Christine's Book Adventures

I'm a few days behind schedule for this challenge, so I figured I'd do a "three-in-one" post.  So this post will cover Days 19, 20, and 21.  I should be caught up once that's situated. 

I'm going to choose four books for Days 19 and 20, and one book for Day 21.  Ready, Steady, Go!

Okay, Day 19: Favorite Books Turned to Movies?  Gah, this is hard.  I like quite a few. Note that I interpret this prompt as books I've read and liked that turned into movies I liked/loved.  (Though I'm technically cheating with including "The Jungle Book" and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" because while these books are the basis for the source material of the movies - and I liked them respectively - the movie versions do deviate from the source material significantly):

The books (randomly chosen):

The movies respectively:

I read "Jurassic Park" a while ago now and I enjoyed it, though I saw the movie first and somehow that stuck in my mind - looking back it was a fun movie as well.  Granted my sister and mother still tease me about how I freaked out over the T-Rex waltzing over and biting the guy's head off while he sat on the toilet.  I ran out of the room into my father's arms while they laughed at me the first time I saw that.  (I blame my youth.)

Though the 1994 Disney movie version of "Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book" really deviated from the original work by a good margin (actually, so did the 1940ish version with Indian actor Sabu Dastagir - or simply Sabu), it was still a beautiful adaptation.  It had an all star cast (John Cleese, Cary Elwes, Lena Headley, Jason Scott Lee).  The film carries so well and I regularly rewatch this movie.  It's one of my personal favorites.

If I had the space, I'd also add Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling because the animated film was a great adaptation of the tale, and its another of my favorite Kipling tales from childhood.  The scene with the snake gets me every darned time.

William Golding's "The Princess Bride" - loved the book, loved the movie adaptation (and it's funny Cary Elwes is in both this movie as well as "The Jungle Book").

And I'll cite "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick/"Blade Runner" because I really enjoyed "Blade Runner". The original story was good too, but I saw the movie before I read the book, and I'm biased.

Other books -> movie adaptations I loved that I didn't have the space to put here (and wanted to feature just as much - some of you probably already guessed these were my favorites though):  "Rebecca" by Daphne DuMaurier, "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolken, and "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

Day 20 asks me to name my favorite romance novel.  *blows raspberry*  As if you guys can't tell what I'm going to choose for my top one. The others might be surprises though.

I did have a hard time picking these, at least for the last two.  The first two just came off the top of my head without a second thought.  "Pride and Prejudice" is my all time favorite romance novel.

"Bet Me" is one of my favorite novels from Jennifer Crusie, and is pretty much the book that put her in mind as one of my favorite romance authors.  Take a plus sized heroine, a suave, successful hero, mix it up with random and family craziness, and you get a fun, sweet read.

I think "The Thorn Birds" was one of the first major romance novels I read, and I admit I got it from my mom (it's one of my mother's favorite novels).  I think I'm in need for a re-read of this as well, but I remember it being quite a ride.

"Jane Eyre" - because of Jane Eyre. Because...dude this book.  No words.

Now for Day 21?  First book I ever remember reading?  Maybe more like remember reading and loving, I guess.  Probably this one:

There may be others, but "The Velveteen Rabbit" just kills me every time.

Think I'm all caught up now.  Enjoy.

Until next entry,

~Rose