The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

I enjoyed The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug more than I thought I would, though I did expect to at least like it.  I found An Unexpected Journey a little long. Though this second movie was only a few minutes shorter than the first, it felt shorter. There weren't as many scenes of the group crossing the countryside. There was a lot more action.  Perhaps there was more action in the movie than was in the actual book, but after An Unexpected Journey I've kind of given up on The Hobbit movies being like the book.  It's similar enough and though Legolas was not it The Hobbit I enjoyed seeing him and his bow. However, (SPOILER) love triangle with a dwarf? Really?  I like it, but don't like it at the same time.  I know they probably added the female elf to get a female into the movie, but only to be in a love triangle.  Hmm...

There were a lot of things I loved about this movie.  It was beautiful.  I actually really liked the elven prisons. I thought Legolas's relationship with his father was interesting and the King's perspective on the outside world.  I loved Bilbo.  I loved the dwarves staying with Kili... I love Kili in general.  I loved the piles of gold and the things peaking out of the gold.  I love that the movie kept me excited.

I was sorry that I didn't get to see The Desolation of Smaug in theatres.  Timing and children were at play here.  It looks like it would have been worth it.  I'm glad to have finally seen the second Hobbit movie and I'm looking forward to the third.

Let's Go! My Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way

I'm doing this week's Top Ten in order to challenge myself.  Before compiling this list, I didn't think I read a lot of books that involve travelling and I was right.  It's not something I've ever looked for specifically.  After looking at the books I've read, I'm going to tweak this list a little.  I'm going to make this a bit more about "journeys" than about "travel", though they will still be a type of physical journey.  Here are my Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way, in no particular order:

1. Canada, by Richard Ford - Going from a town in Montana to the middle-of-nowhere Saskatchewan can be quite interesting.

2. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, by Sophie Kinsella - Becky is excited to go to Manhattan and manages to bring all her London problems with her.

3. Prodigy, by Marie Lu - Traveling through dystopic America, an interesting contrast between two sides/extremes of the country.

4. Fever, by Lauren DeStefano - Another pair traveling through a different dystopic America, one that's really unsettling and possibly even more dangerous.

5. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis - Takes us through Narnia.  I'd love to visit.

6. World War Z, by Max Brooks - We travel around the world, post-Zombie War, aka World War Z.

7. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel - If you count floating around in the ocean as travel.

8. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien - They certainly travel far and there's a lot of walking.

9. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King - The Ka-Tet travels farther than any other in Mid-World.

10. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger - TIME Travel.

What books have you read about travel?  Do you have any recommendations for me?

Amazing Books From Long Ago

This week The Broke and The Bookish have asked what are my Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger. The only trouble I had with this list is remembering which books I read before I was a blogger.  I've been blogging since 2006 and that's a lot of books.  Then, I also had trouble narrowing it down to ten.  But here are ten favourites that have stayed with me over the years.  I plan on re-reading some (all) of them eventually.

1. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

2. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

4. Kindred, by Octavia Butler

5. The Lord of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkein

6. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

7. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

8. Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro

9. The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

10. Haroun and The Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie

I'm going to sneak in an honourable mention of books 1-6 of the Harry Potter series.

What books did you love before blogging?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

 *Vague Spoilers

I was looking forward to seeing The Hobbit:  AnUnexpected Journey this week.  It was okay.  The Hobbit is currently sitting at 65% on Rotten Tomatoes and that’s about right.  It wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely not the epic it was trying to be.  The movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes long.  The movie could have easily been a succinct 2 hours if they took out all the shots of them walking.  It felt like every five minutes we had to watch them walk, and then walk some more and maybe run and ride on ponies, then walk a little more.  It’s a journey, it’s right there in the title, we don’t need twenty shots of them walking the countryside.  It’s pretty and everything, but could you just get to the trolls!  Honestly, I spent the first half of the movie waiting for the troll scene. 

I read the book and there’s a whole lot of stuff in the movie not in the book.  Peter Jackson has done the reverse of what happens to most book to movie adaptations; he’s added stuff instead of taken away.  Maybe that’s part of my problem and the problem of other people who have seen the movie, all the extra stuff is getting in the way of what I want to see.  Also, the novel, The Hobbit was the first book, it wasn’t a “prequel,” so those scenes of foreboding about Sauron and all the badness in Mordor didn’t happen in the book.  There was no round-table discussion of a darkness growing in the land.  So much of the extra stuff just got in the way of me getting to see some trolls.

