List Maniac # 1 - Books turned into Movies/Miniseries

Here is the unveiling of a new section I'm calling ListManiac, partially in response to one of the Bloggiesta challenges

In Real Life I happen to be a listmaker, even though everyone tells me it doesn't help any with my anxiety issues and that perpetual to-do lists don't let you reach happiness... but, what can I say? I love Lists, I love checking things off lists.

So, anyway, I'll be adding Lists as I can think them up.

ListManiac #1 - AnimeGirl's Favorite Books turned into Movies/Miniseries

These aren't all the books turned into movies or miniseries I've seen but they are the ones based on books I've actually read and loved.

• Ivanhoe - One of Sir Walter Scott's masterpieces, set around the time of the crusades and full with castles, abductions, fair ladies and knights (even Robin Hood shows up!). Now, the story is supposed to be about Ivanhoe and Rowena but in both book and the A&E miniseries the relationship that shines through is the one between Rebecca of York and Brian de Bois-Guilbert (played by Ciarán Hinds). In fact, after Zagato from Magic Knight Rayearth and Darth Vader, he is my favorite villain. The mini-series is far more romantic than the book, but even so the scenes with Brian and Rebecca are to die for, you can feel the tension and the longing, and seriously, had I been Rebecca I would have forgotten my puppy love for Ivanhoe and hooked up with Brian instead (and yes, I'm aware Mr. Hinds ain't Mr. Hot but he plays Brian so well!).
  

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• The Princess Diaries: Perhaps Meg Cabot's most famous series about high school freshman Mia Thermopolis who one day discovers she's a princess and heir to the throne of Genovia. Meg took Mia all the way to her high school graduation during the Princes Diaries Series, but this was the book that started it all, setting a tone of fun, teenage drama and romance. The movie is a bit different, it's sequel doesn't even have a parallel with any of the books, but I still watch it each time it comes on the Disney Channel.

• Pride and Prejudice: I admit to watching the BBC miniseries first but then I went and read it from beginning to end and it was awesome. You can't say much about Pride and Prejudice other than go and read it.
  

• Little Women: Right here, right now I'll admit to being a sucker for both this book and the movie. Sure, it holds my biggest couple disappointment since I totally believe that Laurie and Jo should have ended up together but what can I say? Besides, Christian Bale was both cute and hot in the movie.

• A Little Princess: If you have ever read the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, you know that it's quite different from the movie - and I'm talking about the 1995 one, I hate the one with Shirley Temple because I can't stand the girl, sorry - but both the book and the movie are full of magic and the courage of a young girl who, after a terrible loss finds it within her to keep on dreaming and believing she is a princess... that we all are.

• A Walk To Remember: This one is both special and different, one of the few times when I've actually liked the movie more than what I liked the book. Both my sister Boo and I love the movie, we have our cry-fest a few times a year when we watch A Walk To Remember and sob like babies because of it. The book was good, sure, but for me it lacked a bit of the dimension the actors gave it on screen.
  

So, that's for me, what about you?