I'm in a casual book club (don't judge) who like to read books before their movie version is released, and then we watch the movie together. The books are selected by members who are film buffs and usually added around the time when details drop that filming has started or that movie release is a few months away, so I assume they pick the books based on how they read about the film.
Good thing about reading books close to the movie release date is that they become hella cheap on Kindle. I use bookgorilla and bookbub to get emails about daily discounted kindle books in the categories I like.
Many magazines and movie blogs release a list of books to films during the start of the year and then the start of the seasons ("read these books for the fall season before movie is released").You can check huffpo and buzzfeed for this. Lists can be romance or young adult heavy, (so proceed with caution) but I'm more of a post apocalypse and psychological thrillers girl which means less pickings for me.
I heard about Gone Girl from readers who were pissed off and once I read the reviews, I decided to get the 3 book set because it was cheap and the author was a good writer.
