Is the book better than the movie?

The answer is yes. The book most of the time is better than the movie, however, I believe the movie shows different perspectives of what is going on and add other elements to the story to make it come to life. One book, in my opinion, is not better than the movie and that is "It's Kind of A Funny Story". I think the movie did a great job of animating the story in the book by its actors and music chosen, and the way the story is told. The book, told in first person, is about a kid who struggles with identifying with his depression and checks himself into a mental hospital where he meets a variety of characters. In the book, its a little difficult to visual the situations he is in because most of the dialogue consists of him talking to himself in his head. The movie version does a great job portraying this because they use voice overs without having to go away from the things that are happening around him and the situations he's in. The characters he meets in the hospital are also made clearer when shown in the movie. One of them is played by Zach Galifianakis and that immediately shows what type of character he will be just by the actor's known roles and style of acting.

Some of the difficulties in making a movie out of the book is the different ways to imagine the settings, scenes, and even voices of the characters. There is an endless amount of ways to create where and how the movie will be shown because books allow you to create that all yourself. In movies, it is probably very hard to pick one way that fits best because of the different possibilities. Music has a lot to do with it too. Picking that one song that fits best with the scene and mood is probably very difficult.