, but for amusement sake, and because I want to try out putting a table onto the blog, I’m giving it a shot.

For the record, I've seen 33 movies and read 18 of the books. For someone who is considered by a lot of folks to be a pretty avid reader, I'm not sure that's such a good showing.

TITLE	Seen Movie?	Read Book?	Comments
1984	Yes	Yes	Set aside to read again soon.
Alice In Wonderland	Yes	Yes	I’d like to read THIS again soon also.
American Psycho	Yes	Yes	Both were decent.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s	No	Yes	Hard to get past the Mickey Rooney character, but Audrey Hepburn…sigh.
Brighton Rock	No	No	Never heard of it.
Catch 22	Yes	Yes	Book was great, movie was sort of creepy.
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory	Yes	Yes	Saw both movies, prefer Gene Wilder
A Clockwork Orange	Yes	Yes	If possible, the book is even more brilliant than the film.
Close Range (inc. Brokeback Mountain)	Yes	No	I wish I could quit…hearing Brokeback jokes.
The Day of the Triffids	No	No	Never heard of it.
Devil In a Blue Dress	No	No	Is this the Denzel Washington movie? Cause…best EVER?
Different Seasons (inc. The Shawshank Redemption)	Yes	Yes	All the stories were great, and I think all have been made into film, but this is obviously the best.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(aka Bladerunner)	Yes	No	Dad owns it, maybe someday I’ll read it.
Doctor Zhivago	Yes	No	Good film. Julie Christie is almost unimaginably HOT.
Empire of the Sun	No	No	This is one of those films I permanently have at the bottom of my Netflix queue.
English Patient	No	No	I don’t expect this to change.
Fight Club	Yes	Yes	One of my all-time favorite movies and a phenomenal book.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman	No	No	Though I did use to make fun of Meryl Streep wearing a blanket on her head.
Get Shorty	Yes	No	That guy was a stuntman!
The Godfather	Yes	No	Nice to see that the greatest movie ever snuck in here.
Goldfinger	Yes	No	I have to assume this was included because it started the Bond films?
Goodfellas	Yes	No	A great film, but no real interest in reading the book. Not sure why.
Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)	Yes	Yes	Sure…good stuff all around.
The Hound of the Baskervilles	No	Yes	I actually didn’t know there was a film of this.
Jaws	Yes	No	Despite what Dave Fear says, the film is an all-time great.
The Jungle Book	Yes	Yes	Nagging suspicions that this book is now horribly racist.
A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)	No	No	Um…huh?
L.A. Confidential	Yes	No	Great, underrated film.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses	Yes	No	All I really remember are Uma Thurman’s boobies.
Lolita	No	No	Both of these omissions embarrass me.
Lord of the Flies	Yes	Yes	Though, I seem to recall the movie being pathetically bad…?
The Maltese Falcon	Yes	No	Great movie, and I need to read some Raymond Chandler.
Oliver Twist	Yes	No	But…it is in my Bookins queue.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest	Yes	No	I think I started the book, but not sure why I wouldn’t have finished it.
Orlando	No	No	It sounded interesting when the film came out, I should check it out.
The Outsiders	Yes	Yes	Stay Gold, Ponyboy. (But…best ever?)
Pride and Prejudice	No	No	I have heard some describe this as the best book ever written, so I guess I should check it out.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	No	No	Really, hadn’t heard of it until the author died recently.
The Railway Children	No	No	Never heard of it.
Rebecca	Yes	No	Didn’t even realize there was a book.
The Remains of the Day	No	No	I’d like to correct both of these omissions.
Schindler’s Ark (aka Schindler’s List)	Yes	Yes	The movie was brilliant but the book was surprisingly flat.
Sin City	Yes	No	The movie was insane – love to read the book.
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold	No	No	I’ve heard of it, but not really sure what this is.
The Talented Mr. Ripley	Yes	No	I assume the book(s) is better but the movie was a total snore.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles	No	No	This is a girl thing…right?
Through a Glass Darkly	No	No	Again, I’ve heard of it…
To Kill A Mockingbird	Yes	Yes	Both are excellent.
Trainspotting	Yes	Yes	The movie was great, the book…sort of annoying.
The Vanishing	Yes	No	The original movie was terrifying, the remake gave it away in the preview.
Watership Down	Yes	Yes	Great stuff, probably worth a re-read whenever I have kids.