Hmm... I'm not sure I'm expecting them to be exactly alike... just that one is, sometimes, missing something that the other had which I *liked* best about that story.

And I'll admit that I can't separate them.

I liked the Bourne movies much better than the Bourne books, but they're still related even without the plot differences. I liked the both Stardust the movie and the book, even though their plot lines were immensely different and even some of the major characters had essential characteristics changed.

It's just for both LotR and the Golden Compass, things that were important for me in the books were left out and there wasn't something that made up for it in as big a way.