There was a lot of the movie that I did like… like the trolls!  I thought that entire sequence was awesome.  I loved the personalities of the dwarves.  They are a unit, but they are individuals too.  I loved the fight/battle scenes.  They were fluid and fierce.  The movie as a whole was beautiful.  Every shot, every angle, every colour seemed to be chosen with care.  The landscapes were natural and vibrant.  The actor who played Bilbo was great.  Ian McKellan as Gandalf was as good as ever.

In the end, I liked The Hobbit, but I felt it was overdone.  Sticking to the source material would have made the movie more fun.  I don’t want to get repetitive or go off on another rant.  I’ll just say it was enjoyable and leave it as that.

* I got a little carried away with the movie posters.  I really like them.

Who's The Richest Fictional Character This Year?

Forbes Fictional richest 15 people are out.  Well, it was actually out on the 23rd.  I'm a bit slow.  Here they are:

1. Smaug

2. Flintheart Glomgold

3. Carlisle Cullen

4. Jed Clampett

5. Tony Stark

6. Richie Rich

7. Charles Foster Kane

8. Bruce Wayne

9. Forrest Gump

10. Mr. Monopoly

11. Lisbeth Salander

12. Tywin Lannister

13. C. Montgomery Burns

14. Robert Crawley

15. Jo Bennett

I had to look up 12, 14 and 15.  I also posted last year's list.  Scrooge McDuck, last year's number 1 isn't even on the list this year.  Smaug came up from last year's 7th place finish.  Also, how is Lisbeth Salander on this list?  I've only read the first book, maybe I need to read the other two?

From Forbes: "Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character’s source material, and where possible, valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we seek to identify comparable fictional public companies. All figures are as of market close, April 1, 2012."


Where I saw it first:  Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

The Hobbit (Graphic Novel Adaptation)

It has been a long time since I read J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit.  Influenced by a review I read at The Book Mine Set, I decided that I would read the graphic novel adaptation of The Hobbit, by David Wenzel and Charles Dixon.  After all, it was just sitting on a shelf.  (I bought it for my husband about four years ago.)  Some of what John at The Book Mine Set said, plus my own memories of the original novel, made me want to see (read) for myself.  Even though I had been planning on reading something else, it was a graphic novel and those don't take long.

I think The Hobbit adaptation is the longest graphic novel I've read.  I haven't read a lot, but I've been reading a few each year for the past while.  Enough to think that at 134 pages, it's long.  It wasn't even just the page count.  There were a lot of those descriptive/narration boxes everywhere (I don't know what they're actually called).  I'm used to the pictures telling the story, with dialogue bubbles and the occasional box.  It didn't make the novel bad, it just made it take a lot longer than I thought it would.
Reading The Hobbit graphic novel, I found myself having similar issues to the ones I had with Dracula.  It was a combination of knowing what would happen, plus not being sure if i was remembering it right and wondering if there were changes made in the adaptation.  It's been over ten years since I read The Hobbit.  It looks like I might have to read it again.  Especially with the movie coming out in December, I want to make sure I remember it right.

One, possibly minor problem i had while reading it, Why did I keep expecting the drawings to look like the actors from the movie, especially Elrond?  The book is separate from the movie.  Maybe part of that issue was that I expected the elves specifically to look different.  Not necessarily ethereal or wispy, but they looked so much like humans, that I had a difficult time identifying them immediately.  Otherwise, I thought the art was just fine.

If you like Tolkien's The Hobbit and you like graphic novels, you may like this book.  I liked it, but I don't think it really changed or enhanced my connection to the original story.  Would I read it before or instead of the original novel? No. It's good, but no way that good.  It was an okay little diversion and reminder of a great movie to come.

I Want More!

First my post published before it was ready, then it was deleted altogether.  I also can't get rid of the background...  This post did not go smoothly...


The Broke and The Bookish really made me think this week.  I wasn't sure if I could make it, but here are the Top Ten authors I wish would [have] write[n] more. Except for the first book, they are in no particular order.

1. Harper Lee - She wrote one of the best books of the twentieth century, To Kill A Mockingbird. She's in her eighties now, with no plans to ever write a second book.
2. Lauren DeStefano - Oh, wait...  After I read Wither, I was so sad that there was nothing else by her, now I'm eagerly waiting.
3. Khaled Hosseini - It has been five years since A Thousand Splendid Suns was published, one of my favourite novels. 
4. J.R.R. Tolkien - He wrote some literary criticism and started other things, but nothing like Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit.
5. Emily Brontë - Love it or hate it, Wuthering Heights is an English classic.  It is a dark, moody story and I would have loved to see what else this Brontë sister could have created.
6. Alice Sebold - It has been five years since, The Almost Moon. The Lovely Bones was intense. She' only 48, What's next?
7. J.K. Rowling - How difficult must it be to even begin something new after the massive success of Harry Potter?  I do hear there is something new in the works, but who knows when that will come out.
8. Douglas Adams - I loved the Hitchhicker's series. I should read The Salmon Doubt, my husband owns a copy.
9. Stieg Larsson - I think the only mystery writer I like.
10. Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar was amazing. She also wrote brilliant poetry, but I can't help that she wrote more novels.


