This week’s topic is literary crushes, which I don’t really do. I’m not much for romance and don’t really have much interest in falling for people who don’t exist. It’ll just further frustrate me to deal with real people. So instead this week I’m sharing some of the characters and authors I’d love to meet.
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I’d love to meet both Aziraphale and Crawley. Aziraphale because he owns a bookstore and has been alive forever so probably has read every book ever published and would be aces at giving me perfect bookscriptions (book prescriptions, I don’t care that that’s not a real word it should be). Crawley because he would just be fun to go drinking with. I’ve always wanted to meet Matilda, mostly when I was a child because I really really wanted to meet another kid who loved books as much as I did. Trevor Noah seems like someone who would be great to hang out with. He’s smart, and funny, obviously, but I also suspect he’s got a pretty good perspective having experienced some… interesting things in his life. I also want to meet his mom, because she is a total badass. I would love to meet Tracey thorn because I have nothing but respect for the woman. She’s one of those famous people who really seems like just a normal person. Being famous is just a job to her, and is far less important than making music or art and even less important than her family. She’s an amazing writer and whip smart, too.
I adore Helene Hanff. She’s tough, smart, independent and fucking hilarious. She has the sharp-edged kind of humour I most appreciate and I feel like we would have been great friends. I’d like to meet both Alan Bennett and the Queen as written by him in this book. I suspect both would be among the few to understand my utter devotion to books, and as much as I have very little else in common with them, that would be more than enough. Jenny Lawson is my favourite person I haven’t met. She has gotten me through more than one tough period in my life, and I’m sure she will again. She manages to completely capture what it’s like to be ill and mentally ill and a parent, but also to somehow be super funny about it. When life feels perilously close to breaking me, she’s where I turn. Mark Watney is an easy answer because he’s both smart and funny. Also resilient and good in a crisis, and let’s face it, I’m like a walking one of those most of the time, so he’d be good to have around.
Here’s a childhood flashback. As a kid I devoured Trixie Belden books. Weirdly, I keep discovering other people who felt the same even though the books were already out of print by the time I discovered them more than thirty years ago. I’ve always wanted to meet Trixie. I’ve always kind of wanted to be Trixie, if I’m honest. Reading and listening to Desmond Cole is pretty amazing. He is eloquent, intelligent, informed and absolutely unwilling to pretend things are different than they are to make his audience comfortable. So much respect. Akala is similar – he has spent his life learning about his history and sharing what he has learned. He has endless patience for explaining things that shouldn’t need explanation and doing so in measured tones. And finally, I’d love to befriend the protagonist from Ellmann’s epic novel. She seems a lot like me, really. I think we’d get along.
What about you guys? Are there any characters or authors you’d love to meet and hang out with? Were you a Trixie Belden fan when you were a kid?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.
Matilda would have definitely been a friend of mine! I adore her and I didn’t have many IRL friends who like to read the way I did. It would have been fun to have reading parties with her 🙂
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Me too! I still don’t have any IRL friends who read the way I do. Hence this blog!
Ah yes, I would love to meet Aziraphale and Crawley, and spend time in Aziraphale’s bookshop! Also bookscription should totally be a word. And yes, I would have loved to have met a kid like Matilda when I was a kid.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/31/top-ten-tuesday-331/
I wish there were more kids who love to read even half that much. I had such a hard time finding friends who loved books and got more excited by a bookshop than a trip to a carnival or water slides (I liked them, but you can’t take a book with you!). I would lose myself in bookstores for HOURS. Literally. The joy!
I’ve been quite lucky that I’ve always been able to find friends who love books, though it wasn’t until I was at secondary school that I met my best friend who has super similar taste in books to me.
Aw, that’s lovely! I had friends who loved books or loved specific books in my childhood, but often that was one of the only things we had in common so the friendships didn’t last. Now, as an adult, I haven’t found that many readers, and particularly who read the same kind of books I do. The ones I have found are often busy with life and either don’t have much time to read, or don’t have the time to discuss what they read regularly. So I get scattered discussions about books, which is great, but I don’t have a friend who knows all the books I’m talking about and has read any! Except my parents at times. Which is also awesome! I’ve been lucky to have this online space to discuss, though, so that has filled the void!
It’s definitely much harder to find reader friends as an adult, I’ve just been very lucky in that respect! It is lovely having an online space full of readers too 🙂
I’ve actually made real life friends out of online connections, so I’ve been very lucky as well!
That’s great!
I’m happy to see Aziraphale and Crowley on your list this week! They would be so cool to hang out with. 🙂
Check out my TTT
Right? It has been pointed out to me that Good Omens is a problematic book (It’s been over a decade since I read it, and I have noticed that I had a tendency not to notice all the problematic elements in my reading when I was younger – I’m working on it), but I still remember loving those two!
Great topic! Here is my post-https://paigesofbook.blogspot.com/2021/08/top-ten-tuesday-book-characters-i-want.html.
Thanks!
I like your twist on this week’s topic. I may try it myself.
http://www.rsrue.blogspot.com
You’re welcome to it! 🙂
Honestly, we’re in the same boat here. I love what you did with your twist!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-quotes-about-crushes/
Thank you! I tried to do the prompt. But it was the most disgruntled, mediocre post ever and made me miserable just trying to write it. So I figured sharing that with the world would not be helpful! 🙂
I loved Trixie Belden when I was younger. My introduction to her was the fact I had a couple of my mom’s books on the bookshelf in my room when I was a kid.
When you get the chance, I hope you can stop by my post and check it out: https://readbakecreate.com/characters-i-would-love-to-have-a-drink-with/
I’m hoping to introduce my kid to her the same way! I don’t enjoy them now like I did when I was a kid, but man was I a fan back then!
My mother loved Trixie Belden and so I got Trixie Belden books for every birthday and Christmas. Yes, I’d definitely be friends with Trixie.
Lucky! I had one friend who read them as well, and we’d both troll antique and used book stores any time we went anywhere (I grew up on a small island with very limited literary sources) and then trade them back and forth!
Ducks, Newburyport has been on my TBR for so long now! I really must get around to reading it! And The Queen in The Uncommon Reader was so sweet!
These are my fictional crushes, some formed years ago, others more recent!
Ducks definitely isn’t for everyone, but I had to read it, and being forced to give it a real chance paid off. I would recommend the audiobook though, particularly if you can listen on a faster speed. That way it kind of washes over you – it’s a great one to have on in the background when you’re doing other things, because there’s only a really loose plot, the rest is interesting, but not something you have to follow closely. I loved the Queen as well! I loved that she found a new version of herself in books and that they became such an important part of her life. Just sweet!