2-in-1: Blog Hop & Top Ten Tuesday

It's been a long time since I've participated in any blogging memes, and today I've decided to make up for it by doing two in one post.

The Book Blogger Hop

hosted by Jennifer at Crazy For Books.

Usually a weekend thing, last week's Book Blogger Hop has been held back until today, when we are asked:

"Outside of books, what is your guilty pleasure?"

I have to confess that just lately I've been watching Glee. (I hang my head in shame.) I saw the first two episodes when it was first shown on UK TV but didn't get into it at all, but then when series 2 came on I got hooked! I usually end up shouting at the screen (usually at Rachel) and making snarky comments, but I keep coming back for another episode.



Top Ten Tuesday:

This is the first week I've taken part in the Top Ten Tuesday hosted by the girls at The Broke and the Bookish although I've been reading other people's posts regularly. I love lists.

The Top Ten Books I'd like to see made into Movies:

1. Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery. The last book in the Anne of Green Gables series, this is  about Anne's six grown-up children when the First World War strikes. After the wonderful TV adaptation of Green Gables by Kevin Sullivan, the book series and the films parted company so that the film version of Anne at the time of the First World War has nothing in common with the book. Rilla of Ingleside would work quite well as a stand-alone story, because the focus is on Anne's teenage daughter Rilla, rather than Anne herself.

2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I suspect it is only a matter of time with this one, as it is the only book by Waters not to have been adapted into a TV drama (The Night Watch will be on our screens later this year.) Done well, it would make a creepy and atmospheric historical horror film.

3. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. As its title suggests, this is a werewolf story, the tale of the only female werewolf in the world, Elena Michaels, who just wants to live a normal life but who is drawn back to the "pack" and the former lover who betrayed her. I heard rumours of an adaptation a few years back, but nothing seemed to come of it.

4. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. This is a bit of a cheat, as the story was a TV drama before it became a novel, and not a bad one for a BBC low-budget programme, but with modern special effects and a bigger budget, it could be even more amazing. But a film is nothing without its cast and I don't think anyone could replace Patterson Joseph as the Marquis de Carabas.

5. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. Sky One made such a great job of Hogfather that I would love to see them make the "Watch" books into two-part dramas to the same standard. I put Guards! Guards! down here specifically, but I would expect it to be followed up by Men at Arms, Feet of Clay...

6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Can you see a theme developing here? And the great thing is that this one is not wishful thinking, but being adapted for a four-part TV series. Neil talks about the project here.

7. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. The Thursday Next books are a literature nerd's treat, set in a parallel world where it is possible to hop in and out of books and - if you're not careful - change what happens within the pages. In The Eyre Affair, Literary Detective Thursday has to rescue Jane Eyre, who has been kidnapped by an evil mastermind. There could be some trouble with an adaptation, however, as there are some scenes that can work only with text, such as someone communicating through footnotes. Difficult.

8. Malory Towers by Enid Blyton. I don't think these books would work very well as a film series - too episodic and not eventful enough - but it could be a nice after-school series a la Tracy Beaker or the Blyton's Famous Five that was made into a CITV series when I was about ten.

9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. This was the big young adult novel of last year, about a girl who is killed in a car accident, before waking up to find it being the morning of the same day. A cross between Groundhog Day, The Lovely Bones and Mean Girls, Before I Fall is a wonderful book that would look great on the silver screen and appeal to teenagers and adults alike.

10. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. Although old-fashioned, the Katy series is a girls' classic to be compared with Little Women and Anne of Green Gables, but I don't think that it's ever been adapted for the screen.