Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in adaptation of Matt Haig's upcoming “How to Stop Time” #book2movies

From Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

I follow British author Matt Haig on Twitter mostly because he’s both funny, sympatico with my political bent, and frank in his revelations about his own depression, how he recovered, and continues to recover, helping his audience understand mental health issues, broadening our understanding both of what it is and those who suffer from it. His book on the subject, Reasons to Stay Alive is on my TBR pile. Haig is also the author of several works of fiction including Humans, his acclaimed sci fi novel; A Boy Called Christmas about Father Christmas (Santa) as a child which is being developed for film as is its sequel, The Girl who Saved Christmas; The Last Family in England, a retelling of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 with the protagonists as dogs; and Dead Fathers Club based on Hamlet. 

The author has a new book coming out in July, How to Stop Time—the title comes from Reasons to Stay Alive— a book that Benedict Cumberbatch’s production company SunnyMarch, together with StudioCanal, has already picked up the movie rights for! In a lovely bit of synchronicity and what the author calls “a glorious coincidence’’ Haig says he pictured Cumberbatch as Tom Hazard, the protagonist of the novel when he was writing! Hazard, on the surface an ordinary 41 year old London-based history teacher, is actually hundreds of years old, having lived through everything from Elizabethan England to the jazz age in Paris.

Haig is thrilled Cumberbatch is actually starring in the film, telling the Guardian ‘‘There is no one else with that same mix of intensity or mystery’’ and that he had to pinch himself ‘‘because it is like my dreams have come true.”

Cumberbatch devotees will likely feel the same way! Adding another one to my TBR pile. 

I’m currently on page 38 of The Bell Jar, the acclaimed Sylvia Plath novel which is also headed to the screen with Kirsten Dunst directing and Dakota Fanning starring as Esther. 
How about you? What are you reading? What’s at the top of your TBR pile? I’m all ears.