Great Academy Award Reads

I was really struck this year by how many of the movies that were nominated for Oscars were based on really good books.

Just check out this list:

• Atonement by Ian McEwan;
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy;
  
• Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini;
  
• Gone, Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane;
  
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman;
  
• 3:10 to Yuma a short story by Elmore Leonard;
  
• The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum; and
  
• Oil by Upton Sinclair (There Will Be Blood)
  

So often the movie never matches the experience of reading the book, or vice versa. But just looking at this list makes me think that the movie makers did a wonderful job this past year. Nearly all the books on this list were great films, in most cases matching the book's power to captivate imaginations.