Books you read before they were turned into a movie.

[Enright3]

@PoorYorick

Dozens for me also. One book that I almost wished I hadn’t read, however, was Mystic River. Both the book and the movie were excellent. However, I couldn’t really appreciate the movie because it was so faithful to the book, and so the entire element of suspense was lost on me.

To the best of my memory that’s my one example of where I really hated the book but liked the movie. It’s almost always the other way around.

[iggy_popov]

I read Sphere before they made it into that crapfest. Also I have read Acid House before I realized there was a movie. Does Rum Diaries count? The movie is still being made but I’ve read the book.

[Khadaji]

@AuntiePam

All of them. Well, not really, but I’m more of a reader than a moviegoer, so the list would be really long.

To echo what AuntiePam said, it is more likely, rather than less that I read the book before seeing the movie. Indeed, more likely that I read the book *rather * than seeing the movie. The one that I recall seeing first was The Princess Bride and in this case I thought the movie was better.

[Peter_Morris]

@don't ask

There would be dozens:

Just Cause
…
Cat Dancer

and on and on

Plus lots I read before seeing the older movie like Hammet and Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Graham Greene,

Cat Dancer? What’s this? The only Cat Dancer I know is Omaha. did they make a movie of the comic? I doudt it, somehow.

Or is this some other book/ movie. I can’t find any likely candidates in IMDB.

[RealityChuck]

@vibrotronica

Too many to recite here, but the most significant on was John Varley’s Millennium, which is just about my all-time favorite time travel book. Imagine my chagrin when this happened.

Even if you’ve seen that god-awful crapfest, read the book. It’s really good, and Kris Kristofferson, Cheryl Ladd, and director Michael Anderson have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Actually, the movie was not made from the book (it’s antecedent was Varley’s short story, “Air Raid”); the book was a novelization of the movie. Varley was hired to write the screenplay from his short story, but the movie got delayed, so he turned the screenplay into a book.

The same thing happened with “Fantastic Voyage” – Asimov’s novelization was published before the movie came out and it was assumed the movie was based on the book.

[SiXSwordS]

The Princess Bride. I thought they were going to ruin it

[Chefguy]

All of Stephen King
All of Robert Ludlum
Most science fiction
Tolkien
All three Hannibal Lector books
Leon Uris
Many of the books/stories that Hitchcock based his movies on
All of Edgar Allan Poe
“Alan Quatermain”, by H. Ryder Haggard (movie of the same name, plus the Indiana Jones character)
“Robinson Crusoe”
“Tom Sawyer”
“Huckleberry Finn”
“Treasure Island”
“Robin Hood”
“The Three Musketeers”

Well, this could just go on forever.

[Gyrate]

It’d take me much less time to list the books I’ve read after seeing the films, largely because if I enjoyed the movie reading the book would ruin it for me, and if I hadn’t I wouldn’t waste the time on the book. (That said, I read The Razor’s Edge after seeing the film, and thought the film adaptation hacked out a lot of the dross from the book).

Sometimes I refuse to see a film if I’ve really enjoyed the book. I thought The Sheltering Sky was an amazing read, and did everything possible to avoid seeing anything from the film to avoid adulterating the mental images I had from the book.

[vibrotronica]

@RealityChuck

Actually, the movie was not made from the book (it’s antecedent was Varley’s short story, “Air Raid”); the book was a novelization of the movie. Varley was hired to write the screenplay from his short story, but the movie got delayed, so he turned the screenplay into a book.

Wow! I did not know that. The book is seriously one of my all time favorite science fiction novels. But the movie is shit-tay. It’s not even badgood.

[Tentacle_Monster]

I can only think of one: Breakfast of Champions. And I guess Hitchhiker’s Guide, too, but that movie won’t be out for a while.

I can’t remember if I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas before or after the movie came out.

[dare_devil007]

*Harry Potter

A Walk to Remember

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Lord of the Rings

Angela’s Ashes*

I’ve also read a lot of books after I’ve watched the movie, like Ben-Hur…

[easy_e]

The only one I can think of that hasn’t been listed yet was Contact. I know some people thought the movie was more realistic in that it’s easier to hush one person than 5 (in the book, 5 people go in the dodecahedron), but I really liked the interactions between the characters.

I also enjoyed Ellie’s relationship with her mother and the bit at the end with pi and the circle.

[Rufus_Xavier]

Having read dozens and dozens of books (and stories) before they I saw the movies (or TV Miniseries) they were based on, as well as the other away around, I can honestly say I almost always prefer reading the original source material after seeing the visual interpretation. The reason for this mainly, I think, is that the written material is usually superior. What this does is makes it easier to enjoy the movie for what it is, rather than expecting it to live up to an ideal that is almost impossible to achieve. It can and does lessen some of the impact of the source material, but the fact that the story, in writing, can be presented with so much more detail, and is absorbed sometimes over the course of several days rather than in one 2 hour sitting, makes it a rich experience regardless.

One of the adaptations of books I liked that I still haven’t seen is Watership Down, which is one of my all-time favorite books, and I’ve heard mixed reviews about the cartoon movie they made of it. I’m afraid I won’t enjoy it. I kind of wish Pixar would decide to pick this up and make a really good, long movie for adults.

[Angel_of_the_Lord]

The only one I can remember is House of Sand and Fog, and I read it before Oprah had it on her book club, as well.

Oh! I also read The Hours before it was made into a movie. I still haven’t seen that one. . .

[don_t_ask]

@Peter Morris

Cat Dancer? What’s this? The only Cat Dancer I know is Omaha. did they make a movie of the comic? I doudt it, somehow.

Or is this some other book/ movie. I can’t find any likely candidates in IMDB.

Sorry, Cat Chaser one of many bad movies made from Elmore Leonard books like 52 Pick-Up, Touch and The Big Bounce but it was the first one to spring almost-to-mind.