Why does it feel better to read the book first and then see the movie?
As soon as the credits roll across the cinema screen, it’s tempting to complain about everything that’s wrong with the film adaptation. Essential scenes have been left out, plot twists deviate and the actor of course cannot match the main character in your head. JK Rowling also thought that the actors who played Harry, Ron and Hermione “too handsome” were for them “geeky” characters.
Of course, there are people who prefer to just see the film, film critic Pauline Kael wrote in 1971 The New Yorker“but let us not pretend that you get the same thing from both, or that nothing is lost.” With the book your imagination creates its own experience of the story and the characters; According to her, a film adaptation remains a poor alternative.
But hey – judge for yourself. Read these eleven books before the film adaptation is released next year, so that you can rightly say in the cinema: “The book was better.”
Emily henry
People we meet on vacation
The feel-goodnovels by Emily Henry have a veritable online fan club that eagerly awaits new ‘EmHen’ books. The film adaptation will be released in early 2026 People we meet on vacation on Netflix. Best friends Poppy and Alex went on holiday together every summer, until a disastrous argument put an end to the tradition. She drags him along for one last summer together. Nothing better than a sultry summer love to break the January routine.
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
Paul Mescal and Agnes Buckley play William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes as they deal with the tragic loss of their 11-year-old son. Hamnet outlines Shakespeare’s family life, and the context in which he created his most iconic play Hamlet created. A preview of the film, based on Maggie O’Farrell’s book of the same name, won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival — a promising prelude to Oscar buzz.
Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
Many filmmakers have ventured into the iconic Wild Heights by Emily Brontë about Catherine and Heathcliff’s tumultuous relationship. Next year it will be the turn of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in a gothic, erotic, psychological drama film with Charli XCX as the soundtrack. Just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary
The film adaptation of TheMartian of science fiction–author Andy Weir received seven Oscar nominations in 2016. Will the film adaptation of his second book equal the success? In Project Hail Mary Ryan Gosling plays a former teacher who wakes up on board a ship with amnesia. Inconvenient when you are tasked with saving humanity from an immense disaster.
Enid Blyton
The Magic Faraway Tree
A British family moves to the countryside, to the edge of a forest where the trees are “darker green than normal.” In the Enchanted Forest, the three children encounter new worlds (such as… Land of Goodies with chocolate houses). Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy and Nicola Coughlan breathe new life into this popular British children’s book series by Enid Blyton.
lauren weisberger
The Devil Wears Prada 2
We can once again look forward to the disapproving “that’s all” from the pouting mouth of Meryl Streep. Twenty years after the classic, the long-awaited sequel arrives The Devil Wears Pradabased on the second book, translated as Prada’s revenge. The same iconic cast reprises their old roles: Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) and Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) run a successful media company together until Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) turns everything upside down again.
Colleen Hoover
Verity
Colleen Hoover’s books have conquered the world via TikTok. After the success of It Ends With Us will be released next year Verity on the silver screen. In this psychological thriller, Lowen Asleigh (Dakota Johnson) is hired as a ghostwriter for Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway). While staying at the family home, Lowen discovers an unfinished manuscript that reveals Verity’s dark history.
SuzANNE COLLINS
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping
In the popular Hunger Gamesseries, two young people from twelve districts compete in an annual bloodbath to the death. Since the film adaptation of the original series, Suzanne Collings has been going strong. A second prequel was released last year: Sunrise of the Reaping (translated as: Dawn above the fine), which takes place 24 years before the first book. It follows the fiftieth anniversary of the Hunger Games and the demise of Haymitch Abernathy. A fine cast has been roped in for the film adaptation, with big names such as Jesse Plemons, Ralph Fiennes and Elle Fanning.
C. S. Lewis
Narnia
Director Greta Gerwig – known for Barbie – is making off with a prequel to the popular one Narniaseries by CS Lewis. In The Magician’s Nephew (1955), translated as The wizard’s nephewthe children Digory and Polly discover strange worlds, including young Narnia, which has just been created by Aslan. But among all the talking animals and magic, there is of course also an evil witch who wants to ruin everything. With Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, Emma Mackey and presumably Meryl Streep as the voice of Aslan.
john steinbeck
East of Eden
Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck described East of Eden (1952) itself as his magnum opus. The book tells the intertwined stories of two families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks, in California’s sunny Salinas Valley – mixed with the Biblical themes of Adam and Eve and the rivalry between Cain and Abel. Zoe Kazan, the granddaughter of the director who adapted the book into a film with James Dean in 1955, is making a seven-part mini-series for Netflix. Think: horses, costumes, and Florence Pugh!
Kazuo Ishiguro
Klara and the Sun
In Clara and the Sun Klara, a robot girl who works on solar energy, is sold to Josie, a human girl with a chronic illness. Klara tries to keep Josie company, and gradually learns to understand human emotions such as loneliness and love. Kazuo Ishiguro’s famous book is brought to life by director Taika Waititi with Jenna Ortega as Klara.
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