Book vs. Movie

First question: If you watched the movie and read the book which did you do first?

Second question: How do you think the two compare?

Personally, I watched the movie on a plane. I thought it was pretty boring, badly paced, and uneventful. With some good acting, especially at the end with Carey Mulligan. But I thought Andrew Garfield was very flat. And Keira Knightley was playing Keira Knightley.

Then I read the book. Now, I really enjoyed the book. I wish it would have delved more into the fantasy and the cloning but I understand that wasn't the author's focus. I think the novel did some really beautiful, productive work. But it just let me down a little with the ending and the lost potential. I definitely feel like these are themes someone else needs to pick up and run with. But as I read the book, I was struck by all the events they didn't put in the movie (and not for a lack of time since a lot of the movie is silence or long pauses or scenery/background). I think they really should have kept in more of the school and not altered the part with the teacher as all the meaning was stripped from the first part of the movie. Also, while the book wasn't exactly peppy and bursting with color it still had life and momentum. I found the film so dry and gray and lifeless.