Books on the Big Screen

Staff Picks

Books on the Big Screen

The holiday season brings with it family gatherings, delicious food, and gifts, but it’s also filled with big movie releases. Both Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day are big days for the box office, and the movie studios make sure there are lots of great new movies out there to draw us in!

As a book lover, when a movie is based on a book, I prefer to read the book before seeing the movie; movies almost always have to drop (sometimes crucial, in my opinion) elements of a story in order to fit it into 2-3 hours, and I prefer to experience the full story first. I also prefer to have my own “picture” of characters in my head first; in the past when I’ve seen the movie then read the book, I inevitably have the actors from the movie in my head when I later read the story, and my imagination feels left out of the process.

A good number of the movies this holiday season are based on books; I am particularly excited to see Into the Woods, and I’ve already checked out Grimm’s fairy tales to read the stories that are featured in Sondheim’s musical with my son so that he’s up on all of the background stories when we see the movie.

Whether you're a fiction or non-fiction lover, there's a book-based movie for you this season: memoir, war dramas, fairy tales, fantasy, dystopian science fiction -- you name it! If you’re a "book-firster" like me and would like to do some prep work for this season’s movies, check out some of the titles below, and don’t forget the popcorn!