Who do you wish wrote more?

It’d Be A Nice Place To Visit, But I Wouldn’t Want To Live There

This week’s Top Ten from The Broke and The Bookish: Top Ten Settings In Books (All those real or imagined locations/worlds you loved reading about OR settings you think would be perfect in a book). So, not all these places are where I’d actually like to live, but it would be interesting to see them the way I imagine. Some of them are easier to visit than others. These settings, I think, are all places that really contribute to the story; they have their own character or personality. So, in no particular order, my Top Ten Settings in Books.

1. Panem, from The Hunger Games Trilogy. I’d only like to go here if I had no risk of getting hurt. Each district seems to have its own personality. The Capitol sounds like a crazily over-indulgent city.

2. The English village Samantha Sweeting ran away to in The Undomestic Goddess. I don’t remember the name of it and I can’t seem to find it on the interweb, but it sounds just lovely. This village let Samantha find herself.

3. Staples. Yup, that’s right, Staples. That big box store with all the office supplies. Staples is the setting for Douglas Coupland’s, The Gum Thief. I adored this book. Making the emotional turmoil of the two main characters take place while they work at their job at Staples is just brilliant!

4. Bon Temps from the Sookie Stackhouse Series. It’s just so hot and mysterious.

5. Middle Earth. Do I really need to explain this one?

6. Narnia. Do I need to explain this one too?

7. Mid-World is the world of Roland, the last Gunslinger from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I wouldn’t want to live there since it’s falling apart, but I’d have liked to see it in its prime. Now, the strangest, scariest, deadliest things happen there.

8. Faerûn is the world of Forgotten Realms. It’s all magic and legend. There is good and evil, but still the possibility of change.

9. The Cottage that Mikael Blonkvist lived in during The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (minus the serial killer). It just seemed like a good place to read and write and get away from what’s bothering you.

10. Ancient Greece, which is the setting of so many stories. I was thinking particularly The Penelopiad, from Penelope’s point of view. Atwood’s take on it is interesting.

Where would you like to see?

The Best and Worst Book to Movie Adaptations For The Crazy Blog Hop

This week Jennifer at Crazy-for-Books gets her prompt from Britta from I Like These Books:  "What book-to-movie adaption have you most liked? Which have you disliked?"

Not too long ago (well, in February), this was a Top Ten Tuesday list. There are quite a few on that list that want to take the top spot. So I’m going to give you three. I really liked the adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Interview with the Vampire and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. You can look back at the list for the reasons why.

The worst one is easy. The Time Machine. It had nothing to do with the book! Nothing! It was so terrible; it made me want to cry. Well’s book is brilliant. It’s a fantastic examination of class structure and what it could possibly lead to. I spent the entire movie waiting for it to be like the book and except for the names of a few things, it never was. It was such an utter disappointment. I’d recommend the book without question, as for the movie, I wish I could strike it from memory.

Now, I’m having Blogger problems again. It was working when I was at home last night, but doesn’t want to work for me at the office (not that I should be blogging at the office). I hope Blogger fixes its problems soon.

Top Ten Tuesday: REWIND! -- A Past Top Ten Tuesday Topic (or Two)

It was so difficult for me to choose. I didn’t start participating in Top Ten Tuesday until the 13th topic. Then, for about 6 weeks from December to January I was feeling a bit rough from my pregnancy, so I missed a bunch of topics there too. I don’t participate every week either; sometimes the topic doesn’t grab me or I don’t have enough time. That left me with a few appealing options. So I decided to do two.

This is the first list: Top Ten Books of 2010. They’re pretty much in order (this is probably the only time that will happen). I didn’t do any kind of year-end wrap up. It wasn’t ever something I was interested in doing. However, after seeing What Red Read’s quarterly post, I might change my mind. Anyway, List One.

1. Dead and Gone, by Charlaine Harris
2. No Future For You, by Joss Whedon, etc
3. The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
5. The Dark Tower: Treachery, by Stephen King, etc
6. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
7. Under The Dome, by Stephen King
8. The Helmet of Horror, by Victor Pelevin
9. The Gum Thief, by Douglas Coupland
10. Android Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy & Ben H. Winters

This is the kind of list I’m usually more interested it. Characters are so important in a book; an okay plot can be propelled upwards by an excellent character. I actually found this one a bit difficult because I ended up with more than ten. So here are my Top Ten (Thirteen/Fifteen) Favourite Book Characters in no particular order.

