Most of the Best Picture Oscar nominees were books before they became movies.

Six of the nine nominees are based on books: "Moneyball," "The Help," "Hugo," "The Descendants," "War Horse" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

Ironically, the favorite, "The Artist," not only has no printed predecessor, it is a silent movie. The movie with the best box office numbers is "The Help," based on the best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett.

While it's great that books are inspiring movies, it seems to point to a lack of good original screenwriting. "The Artist" is actually nominee, as is "The Bridesmaids" and "Midnight in Paris" (inspired by writers like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald). Two of the nominees are less well-known: "Margin Call" and "A Separation."

Every picture that has a Best Actress nominee is based on a book except perhaps "The Iron Lady" --although there is an "Iron Lady" biography whose author was consulted for the movie. (And yes, the book does talk about how Margaret Thatcher had several strokes and suffers from dementia.)

If the Oscar announcements make you more curious about the books, check out the descriptions at Shelf Awareness.