Just See the Movie: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Part IV:

 Like a student trying to get out of reading the book by seeing the movie, I decided, while browsing through the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die that for many of the listings, just seeing the film version may be preferable to trying to slough through the book. After you see the movie, you can then decide if the book interests you enough to read it or not.  

1. The Age of Innocence

2. Casino Royale (2006 version, which is the film version that actually follows the book--and represents the only Fleming/Bond book on the list--so if you're a Bond fan, you'll probably read every book, if you're not, you're probably not interested, period.)

3. Closely Watched Trains

4. Death in Venice

5. Day of the Dolphin

6. Far from the Madding Crowd

7. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

8. Get Shorty

9. The Go-Between

10. Jakob the Liar

11. Like Water for Chocolate

12. Lolita

13. The Lost Honor of Katrina Blum

14. Madame Bovary

15. Mansfield Park

16. Of Human Bondage

17. Rashomon

18. Quo Vadis 

19. Requiem for a Dream

20. The Shipping News (This book by Annie Proulx makes the 1001 list but Brokeback Mountain doesn't.)

21. Sometimes a Great Notion 

22. The Black Dahlia (which isn't considered that good a movie, which may make one suspicious of the quality of the book)

23. The Graduate

24. The Big Sleep

25. Things Fall Apart

26-27. Dangerous Liaisions (and its sequel Valmont)

28. In Cold Blood

29. The 39 Steps

30. The Tin Drum

31. Breakfast at Tiffany's

32. There have been so many versions of, and riffs on, Tarzan. The 1918 silent movie is considered the most faithful to the book, and it only dramatizes the first half, while the second half was adapted into another silent film that is now lost--but whether the many media adaptations justify reading the book or not, may be a decision left after determining how much one enjoys spending time in the Tarzan universe.

33. Wings of the Dove

34. A Town Like Alice (adapted into a TV mini-series, and whether the series is available or not, and whether one enjoys the series or not, may determine whether one thinks reading the book is worthwhile)

35. Z (The people who made the selections for 1001 Books appear to have been especially fond of modern Greek literature, while ignoring the great classic Greek literature--this is one of at least three modern Greek novels on the 1001 list, but this one and Zorba the Greek are better remembered as classic movies.)