1. Offred from The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
2. Elphaba from Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch Of The West, by Gregory Maguire
3. Drizzt Do'Urden from The Legend of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
4. Danica from The Cleric Quintet, by R.A. Salvatore
5. Katniss Everdeen / Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Game Trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
6. Sookie Stackhouse / Pam, from The Southern Vampire Mysteries, by Charlaine Harris
7. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice / Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen / Seth Grahame-Smith
8. Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
9. Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but Stieg Larsson
10. Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
11. Princess Elizabeth from The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch
12. Violet Baudelaire from A Series Of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket
13. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling

When I hit 13, I had to stop myself from typing. There are so many more great characters I could have come up with. Oddly enough most of my favourite characters on this list are women. Is it a coincidence? I thought of Darcy and Colonel Brandon, but opted for the female leads instead. I also thought of Eric from the Southern Vampire Mysteries / Sookie Stackhouse series. There’s also Harry & Ron from the Harry Potter series. There are several fantastic characters from Lord Of The Rings… Okay. I’m just going to stop.

 

The Forbes Fictional 15 Richest People

I saw this over at Stargazing.  It's really interesting.  The Forbes article is more extensive and there are links to the biographies of each character.

1. Scrooge McDuck Uncle Scrooge comics $44.1 billion
2. Carlisle Cullen Twilight $36.2 billion
3. Artemis Fowl II Artemis Fowl novels $13.5 billion
4. Richie Rich Richie Rich comics $9.7 billion
5. Jed Clampett The Beverly Hillbillies $9.5 billion
6. Tony Stark Iron Man $9.4 billion
7. Smaug The Hobbit $8.6 billion
8. Bruce Wayne Batman $7.0 billion
9. Mr. Monopoly Monopoly games $2.6 billion
10. Arthur Bach Arthur films $1.8 billion
11. Jo Bennett The Office $1.2 billion
12. C. Montgomery Burns The Simpsons $1.1 billion
13. Chuck Bass Gossip Girl $1.1 billion
14. Gordon Gekko Wall Street $1.1 billion
15. Jeffrey Lebowski The Big Lebowski $1.0 billion

I don't know how they figured out that Smaug had $8.6 billion or that Carlisle Cullen has more money than Bruce Wayne, but it's a fun list to explore.  The "explanation" at the end of the article says:

"Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character’s source material, and where possible, valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we seek to identify comparable fictional public companies. All figures are as of market close, April 1, 2011."

Final valuations are calculated with a grain of salt, and a willingness to break our own rules."

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Top Ten Tuesday: Dynamic Duos!

Who makes a great team? Whether Best Friends, Lovers or Siblings, these pairs make the story move. Thanks to The Broke and The Bookish for another great theme. In no particular order, my top ten:

1. Cadderly & Danica from R. A. Salvatore’s The Cleric Quintet. They love each other, they fight the bad guys, they sacrifice. Exactly what you’d want from a fantasy couple.

2. Elinor & Marianne Dashwood from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. They are a fantastic pair. Better than the Bennetts, in my opinion. Austen really captures the closeness of sisters.

3. Darcy & Lizzy Bennett from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

4. Roland & Jake from Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. A dark duo, surrogate father and son; an interesting pairing from King.

5. Lisbeth Salander & Mikhail Blomkvist from Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It’s an interesting relationship. They solve a mystery and catch a bad guy, but that’s not what makes this couple so interesting.

6. Elphaba & Galinda from Gregory Maguire’s Wicked. Otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North. Elphaba and Galinda have a love/hate relationship. Elphaba encourages Galinda to see beyond her own selfishness and vanity, each brings out something new in the other.

7. Louis & Lestat from Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire. This is another love/hate relationship. Another dark duo. They’re a pair I couldn’t resist.

8. Harry & Ron & Hermione from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I couldn’t pick two out of the three. They’re all just too great and great together.

9. Sam & Frodo from J.R.R. Tokien’s Lord of the Rings series. This is the love of two people who endure war and hardship together. Together, they saved Middle-Earth.

10. Mariam & Layla from Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. They don’t save the world, but in a way, they fight darkness. They comfort each other while being forced to live under an oppressive regime. They make life easier by being there for each other. There may be tragedy in their story, but there is also love.

