Stephen King's Christine. I'm pretty bad about reading usually, both starting books and finishing what I start. I'm highly enjoying this one however and intend to finish it soon.

It surprised me how different Buddy's death is. I felt a little bad for him by the end of that chapter, unlike in the movie.

Ian Fleming's Casino Royale. This is first James Bond book. I've always enjoyed the movies and I figured it's about time I explore their source. I'm about 70% done with it. It's a quick read.

I started to do something similar with Star Wars, except I started further back at Darth Plagueis. Cool character, but much like in the prequel movies, the Trade Federation and Galactic Senate junk got stale fast for me. Stopped midway into Cloak of Deception with no intention of finishing it. Might try again eventually and jump forward to Kenobi. That one always sounded like a western set in the Star Wars universe. Death Troopers sounds good too.

That's cool that Picnic at Hanging Rock came with the book. I've thought for a while now that certain movies should come with the book due to the book being out-of-print. Which I see was exactly the case when Criterion did that.

I'm still reading James Bond books. In order, not that it matters too much, like the movies. There's only a few brief mentions of the previous book in the beginning before moving on to the next mission and girl.

Live and Let Die started out like the movie and had a lot of the same scenes. About halfway through, it became the first half of what they used for a different movie and the ending was used as the ending for yet another movie. Confusing enough? I guess they probably did that more than once, spread out parts of a book over a few movies. It was just kind of a shock for me to go from Casino Royale, which was almost exactly like the 2006 version of the movie, to that.

Moonraker was next. It was almost nothing like the movie and doesn't even mention outer space, but that's probably for the best since the movie isn't very good. The book also doesn't have the same characters outside of the main villain and the regulars like Bond and M.

Now I'm in the middle of Diamonds Are Forever. It too is only vaguely similar to the movie, but it has more of the same characters than Moonraker. Since I'm not crazy about the movie version of Diamonds either, I'm not bothered by that. In fact, I'm glad the books are mostly different from the movies. Not sure I'd be as interested in reading them if they played out exactly like the movies.

I find them to be quick reads. Feel like I can have the Fleming era of the series finished by at least the end of summer. I'll probably try the John Gardner books after. It sounds like he basically continued the series where Fleming left off.

I like how the books go into things like why Bond treats women the way he does. In the movies, it's usually just because he can, with his brief marriage only referenced or mentioned a couple times.

Never heard of Modesty Blaise. Kind of surprised since the series went on for so long.

They seemed to be trying to add some depth with Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but of course, they dropped the ball with Quantum. The books are a refreshing read to me actually. Much more consistent in style than the movies, which I marathoned not that long ago. A style the movies started losing long ago.

I was reading about the movies. Sounds like they're pretty far from the author's vision. Too bad, because with all the material out there between the comics and novels, they could have probably cranked out a pretty big movie series to rival Bond.

I feel pretty much the exact same way as you about the movies, especially the Craig era. Thought Casino Royale and Skyfall were solid. Hate Quantum though and Spectre's definitely mediocre. Parts of it were decent, but that twist with Blofeld pisses me off. Completely unnecessary. As you said, typical modern cinema back story.

I do wonder about the short story of Quantum. Not far from it now and I can't imagine it being anything like the movie.

Stephen King's Gerald's Game. First time. Wanted to read it before the movie's released.

Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters. Never read any of Heinlein's work before, but been interested for a while. It's good so far. People are being controlled by gray blob aliens that attach to their upper backs/shoulders.

I'll probably read Heinlein's Starship Troopers next. Seems like people who are fans of the book hate the movie and vice versa. I love the movie, so not sure how I'll feel if I like the book.

I'm in the middle of Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers. As the title indicates, it's about all the people who've died in the Grand Canyon, organized by cause of death. Falling off the rim of the canyon, drowning in the river, animal attacks, even murder.

It's very thorough, almost too thorough sometimes with chapters taking two or three hours to finish (bought this digitally, so not sure of the page count). If you're a morbid fuck like me and enjoy reading about people dying, this book will keep you busy for a while.