I've heard many people say this book is far and beyond better than the famous Hayao Miyazaki film adaptation. Personally, I can't exactly agree. I think I love them both equally well. They're different sides of the same coin, I suppose I could say. I feel that, overall, the book has a much lighter, more whimsical, fairy-tale-esque tone, while the movie takes things a bit darker at one point to make the happy ending shine more. The movie melded the original story with Miyazki's unique artistic flairs to build something similar, yet different from the original source. I'll have to revisit the movie now that I've read the book for further comparisons.