Mario Puzo's 1969 novel, The Godfather, is wonderful. It's just that Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film adaptation is a masterpiece. My own personal sentiment. Have you read The Godfather?

Written in 1986 by Winston Groom, Forrest Gump the novel is almost unidentifiable as the basis for the hit 1994 movie. Aside from the title character's name, the film is a totally different entity. In the book, Forrest grows up healthy and becomes an astronaut who befriends an ape named Sue in space. Have you ever read the book Forrest Gump?

Peter Benchley's novel Jaws was a commercial success. However, many critics didn't like the sub-plots, and found the characters unlikeable. For the film, Steven Spielberg asked his screenwriters to make the characters more likeable, and cut the book's subplots. The result made Spielberg a household name, and produced a summer blockbuster like the world had never seen back in 1975. Did you ever read Jaws?

Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club is a satirical novel about a man struggling to make sense of life in the modern world. You can tell that he really poured all of his pent-up frustration at the publishing industry, consumerism, and contemporary America right into it. Yet, there just is no comparison to the film, which remains a modern favorite for "movie nerds". Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are a dynamic, entertaining duo. The frenetic, anxious energy of the book is captured so perfectly by David Fincher's masterful directing. Have you ever seen Fight Club?

Michael Crichton's book, Jurassic Park, is a fantastic thriller. Of course, when you get Steven Spielberg involved in an already awesome project about freaking dinosaurs in the modern age, things quickly go from really good to great. The book is exciting and well-paced, but the blockbuster is what I immediately think of when I hear the term "movie magic." While the film is quite tame in comparison to the book (likely toned down to achieve a PG-13 rating), Spielberg and his team really brought the prehistoric creatures to life in the most mesmerizing way. Have you ever read the book Jurassic Park?