The written word is and always has been powerful. Words move us to tears. They fill us with joy and dread. A single word can even inspire us to go out and achieve great things. When you can compile stretches of great words and provide us with a compelling narrative, well, now you've got yourself a great book. Then Hollywood comes calling, looking to adapt and bring your words to life and the results are often, well, mixed. Sometimes a book can be too impenetrable to adapt properly. Film and television can create great things but they can also serve as butchers. The trick is to find a compelling story and marry it off to a visual creator who understands the essence. The adaptation can be different but it must maintain the soul. What we're doing here, since we all know Hollywood will NEVER stop poaching the great stories for our (their) benefit, is outlining five books or book series that should be adapted for television. That's the thing, isn't it? Sometimes movies are just wrong. Books, many books, need the room to breathe and allow their stories to unfold for hours and hours. Movies need to get out of our hair in under three hours and even that's pushing it. Nope, television is where it's at for books and if we're lucky, some of these five will be heading our way.