I went and bought the LP yesterday, the one by Jeff Wayne. My father bought it in the late 70s or early 80s. There was a remake of it with Liam Nielson as the narrator a few years back, but I got the Richard Burton version. It is interesting because I cannot think of any other book that has been turned into a concept album. There are books that get turned into plays, films, opera, even ballets, but not concept albums. There are songs about books, like Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, and Killing an Arab by The Cure, but not concept albums.
The book is also famous for having been turned into a radio play by Orson Wells. Lots of books are adapted for radio, but this was slightly different it was presented as live reporting, or at least a number of listeners thought it was real and started panicking.
I did not actually like the book very much. It was interesting to think or read about, but as a read I found it quite flat. I much prefer the concept album.