Top Ten Tuesday - Literary Best Friends

We boldly proclaim that each day of the week preceding Wednesday shall henceforth be known as “Top Ten Tuesday” (please update your calendars)!  This historic decision has come about after the discovery of The Broke and the Bookish blog.  Each week fellow bloggers are invited to ponder and rank a new literary related subject.  Because of our similar fondness for lists we are all too excited to participate. 

This week’s subject for consideration is:  “Top 10 Characters I’d Like to Be Best Friends With”

   1.      Melanie Wilkes (Gone with the Wind) – We were soooo tempted to pick Rhett with this one (we still think we would have done well as part of his entourage), but it’s impossible to overlook Melly.   She has every characteristic we’d want in a friend and we’d promise not to take her for granted like Scarlet and Ashley.

   2.      Charlie Bucket (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) – Seriously, he owns an entire Chocolate factory!  Oh, and we’re sure his personality is endearing too…

   3.      Georgia Nicolson (Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging) – After reading this novel our life-long ambition is to become part of the ACE gang.  We totally want to cast aside our annoying American Midwestern accent for a British one.

   4.      Frodo Baggins (The Return of the King) – We would love to sit down and have a prolonged conversation with Frodo right before he boards the ship at the Grey Havens.  Sam and Gandalf are welcome to join us if they’d like – the ale’s on us.

   5.      Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) – Oh, to be able to stroll along a garden path alongside Lizzy.  Despite her tendency to be a tad bit prejudice, we’d accompany her to any social and maybe she’d invite us over to peruse Darcy’s library!  

   6.      Thursday Next (The Eyre Affair) – Funny, eccentric, and always caught in a web of literary related hardships.  We want to join her as a LiteraTec and with any luck; she’ll teach us how to jump into a novel.

   7.      Harry, Ron, and Hermione (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) – Since the very beginning we wanted to pal around with Harry and Co.  Unfortunately, as Dumbledore would have never let us into Hogwarts, Deathly Hallows would have been our best chance to befriend the chosen one.  We’re relatively confident that we could have lent a helping hand in the Horcrux search.  

   8.      Scout Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird) – We would love to have an opportunity to spend a summer with Scout, Jem, and Dill.  We’d even volunteer to ding-dong-ditch Boo Radley.

   9.      Peter Pan (Peter Pan) – Unfortunately, this one would be a conditional friendship.  As long as Peter could convince Tink to share a little of her pixie dust, we’d be friends.  Otherwise the fly‘in green kid’s a little too arrogant and obsessed with pirates for our liking.

   10.  Dirk Pitt (Atlantis Found) – We admit he’s rather shallow and his one liners are quite predictable – still, there’s no one we’d rather have on our side if a German industrialist ever decided to separate the polar ice shelves and take over the world.

Also, we’re particularly fond of followers on this blog… give us try and we will be sure to return the favor!

Back to the Classics Challenge 2011

We’ll, it’s been 5 long days since we last signed up for a 2011 reading challenge. Today we’re on a mission!

It is with unbridled enthusiasm we can proudly reveal “Back to the Classics Challenge 2011” as our 3rd reading experiment for next year. Thanks to Sarah Reads Too Much for putting together this challenge! All the fantastic details can be found ather website by clicking here!

In order to complete the challenge, you must choose a novel that fits into each of the 8 categories.  We’ve decided to go out on a limb and choose our titles in advanced.
The goals to complete:

1.     A Banned Book – Ulysses by James Joyce

2.     A Book with a Wartime Setting (can be any war) – Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

3.     A Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) Winner or Runner Up – March by Geraldine Brooks

4.     A Children's/Young Adult Classic – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

5.     19th Century Classic – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

6.     20th Century Classic – Shogun by James Clavell

7.     A Book you think should be considered a 21st Century Classic – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

8.     Re-Read a book from your High School/College Classes – The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Be sure to visit frequently (and follow) so that you can stay updated on our progress!

Greatest Novel Involving Butt-Kicking Fairies

Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer

Evan’s ESS = 7 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = out of 10

Content = PG (Adult Content, Fairy Violence, Semi-evil Child Masterminds)

“If I win, I’m a prodigy.  If I lose then I’m crazy.  That’s the way history is written.”

Why: Artemis Fowl has been described by its creator as “die hard with fairies”.  Do we even need to say more?  I suppose we probably should… 

This novel is easily one of our (Evan’s) top 5 young adult fantasies...  Just to be clear, Evan doesn’t have fantasies about young adults, he just really likes this genre of literature.  Anyhoo, the premise is great and the fact that an elite fighting squadron of elves, centaurs, and dwarfs are central to the plot is even greater.  The mayhem starts when an eleven year old criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl II, decides to kidnap a fairy creature and steal a most sacred guide book.  It doesn’t take long before the might of the entire underground fairy population is focused on destroying Artemis.  The line between good and evil is blurred as the consequences of greed infect both sides.  Artemis Fowl doesn’t break any new ground in the genre of action / adventure, but what story doesn’t need a few breathtaking action sequences, unpredictable treachery, and an eccentric, yet brainy computer specialist? 

To date, the Artemis Fowl series has spawned 7 adventures, with an 8^th and final book to be released at an undetermined date in the future.  In every book we read we try to glean one important nugget that will help us in our journey through life.  Quite possibly the most profound lessons we’ve learned in a long time are found within the pages of this novel: Don’t go stealing someone else’s books and, only slightly less important, unless you have a death wish, don’t go upsetting the LEPrecon squad.

