Is there a book that has made you do something you wouldn’t do otherwise? For me, it’s E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View.

A quick Google search will show you that “La Dolce Vita,” meaning “the sweet life,” is a popular name for Italian restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops. The term has taken on a life of its own ever since Federico Fellini’s film of the same title was released in 1960.

François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” is the frontrunner in the French New Wave Cinema and a staple of film courses. The 12-year-old protagonist, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), is one of the most unforgettable characters ever created in film. He has stayed with me for many years.

More often than not, movies adapted from novels are disappointing. Perhaps it’s impossible to capture the complexity and nuances of a 300-page (or longer) novel in two hours. I chose my top 15 book-to-movie adaptations based on how well the directors interpreted the novels in film. The movie may not be 100 percent faithful to the book, but it successfully preserved the novel’s essence.

From the 1942 Alfred Hitchcock film, “Saboteur,” to the Matt Damon-starrer “The Adjustment Bureau” (2011), Lady Liberty has been thrilling, scaring, and entertaining moviegoers over the years.

Like most film buffs, I was devastated when the news broke that Philip Seymour Hoffman died of accidental drug overdose on Feb. 2. He was 46. Described by the New York Times as “the most ambitious and the most widely admired American actor of his generation,” Hoffman was best known for “Capote” (2005), which earned him the Oscar for best actor.

The film starts with Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), a folk singer, performing in a club. It’s the 1960s in Greenwich Village in New York City. He sings hauntingly about being hanged, a foreboding of what’s to come. Indeed, after his performance, he gets beaten up by a stranger at the back of the club.