I’m a strong believer that books are better than movies so this holiday season, I’ve scooped up a couple of books to gift away before they become movies.  I think it’s common that people read books and then like to see the movies to watch the plot and characters come to life, but unfortunately, once you’ve seen the movie, it’s a lot less likely that you’d go back and read the book. Even if everyone tells you that you should. I know. I’ve had this conversation a lot.  Here are some books that will soon be coming to the big screen — lovely and thoughtful gift ideas for friends, family and coworkers!

via gillian-flynn.com

I got wind that three books by Gillian Flynn are being made into movies including the best selling book Gone Girl. My mom’s an avid reader so I thought they’d make a great gift this holiday season (sssshhhh!) — plus after reading the novel’s description I’m looking forward to my mother getting through it and passing it back to me (the plot sounds a bit like my current show obsession Revenge, which I’ve been watching on Netflix nonstop)!  I can’t wait to wrap the trio up with some of my fun clay gift tags!  Also, I found this article from USA Today that interviews the author and says Reese Witherspoon is producing and set to star in Gone Girl (yay!).

I previously shared my love of The Perks of Being a Wallflower which was recently made into a movie starring Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame. In case you didn’t know: this girl’s a huge Harry Potter nerd. Obsessed. So hey, there’s another book-series-turned-mega-movie-hit…if you’ve not yet read the Harry Potter series, a) you’re crazy b) you’ve missed out on a worldwide phenomenon and c) read ’em. all of ’em.  I know it’s a lot of books (7) and the page counts are crazy huge but they’re easy to read and J.K. Rowling does a fantastic job of creating a world that you can easily envision in your head, which only makes the movies more magical to watch as you see the wizarding world come to life on the screen.  There are tons of stories from adults and kids alike that say the series is what created a yearning to read. How cool is that?  Definitely a superb gift idea, especially as a big bundled set. Like I said: read ’em.

I was pretty disappointed when I first saw the new Great Gatsby trailer (can we have a collective sigh for dreamy Robert Redford Gatsby? swoon…) but I did love Baz Luhrman’s take on Romeo & Juliet (also featured Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead) so hopefully it will exceed my expecations.  It’s Gatsby and Leo so all in all, it’ll be hard not to love, I’m sure.  In any case, this holiday season is a great time to dust off your copy of the classic or gift it to someone who’s never read it because the movie release date was pushed back to spring/summer 2013.

Twilight fans will perhaps be interested to read Stephanie Meyers’ new novel The Host— yet another love triangle but this time only involving two bodies and no wolves or vampires.  Weird, huh?  Instead it’s aliens and the movie will star Saoirse Ronan, who I adored in Hanna.

Are there any books set to become movies that you’d recommend?  I hear there’s another Nicholas Sparks movie in the making…