My girlfriend and I watched Blade Runner tonight, and I really applaud her for being able to follow most of it on one viewing without first having read the book (lord knows I couldn't). But our viewing was peppered with my own nerd commentary on the matter, so that might've helped. She's not usually into sci-fi, so I'm quite glad she enjoyed it.
As much as I love the film, there are just so many cool bits that Scott omitted that really should have been there. The whole Mercerism/Isidore thread would've been too clunky to do on film, so I don't miss it. But the bit from the book where Deckard is taken to the android police station on the other side of SF (and the whole character of Phil Resch) should have at least been filmed. Even if they were too lengthy for the theatrical cut, they would've been awesome to see in a more complete cut. They were the most tense and engrossing parts of the book for me.
If you've read the book, what are your thoughts on the movie? What's your favorite cut? I'm partial to the 1982 international theatrical cut. Ford's narration is just cheesy enough to achieve a sensible balance (and evidently he was so opposed to recording a narration that he intentionally did it as cheesy as possible).