The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 was not a bad book at all, but the movie was better.
I assume you mean the 1974 film adaptation of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, not the 1998 TV film version or the 2009 theatrical remake, despite the big-time cast of the latter. Few recent remakes match the original versions.
The TV series (BBC?) A Year in Provence with John Thaw and Lindsey Duncan was better than Peter Mayle’s book, which was dry and dull in comparison.
Oh, yeah, definitely the 1974 version; it’s untouchable. I didn’t even know there was a TV version and Travolta tried but the Denzel version was just so-so.
The Towering Inferno was adapted from two books: The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. The movie is better than The Tower but not as good as The Glass Inferno, mostly because the moviemakers borrowed too much from the Stern novel. And it’s too darn long!