We know it is unfair to compare cinema with literature, since the distance between the screen and the pages of a book is insurmountable. Despite the complexity readers can find in writing, the special effects and audio in films offer another layer that can sometimes exceed the imagination. The leaps and bounds made in the cinema world will never truly catch up with the magic of putting pen to paper.
What is better, the film or the movie? For such a question, the answer will always be subjective. In a novel what matters the most is the narrative and the context of the story, while a film is more concerned with the aesthetics and the characterization of the characters, to name a few aspects. Despite the differences, a film should be a precise and faithful adaptation of the original story and not a redefinition or reimagining of a story that moves away from the essence the writer wished to convey.
1. The Shadow-Lands- C. S. Lewis
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
3. Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
4. The Painted Veil- W. Somerset Maugham
5. The Great Gatsby- Francis Scott Fitzgerald
6. Insatiable – The sexual adventures of a French Girl in Spain- Valérie Tasso
7. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
8. Christiane F.-We Children of Bahnhof Zoo -Kai Hermann & Horst Hieck
9. The Virgin Suicides- Jeffrey Eugenides
10. Love in Times of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
11. The House of the Spirits- Isabel Allende
12. Carrie – Stephen King
13. Peter Pan – James Matthew Barrie
14. How My Private, Personal Journal Became A Bestseller- Julia DeVillers
15. Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder – Evelyn Waugh
16. Sense & Sensibility- Jane Austen
17. Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen
18. Wuthering Heights- Emily Brontë
19. Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris
20. In Cold Blood– Truman Capote
21. Perdida – Gillian Flynn
22. The Wizard of Oz- Frank Baum
23. A Room with a View – Edward Morgan Foster
24. Barry Lyndon – William M. Thackeray
25. A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
26. The Dubliners – James Joyce
27. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
28. The Three Musketeers- Alejandro Dumas
29. The Shining- Stephen King
30. No One Writes to the Colonel- Gabriel García Márquez
31. Girl with a Pearl Earring- Tracy Chevalier
32. Requiem for a Dream- Hubert Selby
33. Misery – Stephen King
34. Chronicle of a Death Foretold- Gabriel García Márquez
35. Gone with the Wind- Margaret Mitchell
36. Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story – Paul Auster
37. Secret Window- Stephen King
38. Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
39. The Constant Gardener- John Le Carré
40. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
41. Abzurdah – Cielo Latini
42. Salem’s Lot – Stephen King
43. Justine – Marqués de Sade
44. Mygale – Thierry Jonquet
45. Dreamcatcher- Stephen King
46. Memories of my Melancholy Whores – Gabriel García Márquez
47. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
48. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
49. The Lord of the Rings- John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
50. Saló –120 days of Sodom – Marqués de Sade
51. In Evil Hour – Gabriel García Márquez
52. Cell – Stephen King
53. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
54. The Dunwich Horror- Howard Phillips Lovecraft
55. The Chronicles of Narnia- Clive Staples Lewis
56. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
57. Ana Karenina – León Tolstói
58. Psycho- Robert Bloch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzZckGLnvmw
59. Me Before You – Jojo Moyes
60. A Series of Unfortunate Events- Daniel Handler
61. Herbert West: Re-Animator – Howard Phillips Lovecraft
62. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
63. American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKEX1aaf1DI
64. Dracula – Bram Stoker
65. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
66. Perfume – Patrick Süskind
67. The Road- Cormac McCarthy
Film or book? This is a tricky question. A novel, many times, has the power to takes us through an emotional rollercoaster that can last for hours; in a space of a few minutes, a film can unleash pent up tears. There are books we will carry with us for the rest of our lives, and there are few films that can make an impact. Books thrive in the imagination, and as such they are mirrors to our soul or windows to new ways of life. Films are fleeting and ephemeral, as the scenes flash across they screen, they quickly fade from our memory or remain etched forever.
