"This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it."

[ironymaiden]

from a conversation last night, because i'm curious now...

[Poll #1042259]

i'll elaborate in comments.

Comments

[ironymaiden]

i read the book first, and i love it. i started rereading it this morning.
i never liked the adaptation much, especially because i fell in love with the framing device even more than the story. the first chapter was what hooked me on the book.
the best thing about the movie is that it's brought a favorite book into pop culture awareness, and all the quotable lines from the movie are lifted straight from the book. the worst thing is that it turns people away from the novel if they didn't enjoy the film. so very sad.

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

RE the last question: I'm not sure book obliterates movie. I think book wins, but it gets roughed up in the process.

I feel that the movie did a good job of capturing the feel of the framing device without getting into the details of it.

[joyful-storm.livejournal.com]

I like the movie somewhat better than okay, and I'm not convinced the book is really a *classic*, but in general I genuinely like the book and prefer it to the movie.

The movie didn't grab me as a kid; in high school I was involved with our forensics team and saw people rehearsing readings from the book, that piqued my interest and made me go find it.

The movie does, however, seem like a better adaptation of the source material than The Seeker (http://www.seekthesigns.com/) will be of The Dark Is Rising series.

*weeps for the dumbing down and desecration of a series of books that had a major role in shaping her identity*

[buhrger]

book obliterates movie is a little strong, but if you want me to choose between the Pit of Despair™ and the Zoo of Death™, well, that's not really a choice, is it? :-)

[ironymaiden]

i cared more about the parallels of the two father/son relationships and the adult Goldman's quest to share the Important Book.
i also thought the production values in the film were terrible. they tried to walk a line between realism and storybook illustration, and they should have just gone the whole way into storybook. the choices they made just make it look cheap and sad instead of turning the cheapness into a virtue, like coconut shells.

never heard of it

[bhagwanx.livejournal.com]

and when I followed the link, was sent into adobe script hell.

Who wrote these books, and why are they special?

[raevnos.livejournal.com]

I read the book before I realized it was okay to not finish every book I start to read. I still have scars, but it was also responsible for me learning that not ALL movies made from books are inferior to the original...

The book would have been okay if the narrator hadn't interrupted the story every 5 pages to whine about his family. Thankfully almost all of that framing story was cut from the script. It's the good parts version of the book. I still have trouble believing that Goldman wrote both.

*looks at poll results* Hmm. I seem to be pretty alone in these opinions.

[ironymaiden]

but you're also one of the after people.
do you think your response to the book would have been different if you had no expectations going in? i bought my copy used for fifty cents on a whim, and either it was before the movie came out or i was completely unaware of its existence. i also don't know from these results if people like the book for its meta nature, or if they like the increased detail and extra incidents in the story.

[raevnos.livejournal.com]

Between the movie and having heard people praise the book on rec.arts.sf.written, I had pretty high expectations of the book.

I think in the unlikely event I'd read the book first, I still would have disliked it (The framing story is something I find really really irritating. There are better ways to address its point), and it would have put me off of seeing the movie for a long time. I think I would still like the movie once I did see it.

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

May I recommend you buy a copy of the Land of Green Ginger, which I'm guessing you'll also enjoy based on this.

Re: never heard of it

[joyful-storm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the official web site is evil, but it's the "Official Website"!

For the books (written by Susan Cooper), have an Amazon.com listing (http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Rising-Sequence-Silver-Greenwitch/dp/0020425651/ref=sr_1_11/002-6076244-3445626?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187641528&sr=1-11).

Why do I consider them special?

You know how, when you are in your early and mid teens, there are just books that you can come across that make such an impact they help shape who you are when you grow up?

3 series have had this effect on me: The Dark Is Rising sequence, the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, and the Earthsea books by Ursula K. LeGuin.

I'd say any and all of them leave Rowling's world in the dust.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

I was and am pants-wettingly happy to see that this thing is getting to the big screen at all. Although I'd obviously PREFER a faithful and impeccably done adaptation...

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

I ended up liking them both about the same. I suspect that if I'd read the book first I'd probably be slightly less happy with the movie and slightly more happy with book. Buttercup was less irritating in the book, the Zoo of Death was better, and the jokes about editing down the original book (five pages about packing hats) were fabulous. But score and Mandy Patinkin go a LONG way.

[lleather.livejournal.com]

I like the movie better. Usually I like books better, but not this one.