A-Z Book List: M for Memoirs

Not many books are successful as a movie. It is not very easy to convert a book into a movie in the first place. Books can be anywhere between 10 pages to 800 pages (a rough estimate that is) but a movie cannot be more than the max of 3 hours (if by then it doesn’t put you to sleep that is) Adapting a novel and delivering it with a good screenplay is always a challenge. That is why we have so many movies which failed to impress us visually even when their book counterparts were very successful. But, like everything else, we have exceptions to these too. And this book falls on that list.

Name: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance

Honestly, I had a tough time to choose from my selection of books for M. I could have chosen Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari (which is an abridged version of the epic tale) or Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayanan or The Mirror, by our very own Navigator (a fellow blogger) I am listing these here so that you might have a chance to check these out too 🙂 And I have done a set of posts on ‘The Mirror’ already which also included an interview with the author himself 😉

Coming back the book of the day, Memoirs of a Geisha. I gave this book 4 stars in Goodreads. It is very poetic in nature. That is how I felt about it when I read it. Can you bring a certain grace and calm and elegance to characters with your words? It is not that easy. But this book does that. The pain, the suffering, the love, the yearning, the hate, the disappointment – we feel all that the Geisha feels. We are taken into a whole new different world in a different era and go through a whole life. A very well written book. The movie also was equally amazing. Mesmerizing performances by everyone involved. Very well adapted movie. One other book that comes to my mind where I was equally enamored with both the book and the movie was ‘Gone with the Wind’.

PS: Check out the rest of the A-Z Book list here

 

A-Z Book List: D for Dracula

Not the one that Johnny Depp plays in ‘Dark Shadows’. Nope… This is the one that made Francis Ford Coppola adapt it to a movie with Gary Oldman playing the role of Count Dracula. I am not sure how many of you have watched that movie. Such an amazing one. I remember scaring my friends in the hostel with that movie. Made sure the room was dark with not a single light on and played the movie on a computer (had bought the CD version of it), I can still hear their screams 😉 I think I am jumping the guns here. Let us go in order.

Name: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Genre: Paranormal, Horror, Fiction, Gothic, Classics

When I started writing the genre of this book is when I realized that this is the first book I read in paranormal. Twilight series was the second. The fact that this Vampire belonged to the same genre totally skipped my mind 😛 Wonder why. I saw the movie first and was so enthralled by the screenplay, the cinematography and the acting, that I wanted to relive it through the book. A big mistake. In this case, I loved the movie more than the book. Of course the movie did take some artistic liberties and moved a little hither tither from the story, which is usual, but that sort of added some glamour to it. Made it more spooky and scary. And I am not a horror genre fan. I never watch horror movies, if I can help it. Again, no spoilers out here. So without going much into the story, let me tell you that I felt the book a little bit boring and the ending quite exhausting. I felt totally disappointed and to help me get back to a good mood, I had to watch the movie again. I gave it only three stars in Goodreads. Gary Oldman as the Dracula was so mesmerizing (can’t think of any other word). The book Dracula wasn’t so much. May be I was constantly trying to picture Gary Oldman in the  book and it didnt quite fit and that made all the difference ? May be. Not many movies outdo the books, according to me. This one definitely did. Did you find this book better than the movie? If so, let me know. Would love to know why? What did I miss?

 

PS: Check out the rest of the A-Z Book list here