Following up on my Bookwyrm Confessions post from a couple weeks back, Movies I Liked Better Than the Book (and Other Confessions), I’m here with a list of some books I’d love to see made into movies. *gasp* The shock! … Continue reading
Chances are, whether you’re a blogger or a blog reader or both, you’re probably either a Blogspot person or a WordPress person. This can be as simple as which platform you prefer to use because you’re used to it, but … Continue reading
Hi, my name is Deborah O’Carroll, I’m a bookworm, and I’m here to talk about… movies.
Let’s face it: I’m a bookwyrm. (Wyrm here implying dragon, not earthworm/caterpillar/other creepy-crawly, thanks very much.) And Bookwyrms have a reputation for being strongly biased in favor of the book version as opposed to the movie version of many stories. This is almost always true of me, anyway. 😉
But there are a few cases where I liked the movie even more (*shock*), or where I actually saw the movie FIRST (*gasp*), or where I have seen the movie and still haven’t read the book. (*more gasps* *cue bookworms in the back row fainting and having to be revived with smelling salts which smell suspiciously like books*)
This is by no means an exhaustive list, since, unlike with BOOKS, I do not keep lists of all the movies I’ve watched, with star-ratings, and whether they’re based on books, etc. So cataloguing every instance of the following categories would be exhausting — and if I’m going to be honest, I’d way rather go reorganize my bookshelves again and weep over my lack of shelf space these days.
ANYWAY.
Welcome to Bookworm Confessions: Movie Edition. (Including other categories because I don’t actually have all that many movies I liked more. XD)
Disclaimer: This isn’t to say I disliked the book versions — far from it, in some cases — I’m only saying that the movies were even better… in my opinion.
The Princess Bride
It’s just a fun movie! I haven’t seen it in ages and need to re-watch it, and it’s cheesy, but… eh… I don’t care! It’s just so epic and swashbuckling and original and funny! 😀 The book is fun too, but the movie just improved on it, IMO. Basically, it’s CLASSIC and I love it.
Treasure Island
THIS MOVIE! I like the Treasure Island book, but this is just the perfect movie version of it! Young Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins and Charlton Heston as Long John Silver are both perfect, the music by the Chieftains is AMAZING and just… I feel like the changes they made only made it better (like Jim’s mom, and less people dying. XD). It’s a little bloody because swashbuckling pirate movie, but I just really like it. 🙂
The Muppet Christmas Carol
IT’S SO ADORABLE. The original Christmas Carol story is fine, but the Muppet version just makes it so FUN, and I don’t even like musicals usually (don’t throw things, please) but there’s a couple songs in this I love. And Michael Caine as Scrooge is just fantastic — plus there’s Nephew Fred and he had so much character. XD Anyway, it’s sheer fun but also has the spirit of the book’s message down just right. I just like it a lot. 🙂
The Willows in Winter
I don’t know if anybody’s even HEARD of this, but it’s a sequel thing to The Wind in the Willows, and since it was animated the same, with the same voices, as a Wind in the Willows movie I watched growing up, I just loved it as a direct sequel and felt like it fit together really well. XD When I read the book it was based on, the book was all right, but it just didn’t have quite the heart that the movie version did, somehow? I felt like the movie made sense of it and made it fit with the original better. But it might just be because it went with the version I liked to watch. 😛 Anyway, it’s a fun movie.
The Secret of Moonacre (movie) / The Little White Horse (book)
So, I didn’t know these were the same thing until I looked it up one time and went “whaaat?” But at the same time, kudos to them for changing the title since they changed everything ELSE about the story too. XD I saw the movie first, so I found it to be quite fun. And then I read the book and it was one of THE most gorgeous books I’d ever read. So I’m sure if I’d read the book first, I’d have been horrified at what the movie was like, but as it is, I ended up enjoying both, even if the book was better. 😉
Sense and Sensibility
Actually, I saw two different S&S versions before reading the book… but I still liked the book best. XD This one was better than the other one I saw, though. Colonel Brandon! (Edward Ferrars is best as his book self. 😉 But I loved him playing with Margaret, and that she was even IN it — which the other movie I saw was lacking in. They just cut her character out?? Like… rude?)
