Book vs Movie

I watched the movie, The Notebook, on DVD yesterday and it was practically nothing like the book! I don't remember that carnival stunt, Allie's mother didn't have that much character, why did they leave out the crab dinner?, there was NO Martha, and that wasn't the ending ... just to name a FEW differences. If you watched it without reading the book you would still get a strong love story but having read the book I couldn't help point out the inconsistencies.

Which do I like better then? The book I suppose, but both was good in its element. The film version had to make appeal to drama and so the changes did that while the book stood as the original version and made it's own impact on the readers.

I wonder what affect it would have on me if I saw a film version first before reading the book it was based on? I'll have to try that one day and let you know.