Every Tuesday over at the  The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic.  This week’s topic is:

Top ten book to film/tv adaptations

This includes, likes, dislikes and some where I’ve seen the adaptation but not read the book.  Some of these really won’t be a surprise but here goes:

1. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien – love the books, love the films.  Aragorn *le sigh.  Simple really.  These films are so good and so true to the books.  Yes, of course, some things are not included and some sequences maybe slightly altered, but not by much (to my mind anyway).
2. Harry Potter – very much ditto the above.  Great books.  Great films.  Although, and I hate to be critical, the last two films annoyed me somewhat – no need to split the book into two and I didn’t like some of the changes.  Just saying.
3. I am Legend by Richard Matheson.  This is only a short book but it really does have an impact.  It’s a very dark read and frankly is a bit miserable – but it’s supposed to be because you’re supposed to feel how the main protagonist does – and he’s pretty bloody miserable.  I think the film adaptation is a really good film – but it annoys me so much how they changed the ending.  For me, the ending of this book is what really has an impact.  It’s just so unexpected and so good – it gives meaning to the title of the book in fact. Why change it?
4. Watership Down by Richard Adams. This is a great book and a good film.  Thank Frith.
5. Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This book is so good and there have been so many adaptations that it would be difficult to list them all here.  My personal favourite is the film with Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins.
6. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – again, a magnificent book.  Such a conundrum – nurture/nature and who is really the monster here.  It’s difficult to really pin down a favourite adaptation but I really like the one that takes a more comical look, Young Frankenstein.  Brilliantly funny, shot in black and white and surely one of the most quoted films ever – if only by me!
7. Shakespeare – could there be any more adaptations – I’m sure that somebody somewhere most have checkout if he has the most adaptations ever.  I’ve not read all his plays.   Okay, I’ve read one – which is A Midsummer Night’s Dream – and I’ve watched a few adaptations for this.  Not sure how brilliant they were to be honest – I hold out for a really good one given what can now be achieved.
8. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver – this is the sort of book that takes you a little while to get into but, once it sinks its hooks in, you read it with an ever increasing sense of dread/fascination and horror.  Yeah, I wanted more answers from this book – why oh why!  Just why?  The film.  I have mixed feelings for.  I’m not sure that it quite gives the same sense of foreboding as the book and it’s even more gloomy.  They’re both pretty grim to be honest but I think the book had me more hooked.
9. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.  This is a book that doesn’t resound with everyone but it totally had me hooked. I think, given the way the book grabbed me, it was always going to be a difficult act to follow.  I think the adaptation is pretty good but the book is so much better.
10. The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  A series that is very good to read and an adaptation that is really faithful to the books so far.  Very enjoyable on both counts.

This list could have been a lot, lot longer.  But, 10 it is.  What adaptations have you enjoyed??