XOXO Gossip Girl - you know you love me

So in 2008 I started to watch Gossip Girl season one and like most other females I fell in love with the cast and series instantly.  Fast Forward to about 6 months ago when I came across the original book series by Cecily Von Ziegesar as a second hand book stall.  I immediately snapped them up as I had never seen them before and I go to a lot of markets and car boot sales.  I managed to buy the first 4 but that was all they had, so I immediately went on line and scowered Ebay and Amazon for the rest of the series.  I now have all of them and I am only 3 away from completing the whole series.

After recently watching the finale of the TV version of Gossip Girl I cant help feeling that the series went a bit off track and didn't seem to have any focus towards the end which is a shame  because it had such an amazing beginning  but the story lines started to become a bit rediculas and I felt that they got a bit lost.

I have decided that I enjoy the books later in the series and prefer the beginning of the TV series compared to the end.  There are some interesting friendships in the books that I have found never appeared in the tv show but also in the TV show relationships formed that are not in the novels.  For example my favourite part of the book series so far has been the unlikely friendship between Vanessa and Blair when Blair moves into Vanessa's Williamsburg appartment to live with her.  I would have loved to see this happen in the TV show however they seemed to substitue that friendship to a more romantic link between Dan and Blair instead which I also enjoyed in the TV show, but in the books they dont have any link to each other at all.  The other difference is the relationship between Chuck and Blair does not seem to exist in the novels but was the main love story throughout the whole of the tv show that held the audience captivated.  In the book it is only touched on and hinted that something might happen (although there are still 3 books to go so you never know Chair may still have a chance to happen).

I am enjoying the book series a great deal and I am glad I have read them as they are proving to be better towards the end than the tv show.  If the TV show had followed the structure of the books they may have been easier to follow in the latter series.

What do you think do you have a film and book or a tv show and book series you want me to compare....go ahead give me the challenge.