As we  applaud the nominations and approach the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars,” held this Sunday and hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, we take a look at all the upcoming movies appearing in theaters this spring that stemmed originally from books, many of which were bestsellers. With a wide variety of movies awaiting audiences nationwide, expect to see thrillers, classics and inspiring young adult movies.

I Am Number Four, out earlier this month, marks the birth of a new science fiction series about an extraordinary teen on the run from enemies in an action-packed thriller. The film is based on the book series by Pitticus Lore. The movie was recently released almost simultaneously to the public with the book series.

The Eagle, based on author Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical adventure novel, The Eagle of the Ninth, written in 1954, premiered February 11th. It is the first of a sequence of young adult fiction novels that are connected through a Roman Empire family who inherit an emerald seal ring bearing the insignia of a dolphin.

If you’d prefer a psychological thriller, check out Unknown, based on the novel called Out of My Head by Didier van Cauwelaert, starring Liam Neeson. In this plot, the lead character wakes up after a car wreck in Berlin and discovers that someone has stolen his identity along wih his life. Unknown opened in theaters February 18th.

Jane Eyre, hitting the big screen March 11th, features Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender as the two star-studded leads in this romantic drama based off of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel. In case you don’t remember the storyline from Jane Eyre, Jane works for the cold-hearted Edward Rochester and ends up fleeing his house after learning of a terrible secret he kept hidden. Read Brontë’s classic book for free on BookRix before watching the movie!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, coming out March 25th, is a family comedy movie based off the second book in the bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, written by Jeff Kinney. This storyline features middle school student Greg Heffley and his older brother Rodrick, who’s trying to ruin Greg’s life as “chief tormentor.”

Keep an eye out for this summer’s release in July of One for the Money with Katherine Heigl, who plays an unemployed and newly-divorced woman who lands a job at her cousin’s bail-bond business, where her first assignment puts her on the trail of a wanted local cop from her romantic past. Also starring Jason O’Mara and Daniel Sunjata, among a great star-filled cast. One for the Money is based on the 1994 crime novel by Janet Evanovich, long-time best-seller, appearing consecutively for 75 weeks on the USA Today list of 150 best-selling novels!

And last but not least, Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, one of the many bestselling novels in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series announced to premier in theaters this fall, November 18!

If you love talking about movies based on books, check out the “Books Made Into Movies” group and join in the dialog on BookRix!

As many of our community members already know, BookRix recently launched it’s beta phase for our newly introduced social media application, SocialBook©, an online feature that allows writers anywhere in the world to collaboratively participate in building an e-book from either their Facebook, Twitter or BookRix profiles, simply with connecting their accounts. The free-to-use SocialBook© application sets a new standard in collaborative writing and offers limitless opportunities and uses for online content, in a format that can be saved, stored, shared and even embedded like a YouTube video, with real-time updates and no limit on the number of co-authors.

The BookRix SocialBook© app now gives social media users an easy way to collect posts, tweets, stories, conversations and ideas that previously would have disappeared into digital dust. Writing on the internet has never been this social before!

Plus, with the ViewRix software features on BookRix, readers can comfortably read SocialBooks© like any other book on BookRix, with the same fun built-in sharing and usability tools to comment, forward or rate the title.

Social writing and content archiving is now truly an option with the SocialBook© application. By using any specified topic #hashtag, all participating #hashtag posts, tweets or comments by invited online users will be fed directly into a specific SocialBook©, with automatic updates of content every 15 minutes. Love the idea of saving every post? Go unfiltered and set-up the SocialBook© app as a collection tool for all posts or tweets by simply choosing not to set a specified hashtag – either way works!

A great feature that users should know about is that SocialBook© authors can control who can participate, how their SocialBook© is seen, whether it’s only readable online or as an e-book download, and whether it can be embedded or not. BookRix users owning an iPad, smartphone or a similar mobile eReading device also have the ability to download SocialBooks© from the BookRix mobile site as well.

There are endless topics where the SocialBook© might be the perfect way to save and share collaborative writing efforts including Group Writing, News and Events, Weekly #hashtag Chats, Daily Tips, Favorite Quotes, Haiku Poems and much more. Check out the SocialBooks© the BookRix community has already come up with. What are some ideas you might have for a SocialBook©? Join us and Socialize Your Voice by writing in a SocialBook© today!

Ready to get started? Check out our overview SocialBook© video tutorial here, or our tutorial snippets on the BookRix YouTube Channel to learn more about this fun new feature from BookRix.

The top ten finalists have been announced in the BookRix Get Published free writing contest!

And they are…

1. Gooduklady: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby! with 118 votes

2. Marsha84: Awakening Summer with 117 votes

3. Michaelmpacheco: Summer Terror in Texas with 101 votes

4. Joeparente: Failing Well with 89 votes

5. Tatejackson: The Undead Heart with 80 votes

6. Writer723: To Where You Are with 65 votes

7. Lazarus67: The secret of the house on dead end lane with 63 votes

8. Selishxiii: Innocence of a Demon with 60 votes

9. Ruthus7: Moonlit Night Shadows with 59 votes

10. Constantine.eternal: The Eternals with 58 votes

Community Wildcard Pick: The Redemption of Marvin Fuster by Felixthecat

The judges are reviewing the finalists and will choose the top three winners of the contest. Good luck to all! Top three Winners announced February 23, 2011. Here’s a look again at what the three winners will receive:

The grand prize, generously provided by CreateSpace, is a Total Design Freedom Advanced Publishing Solution, which will include all of the following services valued at $2,567:

• Total Design Freedom Custom Book Interior
• Unique Book Cover
• One Round of Comprehensive Copyediting
• Promotional Text Creation
• Press Release Creation with Distribution
• Plus a Complimentary Upgrade to Pro Plan

CreateSpace also will provide the book a free CreateSpace ISBN if the winner of the Contest does not already have an ISBN of his or her own. The winner of the “Get Published” BookRix Contest will be able to choose any of the following sales channels through which he or she would like to enable the book for sale: the Amazon.com website, a CreateSpace eStore, and the CreateSpace expanded distribution channel.

The second place winner will receive a prize of $500 cash, with third place winning $300.

The judges had a tough time choosing the top three winners for the BookRix Romance Writing Contest, but here are the final winners: first place goes to “O’Hara’s Hat” by Djreid; second place goes to “The Queen Mystique” by Sereni; and third place goes to “Chance Contacts” by Gingermeggs. Congratulations to the winners!

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The winners of the Romance Writing Contest will each receive a $300 Nordstrom gift card! Read what the judges had to say about the top three winners’ written works and meet the judges who judged the BookRix Romance Writing Contest.