The book was better: page-to-screen legends

Some of cinema's most quoted moments were sentences first. Mario Puzo's The Godfather gave Coppola a world so complete he mostly just had to point the camera at it. Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park is a techno-thriller that's scarier on the page than the screen — and smarter, too.

George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones launched a television era, but the books go places the show never could. And Stephen King's The Shining is a different, more haunted animal than Kubrick's film — colder, sadder, and harder to shake.

Watch the movie, sure. But read the book first. You'll never see the adaptation the same way again.