Book vs Movie: Which is Better? Part Three

Holes

Winner Tie
Why? The book is unbelievable; it's not just for kids.  Louis Sachar actually wrote the screenplay, though, so the movie is good.  And Shia Lebeouf stars and is great, as always.
Holes

Indian in the Cupboard

Winner Book
Why? Once again, is there anything worse than having an integral part of your childhood desecrated?
The Indian in the Cupboard

Series of Unforunate Events 

Winner Tie
Why? The books get more irritating as the series goes along.  They're hilarious and clever and original but I JUST WANTED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BAUDELAIRES! The movie may have ended things prematurely, and changed things here and there, but it was definitely in line with the spirit of the books.
(Older Sister edits: We love you, Lemony Snicket! Don't kill us!)
A Series of Unfortunate Events #01: The Bad Beginning

Matilda 

Winner Book
Why? Good actors, stupid movie, great book.
Matilda

Nanny Diaries

Winner Book
Why? Scarlett Johansen is too pretty as the put-upon movie nanny for anyone to feel sorry for her. And I don’t like Paul Giamatti as a cold, bad guy.  The movie has unnecessary silly parts and the book is pretty silly.
The Nanny Diaries

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Winner Book
Why? Yes it’s a great movie with great acting and it’s definitely worth seeing but read the book first.  Never in my life have I been so infuriated with a character in a book.  Movie Nurse Ratchett doesn’t even touch upon the evil that is book Nurse Ratchett.
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions)

Riding in Cars with Boys

Winner Book
Why? I saw the movie first but it actually didn’t ruin the book for me the way doing things in this order usually does.  The movie's good but the book is better.  The author’s unflinching honesty about the selfishness and inadequacy of her own parenting skills is what makes the book so great and so effective as a cautionary tale of the dangers of riding in cars with boys.  Who IS a good mother at the age of 15?
Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good

Silence of the Lambs

Winner Tie

Why? I saw the movie first and didn’t sleep well for days.  I read the book because it was required by my Abnormal Psychology class and I didn’t look at strangers in the same innocent way for days.  Fascinating book if you’re interested in crime novels and psychological profiling.   If you’re more into what makes a great movie…well, watch the movie.  But be prepared to be terrified!
The Silence of the Lambs

Speak

Winner Book
Why? Oh my gosh I can’t tell you how much I love this book! It’s so funny and so sad and one I can read over and over again.  Not so surpringsly, a Lifetime movie just can’t compare.
Speak

To Kill a Mockingbird 

Winner Book
Why? I was tempted to say "tie." Like Silence of the Lambs this is a heralded movie for many reasons.  But the book…ah the book! My all time favorite.  Magical.  Funny, deep, poignant, meaningful, touching…I'd consider naming my (non existent) kids Scout and Jem.
To Kill a Mockingbird

Book vs. Movie: Which is Better? Part Two

Girl with a Dragon Tattoo

Winner Books
Why? Okay, I’ve only seen the first Swedish movie but it's pretty great. It stays pretty true to the book but….maybe this is the American in me but....really, they cast THAT guy as the attractive womanizer Blomkvist? And that wrinkly, anorexic husk as the charming and gorgeous Berger?

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Deluxe Boxed Set: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the Girl Who Played with Fire, the Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's

Gossip Girl 

Winner Books

Why?  Most people don’t know about Gossip Girl is that its actually quite clever and funny.  The first season of the TV series was fun to watch, but sort of in that it's inspiration to go to the gym and straighten your hair every single day.

Gossip Girl (Gossip Girl Novels)

 Bridget Jones's Diary 

Winner Movie

Why? I prefer Bridget’s fabricated relationship drama in the movie to the real drama in the book.  Perfect Mark Darcy actually slept with that cow? Maybe its because I’m too young but I hate Bridget lets that slide.  I also despise books that so readily tie everything up in a neat little boy at the end of book 1 and then rip that nice bow to shreds right at the beginning of book 2.
Bridget Jones's Diary

Clockwork Orange 

Winner Tie

Why? Both are cool and creepy.  The eeriest part is that Anthony Burgess virtually invented a slang language, and one of the things his soulless, sociopathic characters say in this scary alternate universe is “like”. As in, “I was like, ‘I can’t believe we talk LIKE the crazy characters in a book.”

A Clockwork Orange (Norton Paperback Fiction)

Da Vinci Code 

Winner Books
Why? Sadly, I saw the movie before I read the book. That's never advisable. And still, I found the movie utterly predictable.
The Da Vinci Code

Girl, Interrupted

Winner Tie
Why? The book is better but I have to give this movie props (Angelina Jolie did get her Oscar for it).  Read the book for the real story. The movie turns a person's life into neat little package with a solid conclusion.
Girl, Interrupted

Harriet the Spy

Winner Book
Why? Is there anything worse than having an integral part of your childhood desecrated?

Book vs. Movie: Which is Better? Part One

Harry Potter

Winner Books!
Why? No question about it! The movies leave important stuff out, add stupid stuff. Plus, did anyone notice that Harry actually kills Professor Quirrell in the first movie? In the book Voldemort leaves Quirrell's body and that condemns him to death.  Isn’t the whole point of Harry’s character that he stays so GOOD? And won’t commit murder? The movies just leave out all of the details and nuance that make the books so awesome.
Harry Potter Box Set (Books 1-7 )

Sookie Stackhouse Book Series/True Blood TV Series

Winner Books!
Why? Anna Paquin is no Sookie Stackhouse. Since she, you know, stars as Sookie in the TV series, the books win. The books are quite smart, especially because they acknoledge plaguing vampire-book-enthusiast questions. Like: wouldn’t all the vamps now when someone had their period? The show is certainly entertaining and I don't miss it, but that’s in large part because of Lafayette and Jason (and the former is a totally fabricated character!).  The best part of the show is without a doubt Eric (played by Alexander Skarsgard) who is spot on as Eric and amazing to watch.
Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (True Blood)

Shopaholic Series 

Winner Books

Why? I adore Isla Fisher but the movie was terrible.  It didn’t capture any of the books’ humor and charm.  Isla Fisher inserted her own charm and lovability into the character, but none of it was Becky Bloomwoods’.  And why did they make her American?