The World of Blogging - Part 3

Well, another Thanksgiving and in spite of all the warnings from previous years, we have once again gorged ourselves on food.  Quite literally, a neon indigo-ish mixture of blueberry cheesecake and green bean casserole is oozing out our pores (that was pretty discussing, sorry).  Seriously, even getting out of bed is going to present a considerable challenge today.  Our Hope is that we’ll be able to burn off some of those extra calories during this week’s HOP!

This week’s question is: What is your favorite book cover?

This is such a good question because there are so many good covers out there.  If we (Evan) were forced into making a hasty decision it would have to be The Hobbit. 

Not very original or thought provoking but there you have it.  If you’ll excuse us now, we’re going to go and lovingly hold the copy on our bookshelves…

As always, thanks to Jennifer over at Crazy-For-Books for hosting the book party!

Also, we’re particularly fond of followers on this blog… give us try and we will be sure to return the favor!

Greatest Underappreciated Love Story

A Room with a View – E.M. Forster

Evan’s ESS = 8 out of 10

Erin’s ESS =  9 out of 10

Content = (Adult Content, Snobbish Attitudes, Indecision, Skinny Dipping)

“You say Mr. Vyse wants me to listen to him, Mr. Emerson.  Pardon me for suggesting that you have caught the habit.”

Why:  We’re probably still basking in the afterglow of this wonderful novel, but A Room with a View may have just rocked into our (Evan’s) top 10 best love stories of all time.  Yet, when we search other best of lists, this novel is nowhere to be found.  In fact, visitors to GoodReads.com even voted more frequently for Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s, The Little Prince.  While both are touching novels in their own respects, how do they possibly compare with the same novel that Pam, Oscar, and Toby reviewed in an episode of The Office?  Truthfully, the list on the aforementioned website loses nearly all of its credibility by placing I Capture the Castle all the way down at number 79.  Either the entire literary world is screwed up, or we are, and this crazy voice in the back of our head is telling us that it’s not the latter.  Great, now we’re all worked up and sweaty.

Anyway, (does it seem like we often begin the second paragraph of our reviews trying to get back on track?) regardless of what others think, A Room with a View is a good stinkin’ book.  The novel is really a coming of age commentary of high society England at the turn of the 19^th century.  The main character, Lucy Honeychurch, is forced into making numerous decisions that will ultimately define her as a woman.  Enter all around good guy, George Emerson, and get ready for the fireworks.  Similar to reading Dickens and Austen, the modern reader must stay alert in order to catch every witticism and profound critique.  For us the novel’s lone flaw was that we didn’t feel the same incredible connection to the main characters as we have in some of the other great love stories.  We’ll allow A Room with a View to simmer before casting a final judgment, but for now we plan to try our best to ignore any critics.

Editor’s Note:  There is a Graphic novel out in Literature Land entitled, A Room with a Déjà View.  Be sure to check your titles, people…

Gothic Reading Challenge

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, another exciting reading challenge!  For us, this is a no brainer….  Gothic books rule!  All the details can be found by clicking the picture of the creapy castle and thanks to Susan B. Evans for hosting!

There is nothing better than a great Gothic read - crumbling old castles, mysterious legends, shadowy characters, supernatural beings and unexplainable events, make for some of the most haunting and captivating reading imaginable.

There are four levels of participation to choose from:

A Little Madness - Read just 1 novel with Gothic elements.

The Darkness Within - Read 5 novels with Gothic elements.

A Maniacal Frenzy - Read 10 novels with Gothic elements.

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know - Read 20 novels with Gothic elements.

We’ll be striving to achieve The Darkness Within level, but there could definitely be some upside potential as the year progresses.  We’ll be cross-referencing our multiple reading lists over the next week and hope to divulge our reading line up for this challenge shortly.  Stay tuned.

2011 Reading Challenges

In previous posts, we’ve explained our feelings on the world of book blogging in general and how, up to this point, we’ve only dipped our metaphorical big toe into the water.  Well, today, everything changes with the introduction of our first “challenge”.  For those unfamiliar, challenges are really nothing more than feats of strengths for readers.  We say bring it on!  This is not so much out of respect for our physical prowess, but our unbridled ambition to read every book every published.  For us, turning down a challenge would be a sign of weakness and as everyone knows, Vampires and Werewolves can sense vulnerability…

All this said to highlight that fact that over the next few weeks you will see us posting a considerable number of challenges that we’ll be undertaking throughout 2011.  We’re still nursing a mild hernia and significant hangnail in our right index finger, but otherwise we are in peak reading condition.  We’d encourage you to join us in some of the challenges as we’ll promise to keep the trash talking to a minimum.

Without further ado, we’re excited to announce the 2nds Challenge hosted by Fewmorepages.blogspot.com as our first ever display of might.  The levels are detailed below and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we’re going for the All you can eat level (this could be subject to change if we end up with indigestion or gas at any point during the meal).    

• Just a spoonful - Read 3 books that are 2nd in a series or the second time you've read the author. 
• A few more bites - Read 6 books that are 2nd in a series or the second time you've read the author.
• A full plate - Read 12 books that are 2nd in a series or the second time you've read the author.
• All you can eat - Read 20 books (or more) that are 2nd in a series or the second time you've read the author.

Click on the picture to sign up and get the rest of the happy details!