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Books to read before they hit the big screen

Superfly

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So how many of these have you read? I've read Reconstructing Amelia and think all parents should read it, regardless of gender, regardless of age of their children. It made me glad that I am as strict on my girls as I am. I started Gone Girl but it got boring so I put it down. I may pick it back up, if it's that good.
 
None. I am hoping they make Young Men and Fire into a movie though.
 
Divergent - no, and won't read. I don't like sci-fi dystopia's. I tend not to watch them, either, unless they involve zombies :)

End Gamer's - no, and won't read. I don't like sci-fi alien-prep shows. Too 1980's for me. . . no doubt ideal for the screen.

City of Bones - perhaps, the summary doesn't make it sound generic or too cliche. Maybe I just like demonic family histories.

The Fault in our Stars - Interesting, but I never read romances that make me cry - so no.

The Maze Runner - Not interesting at all, sort of sounds like Holes or a game I played as a kid that scared the crap out of me. LOL . . .and yet cheesy at the same time.

The Wolf of Wallstreet - not at all interesting.

Gone Girl - Will definitely read this one. I love a good twist in any kind of a story.

The Monuments Men - Yes, definitely will read - and probably will avoid the movie for a while because of history errors and plot deviation in this type of story would drive me nuts.

The Book Thief - interesting narrator concept, definitely will read and will watch.

Serena - sounds very interesting and different than most books I've spent time reading.

Horns - Hmm - don't know. Seems like it would be very easy to make this cheesy and silly. Might read just to see how it works out.

If I Stay - same as Fault in our Stars. I don't read tear-jerkers. . .but this is very intriguing, I might risk it, anyway, as long as I have a good humorous book to read on the side so I don't get too damned depressed.

The Spectacular Now - I've read a few romances that start with the 'we loved each other in highschool' and it's an automatic disinterest to me for books. Too cheesy and 'perfect' - reminds me of my sister's marriage. . . but the movie might be ok to see some day.

Reconstructing Amelia - hell no. No dramas about single mothers and suicidal children for me, no thanks. Why? too much reality for me - I read to escape.
 
have not read that. What's it about?

if that was directed at me, is is based on the deaths of a bunch of people fighting a forest fire in i think it was the late 40's at a place called Mann Gulch
 
if that was directed at me, is is based on the deaths of a bunch of people fighting a forest fire in i think it was the late 40's at a place called Mann Gulch

It was. :)

So..... not much of a chick book, then.

Thanks. :)
 
It was. :)

So..... not much of a chick book, then.

Thanks. :)

Well a bunch of young men burning to death in a fire might appeal to a small demo of women, but otherwise not so much.
 
Well a bunch of young men burning to death in a fire might appeal to a small demo of women, but otherwise not so much.

Honestly, I don't know how that would appeal to anybody. That's so sad.
 
Honestly, I don't know how that would appeal to anybody. That's so sad.

maybe it is not about how they died but how they lived. The book was interesting to me at least.
 
So how many of these have you read? I've read Reconstructing Amelia and think all parents should read it, regardless of gender, regardless of age of their children. It made me glad that I am as strict on my girls as I am. I started Gone Girl but it got boring so I put it down. I may pick it back up, if it's that good.

One. "Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card. I'd read it decades ago, before all the hype. I'm a big Sci-fi/Horror/Fantasy fan.

Most of the others are "teen" books and the few that aren't I wouldn't read or see the movie.
 
Did you like Ender's Game? It looked interesting. Most of the books I listed looked interesting, although I'm not interested in reading anything about people falling in love and then dying.
 
Ender's Game was great. There's a whole series, but I've only read the first one and it works well enough as a standalone.

I'm disappointed from what I've seen about the movie from the trailer, though. It seems like they've heavily PG-13'd it. Maybe it was just because I was so young when I read it, but I remember that book being pretty adult. There are a couple of scenes in particular of brutal violence and graphic nudity that stick out in my memory.
 
Ender's Game was great. There's a whole series, but I've only read the first one and it works well enough as a standalone.

I'm disappointed from what I've seen about the movie from the trailer, though. It seems like they've heavily PG-13'd it. Maybe it was just because I was so young when I read it, but I remember that book being pretty adult. There are a couple of scenes in particular of brutal violence and graphic nudity that stick out in my memory.

They alter it for the audience - it would have to be critical to the plot/overall story for them to include the nudity (odds are they kept the violence or at least the situations)
 
Just like World War Z. Had to be altered to fit the audience. Who the heck wants to watch a PG-13 zombie movie? Such a disappointment.
 
