I hear you when you say that movie adoptions can be really awful, most of them are bad. I saw tv adoption of Pride and Prejudice BBC series from 1995 and was totally impressed even though I read the book long after that. I was 10 years old then and didn't know anything about Jane Austen. I read a book maybe twice in my life but this serial I watched so many times and I can never get enough of it.
When I've read Tom Sawyer at school I hated it so much because I found it so boring but only until I didn't see its tv adoption. I remember we had it as a long cartoon or something and I was really excited and thought "why did I think this book is boring?" I've never read anything else by Twain though. We had a lot of Serbo-Bosnian authors that I've read a lot.

As for the Austen's literature, I'm pretty sentimental about it. I have always wanted to live in England, drink tea in the garden or have a long walks. I'm totally old-fashion-minded even though I don't look like that .
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and info about Austen.

~Minjaˇ~