I had seen the movie version of this before I read it... and since I really like the movie, I thought I would like the book too. And I did like the book, but the movie differed a lot from the book. For one thing, the main character doesn't build a time machine for his dead fiancee... he just builds it because he can and he wants to time travel. Although, they don't change (at least, I don't think they did) any character names, so in that way the movie was true to the book. It was a really interesting read... a bit dry at times, but overall very enjoyable.