Everybody loves a good book and we all love to watch our favourite books in the form of movies. Yeah, we all can criticise it later about how major chunks of the book were missing in the film, but nevertheless. With the dearth of original thought and mostly every aspect of love and war covered in movies, film makers are bound to turn to books. And some of the best books are being directed by some of the best film makers.
Then there are some of us, like me, who want to read the book before they watch the movie. Like, when Life of Pi came out, I wanted to watch the movie so very much, but just because I had not read the book by then, I did not watch it. So, before these books turn to movies in the coming year, you have about two months to read them, because the films are going to be irresistible!
There are more than twenty such books. But I’ll list down eight, if you’re to finish one book a week. 🙂
1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The book has been voted as the best science fiction of the 21st century! And only one man could probably do justice to the racing plot – Steven Spielberg.
In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade finds himself solving puzzles and competing with players who are ready to kill, for the winner is promised immense power and fortune.
Spielberg with Warner Bros. is all set to thrill us. And before he does, go read it!
Buy it on Amazon and while your order arrives, watch the trailer.
2. All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Are you a John Green fan and ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is your love bible? Then this book is for you, and so is the movie that stars Elle Fanning (Super 8 fame).
The story revolves around Theodore Finch, a boy who loves the idea of death and Violet, who is grieving for her dead sister. When the two meet on the ledge of the school bell tower, it is unclear who saves whom. And they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, only to make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
Buy it on Amazon and while your order is delivered, watch the trailer.
3. Calling Sehmat by Harinder Sikka
The book by Harinder Sikka is being turned into a film named ‘Raazi’ which would be directed by Meghna Gulzar and produced by Karan Johar. It will see Alia Bhatt as Sehmat.
The book is about a Kashmiri woman who married a Pakistani Army Officer so as to provide the Indian intelligence with invaluable information during the Indo-Pak War of 1971. Sehmat devised unique ways in her quest to get closer to the top brass in Pakistan. She almost single-handedly torpedoed Pakistans war plans through indefinable courage, wit and determination and was responsible for saving lives of scores of Indian soldiers.
Read it before it hits the cinemas in May, 2018. Buy your copy here.
4. Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor
Hold your breath, because Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Fathima Sana Sheikh are set to star in the adaptation of the novel in the film – Thugs of Hindostan. It is set to release on Diwali, 2018.
Confessions of a Thug is the most influential novel about India before Kipling’s Kim and was one of the best-selling crime novels of the nineteenth century. In the course of a confession to a white ‘sahib’ the imprisoned Ameer Ali recounts his life as a devoted follower of Thuggee, a secret religious cult practising ritual mass murder and robbery. Taylor uncovered evidence of the crimes committed by bands of Thugs as a Superintendent of Police in India during the 1820s.
Read it now so you can boast about how you know the entire script of an Aamir Khan movie! It has a cheap kindle edition that you can download on your phone and read wherever whenever.
5. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Love a nice animated film? Then you better read this before it hits the screen this spring.
Peter Rabbit warns naughty children about the grave consequences of misbehaving. When Mrs. Rabbit beseeches her four furry children not to go into Mr. McGregor’s garden, the impish Peter naturally takes this as an open invitation to create mischief. He quickly gets in over his head, when he is spotted by farmer McGregor himself. Any child with a spark of sass will find Peter’s adventures remarkably familiar. And they’ll see in Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail that bane of their existence: the “good” sibling who always does the right thing. One earns bread and milk and blackberries for supper, while the obstinate folly of the other warrants medicine and an early bedtime.
Everybody loves this world famous children’s book, and it is a must read and a must have for everyone, kids and adults alike. Buy it and put it in your bookshelf and I promise, it would be a beautiful addition. Oh and you can also watch the trailer.
6. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
This book has seen many an adaptations. But this one will star Johnny Depp. Yes, Depp. So if you haven’t read this book yet, go for it. Buy it, borrow it, steal it, but please read it.
As the plot goes, a scientist, Griffin, creates a serum to render himself invisible. And unable to reverse the invisibility he decends into madness.
I’d say, read the book anyway. It is over a hundred years old book. Published in 1897. Yes. So go ahead, read it.
7. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
Meg’s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?
You’ve totally got to read this one. And I bet you’d want to after you watch this trailer.
8. Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Clever, tragic, funny, mysterious, unexpected. These are only a few words people have used to describe the book. Vonnegut is an author you’d fall in love with. Sooner the better.
Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man’s careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves.
Buy it. It has a bloody 4.02/5 rating on Goodreads!
So yeah, that’s the list of the most amazing and compelling storytelling that’re going to hit the screens the coming year and if you’re a reader and a film buff, you really gotta read these books. Watching a film after reading the book is a joy you shouldn’t miss.
Just a journal 