TOP TEN TUESDAY
May 14, 2019

It’s Top Ten Tuesday, formerly hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week’s topic was Book-to-Screen Freebie so I’m sharing my favorites that I think are — dare I say it? — better than the books!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a Top Ten Tuesday but hey, I’m trying to get back into the blogging groove. It’s something I miss doing and I really liked the topic this week!

DARE I SAY IT? THE MOVIE/TV SHOW WAS BETTER

1.THE PRINCESS BRIDE (MOVIE) | The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies from my childhood (and my whole adult life as well) and I didn’t read the book until I was an adult. I loved how closely the movie follows the book for the most part but I think the movie does a fantastic job of capturing the fantastical elements along with perfectly timed comedy and subtle (and not-so-subtle) jokes. The cast of the movie is just too perfect, plus nostalgia and the movie for me will always be better than the book.

2. THE MAGICIANS (TV SHOW) | I actually really enjoyed The Magicians as a book series but I just fell in love with the TV show. The actors are just so enjoyable, Quentin is more tolerable, and well, I still hate Alice no matter what (maybe even more in the TV show…) but I love how the SyFy adaptation ended up straying from the books and becoming its own thing. It opened even more doors for this story to continue, add more characters, and find new ways to incorporate this story line. Things from the books still pop up in new and fun ways so it’s still fun as a reader to see them continue to be combined but in unique fashions!

3. DEXTER (TV SHOW) | I watched the TV show before I read the first Dexter book and the show was just so much better. Michael C. Hall is the perfect Dexter and such a great actor in this series. I loved how the show adapted the book and how the actors really made this concept into such a great show. I never ended up continuing my reading of the series because the show was so much better and I finally finished binge-watching this year!

4. THE NOTEBOOK (MOVIE) | This was another book that I didn’t read until after I saw the movie and I enjoyed the movie so much more! The actors just have so much chemistry and I liked how the movie organized the timelines a little bit differently. I just loved how the movie felt and brought this story to life! The book was still very good but the actors really made this what it is.

5. THE PRINCESS DIARIES (MOVIE) | Yet another series that I didn’t start until after I saw the movie! The movie actually changes quite a lot, from location to parents to basically the entire plot, but I actually liked how it updated it a bit for the times since the book was written (although now even the movie is outdated at this point) and I kind of liked the changes it made. The book was still enjoyable and I’m still working my way through this series, but head-to-head challenge? I think the movie wins out for me, just slightly.

6. GAME OF THRONES (TV SHOW) | Don’t get me wrong, I loved A Song of Ice and Fire… but the TV show is giving us an ending when we’ve been waiting for YEARS to even get a continuation of the series as the sixth book. The books left us in a TERRIBLE spot that until the TV show, we were just left waiting to see what the heck happened to our favorite characters. Plus, the TV show took me two weeks to binge watch versus 8 months to “binge read” the books. (If I really wanted to binge read them now, I’d do it on audio and be done in less than two weeks but I was taking my time when I first read them). The show gives us clarity on why characters like Davos are important and have POV chapters (which he’s way more enjoyable on the show than the books) and the TV show also really helped me when reading the books so I could put faces to the many names of the many characters. I love them both, but the show is here now soooo….

7. AMERICAN GODS (TV SHOW) | I’ll admit it. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into AMERICAN GODS when I read the book. I didn’t know how things would come together and it kind of took me a little bit to get a grasp on it. Once I got into it, I was loving it! Knowing what I know (and forgetting what I knew), the TV makes for a more enjoyable experience for me and I was already loving the characters and story before the show even began. I also really love all of the actors and the imagery in the show is stunning.

8. TRUE BLOOD (TV SHOW) | I actually read quite a few of the Sookie Steakhouse books (after watching the show…) but I just enjoyed the show so much more. I felt like the show was a little darker, more intense, and I enjoyed all of the actors……. except for ya know, two of the main characters (Sookie and Bill. Sorry not sorry). I also liked how this show took some liberties and kept pieces and concepts from the books but kind of made them better. I never did finish the TV series but it’s been so long at this point I don’t know if I could pick up where I left off.

9. SLEEPY HOLLOW (TV SHOW) |  Sure, the TV adaptation of THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW was totally different but I LOVED it. Well, for a while. I didn’t even watch the last season because things got stupid and lost their charm. I thought Tom Mison was just darling as an Ichabod Crane transported to modern day America and the history + paranormal was just so much fun!

10. YOU (TV SHOW) | This one is kind of a toss-up, but I really liked seeing this story brought to the screen and seeing a different side of things! It was fun seeing people watch the show who haven’t read the books and didn’t know how creepy Joe really was, as well as getting everyone’s opinions of Beck. I actually found her less annoying in the show but people still thought she was stupid so that’s… good? It was just really fun to see this one adapted and I’m curious to see if/when they come back with the next season, where that will go since the first season covered all of book one! I did enjoy YOU as a book quite a bit (especially the narrator for the audiobook) but the show helped keep things on track whereas I felt the book kind of just strayed into long narratives at times.

Which book-to-screen adaptations have you enjoyed as much as or more than the books? Any of these that you agree with?