Books

Fight club... th3 book was good, the movie was great

Stardust. Couldn't finish it. Loads of extraneous detail, getting lost in the weeds.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
I really enjoyed them both. But the movie was completely different from what I was expecting, and so much more sinister. I read it so differently, and had never experienced such divergent interpretations.

Blade Runner

Lovecraft Country was way better as a show than the book it was based on

Fight Club. Movie was 10x better

The Shining. The book is hyped so much and is famous for King hating the movie, but every difference between the two Kubrick made better in the movie.

Just on the subject of the movie, there's a scene in the middle of it where Theo, having just had his ex-wife killed right in front of him, nicks off into the woods to have a quick smoke to try and calm his nerves, and pretty much collapses into himself. The camera lingers on his suffering for a few seconds, then somebody calls his name and he has to try and get his shit back together so he can function as a human being again for the remainder of the movie.

That scene breaks me every time I see it. It is so very relateable.

First Wives Club

Bridges of Madison County. Thought it was an ok movie so I brought the book on a five hour bus ride. Longest five hours of my life.

I liked the miniseries of Station Eleven way more than the book.

Seriously that show was so damn good.

Bones and All

Big Fish for sure!

I didn't love the movie, but I hated the book of Crazy Rich Asians.

i personally liked the adaptation for silver linings playbook more than the book.

Lovely bones

The girl on the train. The movie was bad but man the book was x10 slower

The Dirt

Lessons in Chemistry. I could not stand the dog 6:30 in the book, it was ridiculous. The show was much better IMO.

Forest Gump.

The book was just too outlandish.

Nothing Lasts Forever which was turned into Die Hard.

How to be single. I actually thought this was a decent movie about enjoying where you are at in life. The book was about all these obnoxious women where it made sense why they were single.
The princess diaries. Sure it was fun at parts but overall MIa was pretty annoying.
Controversy but LOTR. The movies are perfection but the books are outdated and overrated. I’m a huge fantasy fan too.
The devil wears prada! Maybe this is elevated by the two leads but overall I thought the movie made great changes and was fun to watch.
The maze runner films and insurgent. I thought these made enjoyable action films

Jaws, without question

The Notebook

Stand by me is such a wonderful movie. I'm a huge Stephen King fan but The Body (short story that it's based on) was mediocre compared to the film.

Pretty much anything by Nicholas Sparks, the movies are usually better. The Notebook being the most notable. I loved the movie and was very sorely disappointed when I read the book. I didn’t fall in love with his characters when I read about them vs. when I watched them.

Six Days of the Condor (the book) was not as good as Three Days of the Condor (The Movie) That said, the female character was better developed in the book..

I thought the movie had the edge over the book with The Exorcist.

The story Farewell to the Master was not as good as the movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

The Painted Veil!! The movie had a much better ending.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Starship Troopers.

The movie was incredible, if you're into that kind of thing. The book was completely different and I don't think I ever finished it. Maybe it was a decent book if you haven't seen the movie. Maybe the movie just ruined the book for me.

The Witches of Eastwick.

There's something about Updike that just rubs me the wrong way. I think it has something to do with his thinly veiled contempt of women in general. But also, bad writing.

The film is far superior to the book

Lord of the Rings, total snooze fest.

The Hobbit was pretty good, but I never saw the movies, so I can't compare it.

Not a movie, but the Expanse tv show was vastly better than the books.

I found a lot of the internal monologue of the characters in the books to be particularly tedious but the show cuts that out and immediately makes things way better. But also the show runners are working with a much more complete story so while they are telling one story they are also setting up the next one which I think is a lot more fun than the more self contained books.

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is WAYYYY better than the book.

My answer to this question will forever and always be Jaws. It's not just that the movie was better; the book is absolute trash.

I'm honestly shocked anyone wanted to make it into a movie after reading the book. It's so poorly written, misogynistic, there's half a dozen plot lines that are meaningless and lead no where. It's one of the worst books I've ever read.

Jurassic Park is my go-to answer whenever this question comes up.

1. Michael Crichton is... let's say, not great... at writing female characters. (At least women and girls. He did OK with the dinosaurs.)
2. In the book, Lex is the younger sibling. Timmy is the dinosaur fan and the computer expert, borderline Marty Stu. The computer stuff Lex does in the movie? That's all Tim in the book. Lex is just a whiny brat. By the time I was 1/3 of the way through the book I was rooting for the dinosaurs to eat Lex.

It’s a comic, but Kick-Ass. The book gets pretty juvenile and ends on a needlessly cruel note for the main character. The movie sequel sucks but the OG movie smokes the source material

Not my favorite movie but I did think The Frim worked better as a film than Grisham's book. I thought the book dragged on and on and complicated the law aspects more than necessary.

While I liked both, I liked The Hunt for Red October in movie form a lot more than I liked the book.

Wheel of Time. I read the entire book series after watching season 1 of the show. The show seemed very enjoyable, and, while the books had a pretty great and more detailed worldbuilding, there are also some rather weird to outright disgusting tropes in the books that seem like author's personal fetishes and that - at least so far - haven't made it into the series.

A Walk to Remember

American Psycho and Less than Zero are both better than the books imo.

I’ve just started reading Children of Men myself, after glowing recommendations from a couple of family members. So far, yeah, it’s not what I was expecting. I enjoyed the movie, the book is interesting but very slow so far…

I seldom bring this up but damnit I like the Lord of the rings movies more than the books

Practical magic, while still amazing the book is very long winded and almost entirely narrative. The book also misses a lot of the charm that the movie has

I'm going to get eaten alive, but Lord Of The Rings...

I know, I know, they're classics, they basically defined the genre, if you like fantasy you have to understand how LOTR made it... but my god, are they dry. I remember being so excited for the Helms Deep scene that was so incredibly cool and drawn out, intense battle in the films. The book was not that.

Interview with the vampire.

Arrival.
The book goes much more into the concepts but the presentation of the aliens is pretty lackluster. The movie is much better at conveying a sense of awe.