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Will Smith I Am Legend
Too close to home? … Will Smith in I Am Legend. Photograph: Barry Wetcher SMPSP/AP
Too close to home? … Will Smith in I Am Legend. Photograph: Barry Wetcher SMPSP/AP

Can't face reading a hefty book right now? Here are my favourite adaptations

This article is more than 3 years old

I Am Legend, City of God, Jurassic Park … it’s a good time to discover which books work well on film

We’ve certainly had some time on our hands, haven’t we? That’s unless you’re a parent and you’re home schooling; if so, shout out to you. To pass the time, as well as talking to my plants for several hours, I’ve been watching films. Specifically, films that have been adapted from books. When you start to look into it, there are more of these than you might have realised.

This week alone I’ve watched It (Stephen King’s book has been adapted twice, as a TV miniseries in 1990, and as a box office-smashing film in 2017. I can’t choose between the two as both are terrifying and sublime in their own way); Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton wrote such a long novel that the film adaptation is a welcome relief); Holes, both written and adapted by Louis Sachar (so joyful); and 1984 from George Orwell’s novel.

Despite it currently being a little too close to home, I’ll always enjoy I Am Legend, which I had zero idea was a novel by Richard Matheson, published in 1954. The winner, though, is the semi-autobiographical City of God (Cidade de Deus) by Paulo Lins. The book is a whopping 496 pages long and right now I can’t do that. My plants are waiting for a chat.

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