Bad movies abound.

New York Times book reviewer Rachel Donadio just wrote an article about the increasingly tangled relationship between books and movies. According to Donadio's article, some publishers are now partnering directly with movie producers to make movie adaptations of their books. This means that they will have more influence over the movie versions of their stories, which (one hopes) may lead to better films.

Film adaptations are always a hot issue here at Wordcandy--in our opinion, way too many great books turn into cow manure on the big screen. Some books just aren't meant for Hollywood, which makes Donadio’s article seriously scary. Will all the books of the future read like movie scripts? (Even worse, will authors be sending advance copies of their books to movie producers before book reviewers like us?) We can't imagine that a closer relationship with agressively-test-marketed Hollywood will improve the publishing industry. After all, how often do you hear that the movie version was better than the book?