a guest post by Sarah Murray It can often be hard to watch a beloved book brought to life on the big screen. The characters never look like you imagined and often large parts of the novel are left out. Sometimes however, you’ll find a rare gem, a movie that’s just as good, if not better, than the novel it was based on. Such adaptations are hotly debated however, but here’s some that made my top five. Chosen because of their faithful adherence to the book or because they became iconic in their own way, these are my top five book to film adaptations. 5. The English Patient Winner of nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Michael Ondaatje’s epic love story is often regarded as one of the best book to
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Nicholas Sparks burst onto the literary scene in 1996 with his novel The Notebook. He is a classic case of the ten year in the making overnight success. The Notebook was actually his fourth book – though the first two novels were never published and the third was a little noticed, co-written, self-help book. His first three bestsellers along with the movie version of Message in a Bottle propelled Sparks to the top of the Bestseller list through all of the late 1990s – he continues to enjoy a comfortable perch on that list. Sparks is one of those writers whose books just scream for a film adaptation with seven so far having been turned into films
[Editor's Note: As you know - the More Bookshops the Better has been a pretty steady sentiment on this blog - so in hopes of seeing a new one pop up in Nuneaton, UK we'll help Michael get the word out and keep his enthusiasm pumping.] In March 2011, after visiting a local town, I came to the realisation that where I live, Nuneaton, UK, lacked a significant element of Culture. Nuneaton is actually the home town of George Eliot so you’d think that there would be masses of bookshops but alas, there is the large chain-store Waterstones and approximately 19 charity shops. Every month a large chain store was closing and the building being replaced by charity shops. I posted a blog on my
From time to time we will share some entries from a terrific website called Bookride. If you are a book fan of any sort the site should be on your Must Visit list. Today’s entry is called The Long Lonely Leap. Below is an excerpt from the article. For more information on this book as well as tons more like it be sure to visit Bookride. In an open gondola hung beneath a shimmering cloud of plastic, a man ascends to the awesome height of 102,800 feet. He looks about him at a world that is not the world of man. The atmosphere of his planet lies beneath his feet. The velvet blackness of space is close enough to reach out and touch. He
This is a guest post from Will Noble Queen vs. Empress One of them is a living queen; the other is a dead empress. But which has the better biography? We take a look at critical response to Elizabeth the Queen and Catherine the Great to decide which is the royal write-up you should take home this fall. Royal is in at the moment. What, with the wedding of Will and Kate last year, Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee in June – not to mention the bizarre wedding of the 85 year-old Duchess of Alba last October – everyone wants a bite of the bling. Two of the latest titles to capitalize on this are Sally Bedell Smith’s Elizabeth the Queen (a portrait of England’s current