Flavorwire

So if you’re celebrating your birthday today, you share it with Charlaine Harris, she who gave the world the insanely successful Sookie Stackhouse novels and thus, indirectly, also the joys of True Blood. As you’ve probably noted if you read Flavorwire at all regularly, we’re borderline obsessed with True Blood, and its success got us thinking of the slew of TV shows based on books that have emerged in the last few years — and, in particular, those that have defied the old adage that the book is always better. We’ve collected a bunch of shows that we reckon have transcended their literary origins — can you think of any other shows that are better than the books they’re based on? (And before you go all crazy in the comments, a disclaimer: we said “better.” We’re not necessarily claiming the books in question are bad — although some most definitely are — just that the TV series they spawned was/is better. OK? Carry on.)

True Blood

So, yes, we’ll be honest and admit straight out that we’re huge suckers for True Blood the TV show in all its absurd, camp glory — the accents, the supernatural silliness, the blood-soaked Lilith running around naked. We love it so much, in fact, that Harris’s books can’t help but pale in comparison, especially as they kill off our favorite character (we’re not saying who, in case you haven’t read them) relatively early on. The fact that Harris’s prose is kinda horrible — a problem we’ll encounter repeatedly on this list — doesn’t help matters any.