Books for me are always better. You get a sense of how characters feel either by them telling you in detail (books like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games) or else by the narrating voice explaining it.

Films and TV bring it to life but sometimes the characters loose a lot of what makes them special in the process.

It can work in their favor though, to be honest in a few Harry Potter films I preferred watching Daniel Radcliffe then reading about Harry because I knew in the books all he ever does is feel sorry for himself but Radcliffe was never a good enough actor to portray that with just his face (I know kid actor and all that but I'm sorry I just didn't like him much!)

I mean some adaptations are awesome! Like The Hogfather. They lost small amounts of the jokes because of time (the Raven wanting to be a Robin, more of the creatures being brought to life by the Wizards) but the whole story was just pretty much perfect from the actors to the story. The actress that plays Susan was the perfect Susan, just like straight out of the book! Again in The Colour of Magic, yes they put two books together and had to wipe out whole adventures that Rincewind and Twoflower had, but I personally could forgive them anything for the wonderful portrayal of Twoflower Sean Astin gave which was perfect!

Did we miss out by them chopping this or that out of the stories? Who knows! Because it was never in the adaptation we'll never know how well they could have made it.

Again the Hunger Games loses a little of what makes it special because you aren't living inside Katniss's head, we see a totally different dimension including characters that weren't in the book. Is this bad? No it added so much more to The Hunger Games series. Again sometimes Katniss is a hard character to like, all the positive things about her character are obvious in the movie and we lose some of the more annoying aspects of her, unlike Radcliffe I think Jennifer Lawrence is a wonderful actress and does so well portraying Katniss on screen. Subtle moments come to life without a word!

Of course there have been some awful adaptations as well, personally I never did like Going Postal hence not mentioning it above. They didn't seem to make any of the actors aware how their characters should be portrayed and totally forgot about Grouts character and allowed Andrew Sachs to be an English Manuel!

Now I've never read the books but apparently (for the same reason I've mentioned above) Twilight is so much better as a film because you don't have to be inside Bella's head!

Are we going to be talking anime/manga and comic books too?

Of course we will

Personally I am on the side of books, there is so much more detail and character in books. There is always the fear that the wonderful picture you've got in your head from reading the book will be someone else's wonderful picture on the screen and you just can't find it as wonderful as you did in the book.

The two big ones for us would be Middle Earth and Harry Potter. I think both were so much better in book form, they are all brilliant and inspiring movies and taken away from the books they are wonderful. Sometimes I do wish I was like Luc in that I never bothered to read some of these books before I saw the movies purely because there are a lot of people who are the reverse and can see the movies world every time they read the book, for me though I'm constantly sitting there thinking it was so much better in my head!

I guess to make my own mind up I'd have to read them then?

As for Lord of the Rings I totally disagree if anything the "cutting of fat" that Anna says they did with Colour of Magic is all Peter Jackson did with the LotR book. Now those I do at times find unreadable, sometimes it feels like a big description of how far they've walked. The films did a better job of keep my attention where the books totally lost it. I don't think they missed anything important out either.

Harry Potter is different because anything that changed was at JK's consent. To be honest the books are pretty much represented in the films there are only a few I have to say got messed up and it isn't that important either that they did!

I have no idea why they didn't have Dobby in the films more it made no sense, they replaced him constantly with Neville for some odd reason. I always felt that Neville was overlooked a little in the films even with him replacing Dobby. The worst film for changes though was PoA which messed up the time line and seemed to have to have Harry do everything on his lonesome. Yeah I liked a small amount of the additions but it still made no sense in the long run!

I could sit here moaning about that all day though and it wouldn't help !

Never tell someone about to read a book it is hard going though! You'll turn them off. The thing is because they are good books you get through it and fall in love, people are too quick to tell someone who isn't sure whether or not to read something that a book is "hard going" and they'll turn off the idea of reading.

As good as an adaptation is I just can't see it beating a book.

You gain a little but if the director/writer/whoever doesn't think the same way you do, if their mind doesn't adapt the story like you have in your mind then you will be watching something that you hate. Look at the "A Tale of Ice and Fire" thread and look who differently people have reacted to the books, this person loves that character, this person loves that one, this event is important that one is so forgettable. Now are all of you happy with the TV show? Does it match up to each and everyone one of your love for the book? Because I know at least one of you gave up on the TV show but seems to love the books more then they ever loved the show!

You can pick up a book and you and a million people will see the contents of that book totally differently and love it for the picture in your head. That will never leave you even if someone comes in and puts their vision on the big (or small) screen.

Books open your magical world, TV and Film is someone else's.

So you'd be happy with Game of Thrones the TV series and no books?

And yes most people will go back and read the books with these characters in their head but what is wrong with making them in your own head?

Some people just don't want to use their imagination anymore though, it is much easier to have it given to them in an easy to understand environment. It will take days or weeks to read a book, whole chapters can take ages if you dislike it, a TV show or a film lasts for x amount of minutes/hours and will leave you with nothing to have to imagine.

It is not likable thought but it is still something that has slowly started to happen.

I for one don't ever think of an actor who has played a part when I've read anything. To be fair I'm not sure I imagine anything very well either I just read it.