Eclectic Readers discussion

Since Eclectic Readers is full of psychics who foresee which books will make it onto the big and small screens, let's talk about how these movies and shows hold up to the book! (Even though we all know the book is almost always better!)

Shadowhunters, The Magicians, The Girl on the Train.... ER vets, what else is out there?

As to what books we've read that are movie/tv shows there is:

Anna Karenina
Simon vs Homosapien Agenda (I think is going to be made into a movie)
Magician's Nephew/Chronicles of Narnia (not sure if MN actually was ever produced)
The Rosie Project
In Cold Blood
Wild
Gone Girl
Game of Thrones
Ready Player One
The Red Tent (I think?)
The Mists of Avalon
Gulliver's Travels
The Last Unicorn
Pillars of the Earth
I Kill Giants
Book Thief
Hunger Games (did we actually read this or did I mislabel it?)
The Handmaid's Tale
Life of Pi

There may be a few more from before I joined.....holy cow that really is a lot!!!!

I think I'm going to watch the Keira Knightly Anna Karenina movie after I'm done reading. The Gone Girl movie was GREAT and obvs Game of Thrones is great (although I've only read the one book). Gulliver's Travels has Jack Black in it - I haven't seen it and I don't know if I should be annoyed that it looks like a dumb movie or if they actually knew what they were doing and tried to make it a comic commentary on life.....probably just a dumb movie?

Okay, guys, I have been watching the first episode of Shadowhunters which debuted last week. It's so cheesy and poorly written. I want to watch the second one, and I did promise to watch the first three at least, but gah. Gah.

I have that on my to watch list (it's a long list :() Don't have high hopes for the series but anything would be better than the awful film! Granted I am not a fan of the series though I did coerce myself to complete the first trilogy because I do like the lore even if the characters are exercises in eye-rolling most of the time. Wasn't that impressed by MTV's The Shannara Chronicles, but am currently loving Netflix's Marco Polo. Been trying to convince myself to give Outlander another chance. Was put off by the need for the main character to narrate what was happening. It works for a book, but not in television in my opinion.

Throwing out a few that I've enjoyed; Blade Runner, Game of Thrones and from what I've gotten around to watching of it Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

And a few that have disappointed; I Am Legend and The Martian.

Nette - What a disspointment that Shadowhunters wasn't good! Maybe it'll get there? Has anyone watched The Magicians yet? I'm pretty sure my mom did so I'll have to check with her to see what she thought.

Sean - That's too bad you didn't like The Martian movie! My husband and I recently watched it and really enjoyed, he listened to the audiobook last year (and loved it!) and thought they did a pretty good job sticking to it, but said they changed or left things out because they would have been hard to translate to film. I'm thinking about maybe reading the book myself now.

Megan, I finished the book two days before seeing the movie, so it was fresh in my mind. I found that a lot of the charm was missing, and they destroyed one of my favourite jokes on the movie.

Also. they changed the ending in a way that was really annoying. They didn't just do it differently, they did it in a manner that was expressly disregarded in the book itself.

Sorry it's bad news, M. The second episode is a little better, but it's still not great. The writing is still off, the actors don't have chemistry with each other, and several of them are just not the best. Plus, the changes they made to the story don't make sense to me. Like, they did the reveal about Valentine as Clary's father in episode 2, before you even fully understand why that would be terrible. I get some of the reasons why, but it's awkward still. And overall, it's always either too much action with no information, which is confusing, or explaining of unimportant things to emphasize a point (like GI Joe - not kidding), which is boring. The third episode needs to be exceptional if I'm going to keep trying.

I haven't tried The Magicians yet, but I'm crossing my fingers!

Alright, I've watched all 3 episodes out of Shadowhunters as well as the 2 episodes out for The Magicians.

I must agree with Jeannette on Shadowhunters. Casting based on looks alone was done well, because the actors are pretty much what I envisioned them to look like, but their acting...not so much... I do like Simon, and Jace is alright. Of course, the writing isn't that great either. But, to be fair, this show is on ABC Family/Freeform, so I wasn't expecting award-winning acting and writing. It's still entertaining, but hard to get past all the things that have been changed. My husband has been able to enjoy it more than me because he hasn't read the book and so he's not going into it with any preconceived notions. I think I will still give it a few more episodes, because I want it to succeed. Though at the end of the last episode they showed a clip for next week where Magnus Bane is talking to Clary and says something to the effect of "I gave your memories to the Memory Demon," and I may have rolled my eyes so hard that they popped out of my skull and onto the floor.