Emma
Saw this one before reading the book, but, again, I still liked the book (especially Mr. Knightley!) much better, even though this one was fun. And before you ask, I’ve since seen two more Emma movies (after reading the book) and my fave might be Gwyneth Paltrow’s just because it’s so fun. XD But the book is still my favorite. None of the films do Mr. Knightley justice, IMO. And that’s a shame, because he’s so fabulous!
Mansfield Park
I actually hardly remembered this one when I read the book since it had been so long since watching… So I don’t even know if this counts. Ha! Anyway, I don’t remember this much but I don’t particularly love either the book or the movie. XD
The Princess Bride & The Muppet Christmas Carol & The Willows in Winter
Which may partially account for my liking them better as movies… since I saw them before reading their book versions. AHEM. (Nothing to see here, folks, just toootally coincidental, I’m sure. *cough*)
Captain Blood
I love this movie and totally need to read the book! It’s been sitting on my shelf waiting patiently. 😀 I know it won’t be… well… Errol Flynn, but I imagine I’ll enjoy the book all the same!
Eragon
I’ll probably read this sooomeday… I just haven’t felt like it/gotten around to it. I hear the movie is way more original than the book, even if it’s cheesy. XD But I do find the movie to be kind of fun, in a slightly ridiculous way. And of course I like Murtagh, so there’s that… 😛
Tuck Everlasting
I actually got the movie and the book at the same time at a library sale and was going to read the book first… but then I caved and just watched it. 😛 It’s kind of fun though I can’t always decide how I feel about it. XD But sometime I’m going to just sit down and read the book because it’s tiny. I just… haven’t yet.
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (movie) / Stormbreaker (book)
(I find it vaguely hilarious that when I was searching for images of this book/movie, I kept getting Thor’s new hammer-axe thing. XD)
I randomly watched this movie and it was fun, if cheesy. I have the book and I’ve actually started it since, but haven’t finished because review books and deadlines. But it looks like it might be kind of similar to the movie… Not sure. But the movie had Ewan McGregor as Alex’s uncle, which was so cool. 😀 And Alex’s character looks kind of like a younger version of my character Adrian, which is also fun. XD
(but I might)
The Hunger Games / Catching Fire / Mockingjay
Dystopian is not my thing so I don’t know if I’ll get around to reading these. But I DID see the movies and enjoyed them in their own scary-movie kind of way. XD Just don’t get me started on annoying things about the last one. *cough* But who knows, I might surprise myself, and everyone, and read these sometime… Or at least the first couple. But maybe not.
Divergent / Insurgent / Allegiant
These were also surprisingly neat/interesting, particularly the first one (I think? I watched them all together so I hardly remember which is which except it gets progressively tiring the more Peter switches sides…). I also might end up reading these sometime (partly because I have a copy of the short stories about Four around, which I’m curious about) but, again, Dystopia… not my thing… and all that. So I don’t really feel like I need to.
How to Train Your Dragon
I don’t know if this actually counts, given how different the books/movies are. XD But from what I can tell, the books don’t really look like my thing and I just don’t think I’ll get around to reading them, which is fine with me. I love me these movies, though. ^_^
(even though, of course, the book is always better. ;))
Because sometimes, despite all odds, even if it’s not much like the book, I still like these movies. XD
This will not be an extensive list, but a few are:
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings movies are just so epic, okay? I can’t help it. I love them. Even if they do wreck a few things along the way, which we just… won’t talk about right now. (*cough*Faramir*cough*) They’re just so gorgeous! ❤ The books are still way my favorite, but I can’t help loving these too.
(We just won’t talk about the Hobbit movies right now. *another coughing fit*)
Kidnapped (1995)
AAHH, this movie! It’s just delightful and Scottish and yes. Alan Breck Stewart is totally different in the book/movie, but I actually love both versions of him. XD And the MUSIC and bits of story they stole, ish, from the sequel, and… I just like it a lot.
