Book vs. Movie/TV

[d-dave]

Totally agreed there.  Have you ever tried to read his other book semi-connected with LOTR? The Silmarillion.  My god talk about wanting to pull the eyes out of your head.  Dude was seriously high when he wrote that.

 

I must disagree with you and Brooklyn Bully.  I have read nearly every word Tolkien ever wrote about Middle Earth (and a bunch of his other stuff!), and the whole thing is just beautiful.  Now that's just me as a giant nerd about Middle Earth.  I realize that for most people, it's a LOT too much.  Looking at the big picture of the entirety of Middle Earth literature, you see one of the best examples of World Building that most of our entertainment genres have borrowed from in one way or another.

 

The layers, the stories, the beauty of the whole thing is amazing!  It's not for everyone.  I first got and read the Silmarillion when I was 15, big mistake.  I didn't appreciate what I was reading.  Reading it every few years, I learn to appreciate it anew each time I finish it.  When I was 15, I really only cared for the heroic story of Frodo and Aragorn.  Then as I got older and began to appreciate that the world is a VERY complex thing, I really began to see how history supports the modern world.  The writings of the foundations of Middle Earth were a huge literary undertaking!

 

Then again, I am a big time Tolkien nerd (though I never learned Elvish, I suck at languages!), and the stories of Gondolin and Beren and Luthein are just wonderful pieces of literature.

[PizzaTheHutt]

the first three Game of Thrones books are freakin' amazing and better than the TV show (I was furious when the show cut the Nights Watch battle vs. the White Walkers at the Fist of the First Men).

However, I am VERY happy the show is doing it's own thing now, because Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons were "meh" at best.

Plus there's no way people would keep tuning in if Jon Snow and Tyrion were just completely left out of season 5.

[Darth Biscuit]

I've see a movie that was better than the book it was based on.  They have to condense too much... that's not saying such movies can't be good, they can be.