Books are notoriously hard to make into movies though. Can be done, but often the cuts and changes are so drastic that the movie (or tv series) becomes just a shell of the book.
Yet some of the better movies made were based on a book. You really need a screenwriter just as good (if not better) as the author of the book to make it really happen.
My favorite Stephen King adaptations were from his shorts vs novels. Shawshank and Stand By Me are deserted island movies for me. But I agree, short stories are just long enough to put a concept out there with just enough to establish characters, motives, plots, yet leave enough room to expand on for the movie version without conflicts from deviating from canon.