Howl’s Moving Castle
Just because it’s so adorable, okay? I don’t know howww it works that I love the book so much and then the movie is TOTALLY different and I love that too, but… just don’t question it. I think they’re SO different that I can keep them separate in my mind AND IT’S JUST PRECIOUS HALP. (I do find it hilarious how movie-Howl and movie-Sophie etc. are so NICE and in the book they’re so… not. XD) I love the book way more, though, because the book version is amazing. 😉
Jeeves and Wooster
I don’t know what this is doing here but I was thinking of Bertie and Jeeves the other day and how I love the books but the show is really fun too. XD Like… they’re really rather different but, I don’t know, still super fun. 😀
Anything Sherlock Holmes
I LIKE ALL THE HOLMES THINGS, OKAY? I think the book version is still my favorite — he just has so much going and is awesome — but I just enjoy all the movie versions anyway. XD They all seem to bring out different sides of him (although I’m pretty sure people tend to forget that the REAL Holmes from the books was also a gentleman… *cough*) and while the book is the definitive version for me, the adaptions are just way too much fun. So. Yes. Give me all the Sherlock Holmes.
I know that as soon as I post this I’ll think of important movies/books that should be on this list, but OH WELL. It’s just a few, dontcha know. 😛
If there’s interest, I may do a sequel post about books I wish would be made into movies. (*gasp* The shock!)
If you want to read another Bookwyrm Confessions post, you can check out this one:
So how about you, fellow bookwyrmish friends? I want to hear what you think! Have you seen/liked any of these? Is it indeed terrible to see the movie first?? (Have you disowned me yet?) And do you have any book/movie confessions to share? Let me know below in the comments! 😀 Thanks for reading! ^_^
Well… I’m back!
In the famous words of Sam Gamgee (I was creative about the punctuation, but still). Which most people consider to be the end of The Lord of the Rings — EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS A PERFECTLY GOOD EPILOGUE AFTER THAT WHICH SOMEBODY CONVINCED TOLKIEN TO LEAVE OUT OF THE PUBLISHED VERSION AND WHICH I’VE STILL NOT FORGIVEN WHOEVER-IT-WAS FOR DOING BECAUSE REALLY. IT NEEDED THAT AWESOME EPILOGUE.
Ahem.
Pardon my Middle-earth rabbit-trail.
Anyhoo, I’m back from my May hiatus-of-sorts, and I’ll now proceed to fill you in on aaall the writing/reading/watching/etc. that happened while I was away from blogging!
Including snippets and the time my street almost blew up. Ish.
I wrote 15,000 words in May, which I’m extremely happy about! Especially since that’s more than I wrote for April Camp NaNo. XD
Most of that was due to a lot of lovely wordsprints during Indie E-Con, which had a week-long word-war… which I won due to my 10K words that week. 😀 I was kiiind of really excited about that! I actually wrote 11.5K words that week if you count Sunday — just over the amount of words I’d written in the entirety of April for Camp, so I’m very pleased!
I wrote parts of a couple other things, but mostly I was working on my steampunk-fantasy novel, The Siren and the Skyship, which is flying along quite nicely! I’m extremely happy about this. 😀 I’ve been writing mostly out of order, just a scene here and a scene there (but they’re connecting, finally!), sometimes in a messy draft-zero form, and the plot is still being stubborn and I KNOW I’ll have to rewrite a ton, but at least I’m making progress and having a BLAST. It’s so much fun and I love this story so much. ^_^
I wrote over 13K words on S&S in May, so last I knew, the story has reached about 67K words. I’m getting to write actual-big-important-scenes and it’s fabulous. 😀
In short, I wrote a TON (for me) this last month, and I’m having the absolute best time, and IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY. ❤
Keller threw up his hands. “You were tracking me? I always knew the stories were right and stepbrothers are evil.”
“It’s stepsisters,” Gerias protested, “and I’m not evil.”
“You put a tracking on me without my permission. What do you call that?”
“People rarely put trackings on people with permission,” Tasmania mused.
Gerias sighed. “No offense, Captain, but you’re not helping.”
Keller pointed at her. “You are, actually. Thanks for that.” He sent a pointed look at Gerias.
