The only book that I have ever cried while reading is Jodi Piccoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. During the film adaptation of this novel, however, I could only glare at Cameron Diaz and wonder that they didn’t attempt to be a little more discreet in trying to gross as much money as possible — why would anyone cast Cameron in the role of an overprotective mother? I read about how she was super excited for the movie and loved how her part was so down to earth. She mentioned how she even wore her own jeans and Uggs in the movie. That’s great, really. But I liked her better in Charlie’s Angels.

These days, it feels like our society is running out of ideas for movies, so the movie industry is coasting on the success of the book industry. Practically every bestseller is now turned into a major motion picture, and most of these resulting films have no purpose but to reel in the big bucks. In other words, I imagine that a screen writer looks at these books and doesn’t think that they would make great movies, but rather that they would attract large audiences due to the hype surrounding the books.

This year, there have been the occasional revampings of children’s books, such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Where the Wild Things Are (am I the only one who is a little freaked out when the lady “wild thing” speaks during that preview?). But you only have to think back upon this year’s releases to see that most movies based on books are the chick flicks: My Sister’s Keeper, The Time Traveler’s Wife, She’s Just Not that Into You, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Angels and Demons. We still have The Lovely Bones and New Moon (the second installment of the Twilight series) to come before the year comes to a close.

Movies made out of books like these are clear ploys to get an even larger audience to see the movie than would come to see an average, run-of-the-mill chick flick that was not a book first. Recently, more and more movies are using novels for storylines. It’s unfortunate because we should be able to see movies and read books while experiencing different material within each genre.

I am not be ashamed to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Confessions. The casting did not bother me like it did for My Sister’s Keeper. But really, what was the point? I’ve seen a thousand other chick flicks like it in the past, and I’ll see a thousand more chick flicks like it in the future.

And Angels and Demons? I enjoyed reading Dan Brown’s The Davinci Code just as much as the next person. But the movie was mediocre at best. Furthermore, when I started reading Brown’s Angels and Demons, I stopped after about five pages. I rarely stop reading books once I start, but it was exactly the same as The Davinci Code. So I cannot think of one reason to make a movie out of Angels and Demons in addition to The Davinci Code. Also, wouldn’t you think that Tom Hanks would have something better to do?

Then there is The Time Traveler’s Wife. How could a story about a man who consistently travels back in time to other points in his life (in a moment he can go from 40 years old to five years old) make a decent movie? The answer: it doesn’t. I actually planned to take the risk of tainting one of my favorite novels by watching Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams’ love affair on the big screen, but I did not even have time. It seemed to be out of the theaters before I ever realized it was in theaters.

I’m definitely not advocating that everyone boycott any movie made out of a book. Many books are turned into wonderful movies. A current example is The Informant, which I highly recommend. I also have high hopes for The Lovely Bones, for which I saw a preview this weekend that made my heart jump out of my skin. I never read the book, but after I saw this preview, I wanted to see the movie and read the book. The preview just looked so young-adult-meets-freaky-thriller, and it stars the actress who played Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls. I love her — talk about a pistol Grandma. And it looks like she recreates that persona in The Lovely Bones.

I am not wholeheartedly against the practice of making movies out of books. It just scares me that the film industry seems to be becoming more and more dependent on books as inspirations for storylines, and many of these movies just would have been better left as books.

Hopefully the current influx of novel-based movies won’t last much longer. But what if it does? And what if it gets worse? What if more and more movies come out that are not based on original ideas, but on novels, and eventually, these are the majority of movies that are produced? Yes, it may seem like a crazy notion.

But then again, I also used to think it impossible that a movie starring Rachel McAdams wouldn’t win the hearts of audiences everywhere.