The Scouring of the Shire is of course the most important part of the book.... it is only then that the evil of the War of the Ring is brought home to Frodo et al.... we see the fall of Saruman, and his rejection from heaven, and we see for the first time that the War was not "good versus evil" but magic versus modern.... evil has not, and will never be vanquished.... now it just comes in different, more familiar forms.... there is no more dark lord, just the darkness that is in anyone (remember, a lot of hobbits are on Sharkey's side...) and there are no more elves and Wizards to protect us... even the heroes are settling down... so, to answer the question, I much prefer the books dealings with Saruman's end... and in my opinion, the altering of that part for the film made a mockery of the whole exercise....