Currently reading the book...

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Having finished the book, I largely stand by what I said earlier - though the book does improve about halfway through, the pace picks up, and the very end is very good (substantially the same as in the film). There are some interesting angles that the film couldn't include due to time constraints no doubt, such as the implied contrast between Renee and Paloma's mother - in the book Renee comes to think of Paloma as the daughter she wishes she'd had, and Paloma's mother, with a PhD in literature, is ostensibly an intellectual but as Paloma notes, her PhD in literature merely means she writes her dinner invitations without spelling mistakes (whereas Renee has no formal qualifications but is 'the real thing.'). Still, the film is very good at picking the very best bits from the book and discarding the rest while still keeping a coherent plot and so forth. The book is worthwhile but there wasn't much in it that I missed in the film, whereas most changes made in the film were improvements either in their own right (such as how Renee is different) or in being better suited for an audiovisual medium (Paloma's videos instead of her diary as in the book). Another element in the book relatively absent in the film is the rejection of bourgeois French culture by Paloma and its deconstruction by Renee - somewhat implied in the film in how they both initially connect with Kakuro and so forth, but dwelt upon more in the book - again, nothing one misses much.
I mentioned earlier something about Paloma being more sympathetic in the film - she's both more humble and more artistic, and also more poetic; definitely makes me go 'I want a daughter like that!' Still, the difference is nowhere nearly as great as in Renee's case, even though the author does conjure up an explanation for her bitterness and hostility, she's too pretentious and bitter to be likeable. In particular, her complaints regarding the building's inhabitants made her seem petty and petulant - more than once while reading I thought that they could've been much worse, that she needed to get out more and maybe then she'd learn it could be much worse. Her financial situation also didn't seem that bad, as she not only lacked no essentials but could indulge her interest in literature and watching art house films.