Hi Internet. Happy November. I’m tired and a bit of a nervous wreck, so let’s take a break from reality to indulge in some bookish wonderings. As I’m mentioned, I watch a lot of YouTube, and one such vlogger I follow is British BookTuber-extraordinaire Jen Campbell. She did a video recently talking about books she would like to see adapted into various other media, and I think I’d like to take a crack at it. I’m going to stick to books I’ve read in 2016, just as an extra constraint.

FILM

I’m going to go with VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab. Especially given the sucess of superhero films of late, this dark-yet-humorous clash between two budding supervillians is already perfectly plotted and edited such that it reads like a film. Violent, exciting, grey morality–it’d be great!

Bonus: So I know I said I’d stick to 2016, but when oh when can I have my ARTEMIS FOWL movie??? My 10-year-old self wants to know. Please and thank you, Disney. (They own the rights, I didn’t just pull that out of thin air.)

SHORT FILM

Hm. I suspect one could make an interesting short film based on the premise of EVERY HEART A DOORWAY by Seanen McGuire, though the actual plot would probably not fit. Though, I’m not sure–how long or short can a ‘short film’ be? In any case, this story would make an atmospheric and slightly sad short, maybe following the arrival of one of the students.

TV SERIES

Since it’s fresh on my mind, I’m going to have to say A LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET. It reads like the love-child of Star Trek and Firefly as is, and the book is constructed in an episodic way, leading in bits to the conclusion at the end.

CARTOON

I’m going to go with MR FAHRENHEIT by T. Michael Martin, only because it’s got some Scooby Doo vibes and the setting has a sort of timelessness that would lend itself well to animation. I’m not thinking like high-art, Pixar stuff here, more like Sunday morning cartoon thing, only with one over-arching story like Avatar: The Last Airbender.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Let’s say THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern–the art all in black and white with hints of red, as per the magical circus in the title. I’m not much of a graphic novel reader, but I bet that would look gorgeous.

PLAY

Hmmmmm. Something I read this year, something dialog-heavy….Maybe RADIANCE, by Catherynne Valente. Part play, part old-timey movie screening–it would be a challenge to take this complicated epistolary novel onto the stage, but I bet some enterprising modern theater people could make it happen.

MUSICAL

In her video, Jen called out THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE for ‘musical’, a sort of “Les Mis” meets “Moulin Rouge” kind of deal, so I need to pick something else. And so I am going with THE LAST SONG BEFORE NIGHT, if only because what better way to adapt a fantasy about musicians than to make it an actual musical. I’m sure the story would have to be, well, condensed, but I can already picture the poet sing-off from the beginning.

DOCUMENTARY

APOLLO’S ANGELS. 100%. No contest. Author Homens does a great job of invoking visuals in her writing, but the history of such a visual and auditory art as ballet would do so much better to be presented on-screen. I would watch the hell out of this.

And that’s that! What books do you want to see adapted into other media? Which ones already have been that you enjoy?