Do Self-Help Books Belong on the Big Screen?
So someone bought the movie rights for Lean In, which is great because I take all my life cues from movies anyway, and I’ve thus far been too lazy to read the book. At first this might seem like an odd choice for a movie since it’s more of a self help/campaign for change/whathaveyou than a traditional novel that might get turned into a movie, but it’s far from the first book that’s gotten this treatment. For instance:
He’s Just Not That Into You It has been something like ten years since this book came out, but it’s still pretty much my dating bible. I don’t know how people survived before this, because this book has saved me so much time and pointless conversations of, “Well, he said this vague thing, but then he winked, so that means something, right?” False. This book taught me, and life has proven, that when a guy is into you, he makes it pretty clear. We all still fall into the overanalysis trap from time to time, but truly there is never any point. While the book is brilliant, the movie was not my favorite, as I feel like it was just an exercise in making beautiful and talented women look sad and desperate. Pass.
Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man I just can’t with this one – the title alone makes me want to start throwing things. I refuse to read the book or see the movie because everything I’ve heard about it is just so antiquated and anti-feminist and upsetting.
What To Expect When You’re Expecting I have not read this book, seeing as I am nowhere near ready to even think about the possibility of maybe some day having kids. That being the case, I cannot speak to the comparison of book/movie, but I did watch about half of the movie on Netflix because the cast seemed good, but I also fell asleep halfway through, so… you be the judge.
Naturally, this got me wondering… what other nontraditional books might be good movies?
Chicken Soup For The Soul Remember the ’90s, when these books were all over bookstores (and bookstores still existed)? I hate conflict and unhappiness in movies, so I would very happily watch a 90 minute montage of uplifting stories.
Who Moved My Cheese? I would love to see this as a mystery movie, where rather than a book about how we respond to change, we follow the story of an animated mouse detective who tries to discover who actually moved his cheese.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People What if the habits were people, like the Six Sigmas on 30 Rock? We could follow them through their interlinked lives, seeing just how very effective they are. Obviously the dream cast would include Alec Baldwin as Synergy.
The Secret Back when bookstores existed, I used to pick this book up all the time because the cover made it look like some juicy historical fiction mystery novel. It is actually a self-help book about the power of positive thinking, apparently based on a documentary movie of the same name about the same thing. That’s nice and all, but I’d rather watch a juicy historical fiction movie about the power of positive thinking.
What about you – what self-help book would you like to see turned into a movie?
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