***
“You know, we never did get that time hanging out and chatting, just the three of us,” Tasmania said.
Percy’s face dropped. “Oh. I—I forgot. I had that thing and then— I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t. I know you’re busy. It’s just… this is fun, you know? Just getting to chat for a minute. Alone. Ish.”
“Ish here meaning in a ballroom surrounded by about three hundred people,” her brother said wryly.
Tasmania wrinkled her nose, but she was smiling too. “That’s exactly what ish means.”
“Well, you know what? Forget social thingamawhatsits and duties and whatnot; they can go hang,” King Percival said recklessly. “The three of us do need to find a time to just chat—let’s do it tonight.”
“What, after the ball?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“At, like, midnight?” Tasmania raised an eyebrow.
“We’re grownups. We can stay up late,” Percival said bullishly.
Tasmania laughed. “I meant, there’s that whole coronation thing tomorrow morning. Are you sure you want to stay up late talking all night the night before? You’ll be all bleary and half-asleep and red-eyed, and you’ll fall asleep while you’re being crowned or something.”
“Exactly. It’ll be glorious. Why not live a little, I say? And then I can always say anything that goes wrong was your fault, you know,” he teased.
“Just you try,” Tasmania said, smirking.
I read some lovely books this month!
(I’m not going to link to all the titles but if you’d like to check out any of these books, you can find links to them on my Goodreads Reading Challenge page.)
Also, speaking of movies, there’s a poster for the next How to Train Your Dragon movie AND AAAAAHH LOOK AT IT!!!! ❤
(I’ll just be over here QUIETLY SHRIEKING about this, thank you. *muffled “squee!” noises*)
I’ve been working on a website and some branding/theme stuff for my writing self, so I’m hoping to share some of that in the next month or so. 🙂
I guess the most exciting thing that happened was my street almost blowing up.
…
I may exaggerate.
Slightly.
“We may experience some slight turbulence and then… explode.”
Okay, so some roadwork people hit a gas line right in front of my house, and they kinda-sorta evacuated half the block. We grabbed laptops and went down to a cafe thing for a couple of hours and saw reruns of the Royal Wedding, and mostly just hoped they (the road workers, not the royal people) wouldn’t accidentally blow up the block or anything. But it got fixed and we went home and everything was fine. It was just… an interesting day. *cough*
My sis and I have also been jogging occasionally, which has been fun because we’ve named ourselves the “Like a Quick Lady” Writer Fitness Club. Because writers need to get out too.
It’s a reference to a line from Beggar Magic by H. L. Burke:
She started to run, but heard her mother’s voice in her head, “Do you want to be so out of breath you can’t even say ‘hello’ when you find your friend? Walk like a lady.”
Like a quick lady, Leilani decided.
(Beggar Magic is an excellent book I really enjoyed, and if you’re curious to read it, it’s currently the free thing you get if you sign up for H. L. Burke’s fun newsletter. FYI.)
I just like that line, and “like a quick lady” is something I say when I’m in a hurry. XD So when we’re jogging, we say that a lot, as well as “On your left!” (Because Captain America.) Because what fun is jogging unless there are lots of fandom-y, inside jokes? 😉
Also, fresh apricots are STUPENDOUS, I TELL YOU. That is all.
Well… it’s June (HOW??) so Realm Makers is less than a month and a half away, which is TERRIFYING (I mean… exciting, too; but still terrifying), so I really have to get on that to-do list of mine and start finishing up some of the projects I’ve been working on, like my official website and things. 😛
So I’ll be focusing on various writerly pre-conference things and trying to juggle life, while also hopefully keeping up with a bunch of book releases and reviews because some little otter secretary seems to have signed me up for a lot of blog tours and review books right when I need to be busy with other stuff. 😉
But that’s how these things go, and I’m super excited for all the books (you can check out all the bookish things going on this month in my Bookish News post on my book blog!) so yeah. It’s going to be fun! I just feel extremely busy. XD
How about you? Thoughts? What are your June plans? Share in the comments — I’d love to hear all about it. ^_^ I hope you have an amazing summer! Thanks so much for reading. ❤
The Road of a Writer 