| Book | Film adaptation(s) |
| 84, Charing Cross Road (1970), Helene Hanff | 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) |
| Act One (1959), Moss Hart | Act One (1963) |
| Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971), Spike Milligan | Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1972) |
| American Sniper (2012), Chris Kyle | American Sniper (2014) |
| Angela's Ashes (1996), Frank McCourt | Angela's Ashes (1999) |
| Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (2004), Nick Flynn | Being Flynn (2012) |
| The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), Malcolm X and Alex Haley | Malcolm X (1992) |
| The Basketball Diaries (1978), Jim Carroll | The Basketball Diaries (1995) |
| Before Night Falls (1992), Reinaldo Arenas | Before Night Falls (2000) |
| Belles on Their Toes (1950), Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey | Belles on Their Toes (1952) |
| Between a Rock and a Hard Place (2004), Aron Ralston | 127 Hours (2010) |
| Born on the Fourth of July (1976), Ron Kovic | Born on the Fourth of July (1989) |
| Bound for Glory (1943), Woody Guthrie | Bound for Glory (1976) |
| Bravo Two Zero (1993), Andy McNab | Bravo Two Zero (1999) |
| Breaking the Surface (1996), Greg Louganis | Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story (1997) (TV) |
| Cash: The Autobiography (1997), Johnny Cash | Walk the Line (2005) |
| Castaway (1983), Lucy Irvine | Castaway (1986) |
| Catch Me If You Can (1980), Frank Abagnale | Catch Me If You Can (2002) |
| Cheaper by the Dozen (1948), Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey | Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) |
| Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) |
| Chopper (1991–2011) (series), Mark Brandon Read | Chopper (2000) |
| Crazy (1999), Benjamin Lebert | Crazy (2000) |
| Day of the Stranger (1989), Novalyne Price Ellis | The Whole Wide World (1996) |
| The Devil's Double (2003), Latif Yahia | The Devil's Double (2011) |
| The Devil's Workshop (Czech: Komando padělatelů) (1983), Adolf Burger | The Counterfeiters (2007) |
| A Diary of A Demonstrator (1983), Soe Hok Gie | Gie (2005) |
| The Diary of a Young Girl (German: Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven van 12 Juni 1942 – 1 Augustus 1944, The Annex: Diary Notes from 12 June 1942 – 1 August 1944) (1947), Anne Frank | The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) |
| Diary of Anne Frank (Dutch: Dagboek van Anne Frank) (1962) (TV) |
| The Diary of Anne Frank (1967) (TV) |
| Anne no Nikki: Anne Frank Monogatari (アンネの日記 アンネ·フランク物語, Anne no nikki: Anne Furanku monogatari) (1979) (TV) |
| The Diary of Anne Frank (1980) (TV) |
| The Diary of Anne Frank (Dutch: Het dagboek van Anne Frank) (1985) |
| Anne no nikki (アンネの日記) (1995) |
| Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) (TV) (mini) |
| The Diary of Anne Frank (German: Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank) (2016) |
| Where Is Anne Frank (2021) |
| The Disaster Artist (2013), Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell | The Disaster Artist (2017) |
| Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia (1988), Joseph D. Pistone | Donnie Brasco (1997) |
| Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot: The Autobiography of a Dangerous Man (1989), John Callahan | Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018) |
| Elegy for Iris (1999), John Bayley | Iris (2001) |
| Enemy Coast Ahead (1946), Guy Gibson | The Dam Busters (1954) |
| Carandiru Station (Portuguese: Estação Carandiru) (2001), Drauzio Varella | Carandiru (2003) |
| Fair Game (2007), Valerie Plame | Fair Game (2010) |
| Finding Fish (2001), Antwone Quenton Fisher | Antwone Fisher (2002) |
| Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), Ben Carson | Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) (TV) |
| Girl, Interrupted (1993), Susanna Kaysen | Girl, Interrupted (1999) |
| A Gloomy Soliloquy (1946), Olavi Paavolainen | Sign of the Beast (1981) |
| Gorillas in the Mist (1983), Dian Fossey | Gorillas in the Mist (1988) |
| Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg (1992), Barry Williams | Growing Up Brady (2000) (TV) |
| Gypsy: A Memoir, Gypsy Rose Lee | Gypsy (1962) |
| Gypsy (1993) (TV) |
| Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman (2005), Jamie Reidy | Love & Other Drugs (2010) |
| Hideous Kinky (1992), Esther Freud | Hideous Kinky (1998) |
| Highest Duty (2009), Sully Sullenberger | Sully (2016) |
| How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2001), Toby Young | How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) |
| I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! (1932), Robert Elliott Burns | I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) |
| I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Maya Angelou | I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979) (TV) |
| I, Tina (1986), Tina Turner | What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) |
| I Was Hitler Youth Salomon (German: Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon) (1990), Solomon Perel | Europa Europa (1990) |
| I'll Cry Tomorrow (1954), Lillian Roth | I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) |
| Iron & Silk (1986), Mark Salzman | Iron & Silk (1990) |
| Jarhead (2003), Anthony Swofford | Jarhead (2005) |
| Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (2005), Julie Powell | Julie & Julia (2009) |
| Lady Sings the Blues (1956), Billie Holiday | Lady Sings the Blues (1972) |
| The Learning Tree (1964), Gordon Parks | The Learning Tree (1969) |
| Leaving Las Vegas (1990), John O'Brien | Leaving Las Vegas (1995) |
| Life Is Not a Fairy Tale (2005), Fantasia Barrino | Life Is Not a Fairy Tale: The Fantasia Barrino Story (2006) (TV) |
| Listen to the Voices of the Sea (日本戦歿学生の手記 きけ、わだつみの声, Nippon senbotsu gakusei no shuki: Kike wadatsumi no koe) (1949), Elyesa Bazna | Listen to the Voices of the Sea (1950) |
| Live from Baghdad (1991), Robert Wiener | Live from Baghdad (2002) |
| Lone Survivor (2007), Marcus Lutrell | Lone Survivor (2013) |
| The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), John Henry Patterson | Bwana Devil (1952) |
| The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) |
| Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words (1975), Johnny Cash | Walk the Line (2005) |
| Marley & Me (2005), John Grogan | Marley & Me (2008) |
| Midnight Express (1977), Billy Hayes | Midnight Express (1978) |
| A Mighty Heart (2003), Mariane Pearl | A Mighty Heart (2007) |
| Mommie Dearest (1978), Christina Crawford | Mommie Dearest (1981) |
| The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish: Diarios de motocicleta) (1995), Che Guevara | The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) |
| Mr. Nice (1996), Howard Marks | Mr Nice (2010) |
| Murder, Inc. (1951), Burton Turkus | Murder, Inc. (1960) |
| My Autobiography (1964), Charlie Chaplin | Chaplin (1992) |
| My Dog Skip (1995), Willie Morris | My Dog Skip (2000) |
| My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Winston Churchill | Young Winston (1972) |
| My Father and Myself (1968), J. R. Ackerley | Secret Orchards (1979) |
| My Left Foot (1954), Christy Brown | My Left Foot (1989) |
| My Life in France (2006), Julia Child | Julie & Julia (2009) |
| My Posse Don't Do Homework (1992), LouAnne Johnson | Dangerous Minds (1995) |
| My Week with Marilyn (2000), Colin Clark | My Week with Marilyn (2011) |
| The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Quentin Crisp | The Naked Civil Servant (1975) (TV) |
| Never Cry Wolf (1963), Farley Mowat | Never Cry Wolf (1983) |
| Nine and a Half Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair (1978), Elizabeth McNeill | 9½ Weeks (1986) |
| One Who Walked Alone (1986), Novalyne Price Ellis | same as above |
| Operation Cicero (German: Der Fall Cicero) (1950), Ludwig Carl Moyzisch | 5 Fingers (1952) |
| Our Cancer Year (1994), Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner | American Splendor (2003) |
| Out of Africa (1937), Karen Blixen | Out of Africa (1985) |
| Papillon (1969), Henri Charrière | Papillon (1973) |
| Papillon (2017) |