I understand why they don't include it. But I actually think it is relevant to the story. From what I can gather from the tiny fraction of it that I've seen in the trailer, the overall tone of the school is completely wrong. In the movie it seems like a space-age prep school for rich kids of the future. In the book it felt like a brutal Spartan academy filled with hazings and kids getting beaten to death.

But they'll sell more tickets this way and won't have to worry about angry soccer moms raising hell because their sheltered little kid saw an ugly waggling penis on the big screen.
 
So how many of these have you read? I've read Reconstructing Amelia and think all parents should read it, regardless of gender, regardless of age of their children. It made me glad that I am as strict on my girls as I am. I started Gone Girl but it got boring so I put it down. I may pick it back up, if it's that good.

ender's game is a sci-fi classic. But is such a well written book and great story people of all backgrounds can likely enjoy it
 
I understand why they don't include it. But I actually think it is relevant to the story. From what I can gather from the tiny fraction of it that I've seen in the trailer, the overall tone of the school is completely wrong. In the movie it seems like a space-age prep school for rich kids of the future. In the book it felt like a brutal Spartan academy filled with hazings and kids getting beaten to death.

But they'll sell more tickets this way and won't have to worry about angry soccer moms raising hell because their sheltered little kid saw an ugly waggling penis on the big screen.

They can't be hazed and beaten to death with their clothes on?

Often nudity is a non-necessity. For ratings: you get a certain amount of 'exposure' and 'occurrences' before it becomes 'too much' - a lot of movies get bumped down a notch just by altering things that don't affect the overall plot.

The more important concerns are the many ways in which they'll truncate the book to squish it into a movie - removing and jumbling the overall plot in the process.

I'll have to read the book, now, to contrast and compare.
 
Ender's Game was great. There's a whole series, but I've only read the first one and it works well enough as a standalone.

The first couple books are interesting but take on more of a space opera/fantasy feel after ender. I think I've read the first story arch, which is like 5-6 books
 
I've read Ender's game, and I'm already lowering my expectations for the movie.

The rest aren't really the kind of books I'd enjoy.
 
They alter it for the audience - it would have to be critical to the plot/overall story for them to include the nudity (odds are they kept the violence or at least the situations)

The nudity will almost certainly be gone, because it was naked kids in the 8-12 age range. That probably isn't even legal to show.

I'm guessing the scenes where he fights Stilson and Bonzo will still be there, but they'll be toned down quite a bit.
 
The nudity will almost certainly be gone, because it was naked kids in the 8-12 age range. That probably isn't even legal to show.

I'm guessing the scenes where he fights Stilson and Bonzo will still be there, but they'll be toned down quite a bit.

Yeesh - yeah, absolutely.
 
The first couple books are interesting but take on more of a space opera/fantasy feel after ender. I think I've read the first story arch, which is like 5-6 books

I preferred the enders shadow series
 
They can't be hazed and beaten to death with their clothes on?

Often nudity is a non-necessity. For ratings: you get a certain amount of 'exposure' and 'occurrences' before it becomes 'too much' - a lot of movies get bumped down a notch just by altering things that don't affect the overall plot.

First of all, yes, they can be hazed and beaten to death with their clothes on. But why should they? You and I have had this discussion before. I think plain old vanilla nudity is harmless for kids. You, as I recall, think something bad will happen to kids' psyches if they happen to catch a glimpse of a grown woman's areola before they're 18. But neither of us budged an inch in that argument so I'd rather not get into it again.

Second of all, yes nudity is often thrown into films as cheap sex appeal. But the nudity in Ender's game isn't really sexual at all. The scenes of nudity, especially the one that stands out in my memory of the big adult waggling penis, have to do with one of the major themes of the novel - kids trying to deal with that weird grey area of adolescence and puberty where they're being pulled in two different directions: wanting to stay a child and yearning to be a full-fledged adult. It's particularly relevant given that these kids aren't in high school, but they're in a military academy where they are being asked to kill and be killed in the name of mankind. They're kids trying to deal with an adult responsibility. They do so by imitating and idolizing adulthood. And once you finish the book and the major plot twist is revealed, you'll understand just how critical that theme is to the novel.


The more important concerns are the many ways in which they'll truncate the book to squish it into a movie - removing and jumbling the overall plot in the process.

I'll have to read the book, now, to contrast and compare.

While this is true, I don't believe they're removing the darker parts of the book because of time constraints. I think they're removing the darker parts to make the film more "kid-friendly". Which I think is a decision driven by money, and I think they're losing something important from the novel by doing so.
 
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