I really liked Shutter Island (book) as well as the movie, I thought it was a good equal right there. I also thought The Great Gatsby in 2013 was a very good take on the book (including everything within the novel).

What's yours?

I thought Life Of Pi was a very well done adaptation of the book.

Cloud Atlas was a great attempt at a very convoluted idea.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) novel written by Ken Kesey. The 1970’s movie of the same name starred Jack Nicholson.

Prompted by the film’s success I actually read the novel before seeing the movie.

Both were excellent and powerful;…the book was certainly ‘of its time’ but I think the movie stands the ‘test of time’.

Fight Club and Interview with the Vampire both actually improved on their source material imo.

Haven't got one at present, but I reckon they could do a good job with "Rivers of London" et al, by Ben Aaronovitch.

To Kill a Mockingbird, with Gregory Peck will take some beating, IMO of course.

Something I only learned recently was that Kirk Douglas (who recently celebrated his 100th birthday) bought the rights to the novel and turned it into a play, in which he starred on Broadway in the 1960s. He retained the movie rights, and eventually gave them to his son, Michael, who produced the 1975 film we're all familiar with.

"The English Patient" starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe and Kristin Scott Thomas. A beautiful but sad love story.

I'm often disappointed by adaptations, but the first Harry Potter movie was excellent.

That's true.
The later films glossed over a lot of the book detail but the first film was very faithful to the novel.

Harry Potter I've been watching it everyday on itv I will always get awe and Nostalgia from the day Harry found out he was first a wizard, although I wish they could've kept the same tone as the first two films, I was gonna say Percy Jackson but it wasn't very true to the books.

I also enjoyed Limitless its a really inspiring film and I'd say its my favourite one. Although the book for Limitless was originally called The Dark Fields.

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.

The Godfather

Alfie is an excellent movie adaptation .

The movie certainly catapulted several ‘acting careers’ to previously unscaled heights;

…Danny DeVito, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd,… and of course Jack Nicholson went from star to mega-star.

The Shawshank Redemption was/is excellent. I think even Stephen King has said so.

The Omen - although that's more based on the movie opposed to the movie based on the book.

Agree with Interview with the Vampire - that remains one of my favourite movies of all time.

I think the book is far better than the film. Kids are too screechy, and they missed out some of the best stuff.

LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring is really well done imo, but I think the two sequels are a bit messed up. The Hobbit films are just awful imo.

Films I like more than the original novel:-

Jaws - Tne novel has too much 'soap opera' in it.
Where Eagles Dare - The film is much more violent, and the better for it imo.
The Godfather
Misery
Get Carter (1971)
James Bond films - I've read half a dozen of the original novels, and I didn't think any of them were up to much. Like most of the films, though.
Psycho (1960 version) - Much better than the novel imo.

The Road. The wonderful prose of the book was never going to be able to be translated properly to film, but I think they did a great job nonetheless. No Country for Old Men, another of McCarthy's books, was also extremely well done. Possibly even better than The Road, come to think of it.

I read Silence of the Lambs a year or two before I saw the film - I had forgotten that I had read it until I was about half-way through the film to be honest

It was a better film than book in my opinion.

I can't comment on the rest, but I do have to agree with you on Jaws. There was a lot they left out (Mrs Brody's affair for starters) that would have turned a great film into a soap opera, as you say. They took the best of it and turned it into a great film.

Off the top of my head:

Films which match the novel:
The Great Gatsby (DiCaprio version) really captures the novel's spirit

Films which better the source:
Legally Blonde
The Devil Wears Prada
Prince Caspian - a controversial one, but I really think it's a) the best of the Disney Narnia films and b) does so with the weakest of the 3 books adapted
Limitless
Silver Linings Playbook

The Road was essentially prose-less, that was the whole point of it. I agree though, they did a great job.

Lord of The Rings for me. I'm sure will call me out on this but I found the films far better than the books.

Sleeping with the Enemy - I'm not saying either were great, but the film did an okay task of turning the mediocre (in my opinion) book into a film, mostly due to Patrick Bergen's menacing performance as the husband.

I actually think the film is better than the book. I've never said that about any other adaptation.