Confessions of a Shopaholic (Movie Tie-In Edition) (Random House Movie Tie-In Books)

Devil Wears Prada 

Winner Movie

Why? Movie, movie, movie! I love clothes so that’s not too much of a surprise.  But I don’t know why this book was ever given any credit.  The main character in the books is whiny, hypocritical, and a straight up brat.  She's an infuriating character exacerbated by her self righteousness and poor-me attitude.  The movie fixes this so it's great.

The Devil Wears Prada

Lord of the Rings

Winner Movies

Why? I loved The Annotated Hobbit and I loved TLotR books, but really 10 pages on the history of the tobacco farming, including land disputes and family histories, of the fictitious hobbits? Not so interesting. The movies are unbelievable (in a good way) and pretty true to the books.  I was upset at some parts during the movie at first viewing, but it all works out.  Amazing movies.  And who can get enough of Aragorn, Legolas, and Eomer?

The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Boxed Set

Twilight 

Winner Toss-up

Why? They both kind of suck.  I kept thinking the whole time I was reading the books, “why am I still reading this, this isn’t that good?”, yet I’d find myself reading until 2 AM.  Most importantly, if anyone followed me around calling me My Love/My Lamb/My Sweet I’d punch them in the face.

An extremely important factor that is so far missing from the movie is the terrible message about what constitutes love that’s in the books.  It's important to discuss with any young readers that it is NOT normal for your boyfriend to have you followed, or treat you as an invalid, or kidnap you for a weekend when he needs to go hunting with the guys.

The Twilight Saga Collection

Read a Banned Book: To Kill Mockingbird

Looking for something to buy and read this weekend for a challenge during Banned Books Week? Try:

To Kill a Mockingbird is a favorite of the Goldfile sisters. Those who try to ban it object to the racism and offensive language in the book.

Read a Banned Book: Harry Potter

Looking for something to buy and read this weekend for a challenge during Banned Books Week? Try:

A Catholic school in Wakefield, MA removed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) from its shelves, saying it has themes of witchcraft at odds with a Catholic education.

Read a Banned Book: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Looking for something to buy and read this weekend for a challenge during Banned Books Week? Try:

 

The curriculum at Richland High School in North Richland Hills, Texas included Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain Library), the great novel about race in America. The challenge cited the book's racial epithets.

Read a Banned Book: Prep

Looking for something to buy and read this weekend for a challenge during Banned Books Week? Try:

Prep: A Novel was removed from an accelerated reading program at Heritage Oak Private School in Yorba Linda, CA because it has explicit sexual scenes.

Read a Banned Book: Lovely Bones

Looking for something to buy and read this weekend for a challenge during Banned Books Week? Try:

 

Is this book appropriate for middle school students? At the John W. McDevitt Middle School, The Lovely Bones is now shelved in the faculty section.

Find a Banned Book

Use Google Maps to explore which books are banned where. Perhaps you can read a book that was banned near you. The Goldfile sisters encourage readers to buy a banned book during the week starting September 25.


View Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2010 in a larger map

SpeakLoudly

Banned Books Week starts Saturday. This month alone, American parents have attempted to ban books from schools - books the Goldfiles sisters have read and loved.

Perhaps most outrageously, a father in Springfield, MO wants Speak removed from school libraries. He says that Speak's depiction of rape encourages teens to have sex. Of course, those of us with reading comprehnsion skills understand the book is about the repurcussions of rape, particularly how emotionally destroyed the victim is. How this father can equate rape with sexual pleasure boggles the mind. The thought that he equates rape with pornography is distrubing.

This same man has already successfully banned Slaughterhouse Five from his schools. It encourages teens to swear, apparently. And he is also trying to ban Twenty Boy Summer, mostly because he thinks the title alone encourages teens to have sex, but also for reasons so disconnected to the actual book's content I thought I was reading about yet another book he wanted to ban. Twenty Boy Summer follows best friends in the year following the death of one of their brothers. Innocence is lost in many ways and teen sexuality is very delicately explored.


Meanwhile, the Stockton, MO school board recently banned The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. The ban itself was challenged but ultimately upheld this month. The school board did not like that the book depicted masturbation, nor  violence or alchoholism. Nevermind that the book is nearly autobiographical: author Sherman Alexie is writing about leaving the Indian reservation to attend a white high school. Education is the means to escaping the problems - like alcoholism and violence - that plague the reservation.



Ultimately, limiting access to education seems to be the goal of those who would ban books, whether those book-banners admit this to themselves or others. The more people explore other cultures, other perspectives, the more likely they are to be open to new ideas. Would new ideas destroy the book banners lives and cultures? Perhaps that's the real problem.

If you also want to encourage education and discourage banning books, please buy a banned book next weekend. Please keep in mind that authors only receive royalties when you buy their books new. The Goldfiles sisters feel that independent bookstores are more likely to carry lesser-known books, but ultimately supporting authors by buying books is most important. Pre-order your book now to assure your store has it in stock: pay for it when you pick it up this weekend. Buying banned books during the same weekend increases the sales impact. We will continue to suggest banned books this week and next.

Books Read During Vacation