As for The Magicians, I enjoyed it; it's good, but different. Scyfy is a great channel for the show, and the production value is good, as well as the actors, but, as I think I speculated in the podcast, I thought they'd have to add a lot to the show that didn't happen in the book, and they have. It's not only that, but twisting things to be different than they were in the book. It's not bad, per se, but different, which I guess it to be expected. I do like that they are starting out right away with Julia's story, but again, it's kind of taking a weird twist, so we will have to see what's going to come of it. Quentin isn't nearly as annoying as he could be, but so far I'm not a fan of Alice...*gasp,* I know. Right now her character is shy, but is also being really defensive and snappy to people...(was Alice that bad at the beginning of the book, or was she just quiet?) I'm sure that won't last as she gets more comfortable with the characters... at least I hope. I'm really optimistic for this show, but have to accept the fact that they are probably going to use the books more as a guideline or road map, and how they get to the important parts of the books is going to be different.

I still want to see The Magicians but I'm going to pass on shadowhunters. I remember Alice in the book being more stand of fish than shy so I can see how they would turn that into snappy.

The Magicians is still super good! In some ways I like it so so much more than the books. Some parts are just so touching. The table for instance, for those who have seen it. Ugh. I really love it guys.

As for Shadowhunters. It's gotten better, but it's definitely guilty watching. But guilty watching that I still love.

Was watching TV yesterday and an add came on for Childhood's End which is arguably my favourite Science-Fiction novel. Definitely going to give it a watch. I've also got The Man in the High Castle lined up, and 22.11.63 is airing over here from Sunday. Should be enough to keep me going.

I am so far behind on my DVR; I think I'm only on the 4th episode of both Shadowhunters and The Magicians. Shadowhunters is getting a little better, but will probably end up being a guilty pleasure show ;-). The Magicians is solid, but certainly veering off from the books, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'd like to get into watching Game of Thrones since I really enjoyed the books, and I've heard good stuff about Outlander, but I haven't read the series.

Sean, Childhood's End looks interesting. I put it on my To-Reads list. I think that will be the next book for my local book club =)

I gave up on the Shadowhunters. And I haven't picked up The Magicians again since watching the first episode. But now that I'm back to work, I can catch up on all the TV shows I've been behind on.

Sidebar: I know we focus on book books, but I gotta say, I finally got into Daredevil. It took me 8 episodes to really get into it.

I still have all of The Magicians episodes piling up on my DVR...

My not keeping apace with The Flash has scuppered my Arrow watching and I'm fully intent on finishing season 1 of the former show so I can watch the crossover episodes in sequence!

Haha, I like how returning to work means you have time to watch TV, Sue! I think for most people it's the opposite :P

Woolfie wrote: "My not keeping apace with The Flash has scuppered my Arrow watching and I'm fully intent on finishing season 1 of the former show so I can watch the crossover episodes in sequence!"

Ahhh!! For me, The Flash is much better than Arrow. But the crossovers are always fun. And I have liked all the ones so far.

Megan wrote: "Haha, I like how returning to work means you have time to watch TV, Sue! I think for most people it's the opposite :P"

yeah...... lol. One of the perks of working from home. And since my work is data entry and not really super complicated, I'm able to have the TV on. I know this is a perk I'm going to miss once I eventually get a job that requires me to work in an office.

Sean, I started Childhood's End (I'm about 30% through) and I like it! Stuff is starting to happen.

GUYS the Magicians was so good! Who watched it?

Tara wrote: "GUYS the Magicians was so good! Who watched it?"

I'm still catching up on all my TV and podcasts. But I'm glad to hear that it's still good! I haven't watched GoT yet either.

Tara wrote: "GUYS the Magicians was so good! Who watched it?"

So I still never started it but every episode is on my DVR so I guess I need to binge watch soon.