| Permanent Midnight (1995), Jerry Stahl | Permanent Midnight (1998) |
| The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy (1981), Elizabeth Kendall | Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) |
| The Pianist (1946), Władysław Szpilman | The Pianist (2002) |
| Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1957), Jean Kerr | Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) |
| Pour en finir avec Octobre (1982), Francis Simard | Octobre (1994) |
| Prisoners are People (1952), Kenyon J. Scudder | Unchained (1955) |
| Private Parts (1993), Howard Stern | Private Parts (1997) |
| Proved Innocent: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four (1990), Gerry Conlon | In the Name of the Father (1993) |
| Prozac Nation (1994), Elizabeth Wurtzel | Prozac Nation (2001) |
| Raging Bull: My Story, Jake LaMotta | Raging Bull (1980) |
| Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case (1985), Alan Dershowitz | Reversal of Fortune (1990) |
| Riding in Cars with Boys (1992), Beverly D'Onofrio | Riding in Cars with Boys (2001) |
| Rocket Boys (1998), Homer Hickam | October Sky (1999) |
| Rogue Trader: How I Brought Down Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World (1995), Nick Leeson | Rogue Trader (1999) |
| A Rumor of War (1977), Philip Caputo | A Rumor of War (1980) (TV) (mini) |
| Running with Scissors (2002), Augusten Burroughs | Running with Scissors (2006) |
| See No Evil (2003), Robert Baer | Syriana (2005) |
| Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), T. E. Lawrence | Lawrence of Arabia (1962) |
| A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990) |
| Seven Years in Tibet (German: Sieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama) (1952), Heinrich Harrer | Seven Years in Tibet (1997) |
| Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003), Roméo Dallaire | Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) |
| The Short-Timers (1979), Gustav Hasford | Full Metal Jacket (1987) |
| The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music (2008), Steve Lopez | The Soloist (2009) |
| Somebody Up There Likes Me (1955), Rocky Graziano | Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) |
| The Story of My Life (1903), Helen Keller | The Miracle Worker (1962) |
| The Miracle Worker (1979) (TV) |
| Helen Keller Monogatari: Ai to Hikari no Tenshi (ヘレン·ケラー物語 愛と光の天使) (1981) (TV) |
| The Miracle Worker (2000) (TV) |
| Black (2005) |
| Soul Surfer (2004), Bethany Hamilton | Soul Surfer (2011) |
| The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949), Maria von Trapp | The Trapp Family (German: Die Trapp-Familie) (1956) |
| The Trapp Family in America (German: Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika) (1958) |
| The Sound of Music (1965) |
| The Strawberry Statement (1969), James Simon Kunen | The Strawberry Statement (1970) |
| A Tale of Love and Darkness (2002), Amos Oz | A Tale of Love and Darkness (2012) |
| The Taliban Shuffle (2011), Kim Barker | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) |
| A Taste of My Own Medicine (1988), Edward Rosenbaum | The Doctor (1991) |
| Then They Came for Me (2011), Maziar Bahari | Rosewater (2014) |
| To America with Love (1976), Abbie Hoffman | Steal This Movie! (2000) |
| Touching the Void (1988), Joe Simpson | Touching the Void (2003) |
| Truth and Duty: The Press, the President and the Privilege of Power (2005), Mary Mapes | Truth (2015) |
| Tuesdays with Morrie (1997), Mitch Albom | Tuesdays with Morrie (1999) |
| Twelve Years a Slave (1853), Solomon Northup | Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984) (TV) |
| 12 Years a Slave (2013) |
| UFO Crash at Roswell (1991), Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt | Roswell (1994) |
| Under the Tuscan Sun (1996), Frances Mayes | Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) |
| The Walton Experience (1978), Travis Walton | Fire in the Sky (1993) |
| Wild (2012), Cheryl Strayed | Wild (2014) |
| The Wolf of Wall Street (2007), Jordan Belfort | The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) |
| Yes Man (2005), Danny Wallace | Yes Man (2008) |