Honourable mention to Eddie & Susannah of the Dark Tower series. I think they’re a great couple, but as the duo from those books, Roland and Jake win out. Another honourable mention goes to Toby & Ren from The Year Of The Flood. Though they spend much of the story apart, their coming together is vital.

Who are your favourite pairs?

Did They Do It Right?

 The Broke and The Bookish want to know, what are the Top Ten Book To Move Adaptations?


1. Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone - All of the Harry Potter movies really, but I think this one was most like the book.

2. The Lord of The Rings Trilogy – What can I say? I loved these movies.

3. The Hours – I know some people didn’t like it, but I thought it was well done.

4. Twilight – I’m not saying it was the best movie or anything, but it was a lot like the book.

5. Interview With The Vampire – This was one of the few times I read the book after seeing the movie. There were definite differences, but I think they really captured the feeling of the book.

6. Memoirs of a Geisha – They left out a lot of the beginning, which I had really liked from the book and part of the end, but I thought the movie was really well done.

7. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe – The movie encouraged me to start reading the books.

8. The Princess Bride – This is based on my husband’s opinion, as I haven’t read the book yet, but he says it’s exactly like the movie.

9. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Based on my brother and his girlfriend’s opinions as I haven’t seen the movie yet.

10. Pride and Prejudice – I also haven’t seen this yet, but based on what people have told me, plus what a ton of bloggers have said, it’s great.

I found this one a little difficult. I kind of cheated with 8, 9 & 10. It seems I’ve either read the book or watched the movie, but I haven’t done a lot of both. Sometimes I feel that if I’ve seen the movie, what’s the point of reading the book since I already know what’s going to happen. That’s why I haven’t seen 9 & 10. I had to finish the books first because I didn’t want the movies to ruin the reading experience.

What order do you read/watch in, book first or movie first?

Books I Wish I'd Read as a Kid

1. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by: C.S. Lewis
2. The Hobbit, by: J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Goodnight Moon, by: Margaret Wise Brown
4. Where The Wild Things Are, by: Maurice Sendak
5. Alice In Wonderland, by: Lewis Carroll
6. Peter Pan, by: J.M. Barrie

Some of these books I've now read, but some I still haven't.  An honourable mention goes to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, (as well as the rest of the series). I would have read it as a kid, but it was published when I was seventeen, then I didn’t actually hear about it until I was 19. I did read it a couple years later and now, I absolutely love the series.

I couldn’t make it to ten this week. I honestly read a lot of good books as a kid, Anne of Green Gables, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and an assortment of Dr. Seuss and that’s just what I can think of off hand. I just bought The Monster At The End Of This Book for my daughter because I loved it so much as a kid. I hope that my kids grow up with the love for reading I did.

Thanks to the Broke and the Bookish for another great Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Inspirational Characters

I’m back doing the Top Tens from The Broke and The Bookish. They have a great topic this week, Inspirational Characters.

1. Éowyn – The Lord of The Rings, The Two Towers & Return Of The King (J.R.R. Tolkien)
2. Offred – A Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
3. Mariam – A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hoseini)
4. Elphaba – Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West (Gregory Maguire
5. Elizabeth Bennet – Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
6. Susannah Dean – The Dark Tower Series (Books 2 to 7) (Stephen King)
7. Princess Elizabeth – The Paper Bag Princess (Robert Munsch)
8. Hermione Granger – Harry Potter Series (J.K. Rowling)
9. Danica – The Cleric Quintet Series (R.A. Salvatore)
10. Atticus Finch – To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

Honourable Mentions to Lisbeth Salandar from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre.

After re-reading the list, I realize that all but one of my characters is female. Maybe they’re who I identify with? About half of them live in male-dominated societies. Most of the characters deal with some kind of oppression. In their own ways, they’re all fighters. They fight for the truth, what they believe in, their own ideals. Maybe I like a person who can overcome the odds.

Top Ten Tuesday: My BFFs!

In no particular order:

1. Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I love her; she’s so smart and grows into such a wonderful person.

2. Cuthbert Allgood from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. He’s Roland’s best friend. He has a dark sense of humour. He’s attractive, but next to Roland, often falls into the “friend” category. Sorry Cuthbert, I’d want you to be my friend too.


3. Susan Cleath-Stuart (Suze) from Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series. While I love Becky Bloomwood, she’d drive me crazy. Suze is a loyal and true friend through all of Becky’s craziness.


4. Eowyn from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. She kicks ass! In a male dominated world, she doesn’t listen to her uncle; she goes onto the battlefield and does herself and us proud.


5. Laila & Mariam from Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. I think they deserve a mention. They are maybe not my best friends, but each is the best friend the other could have.


6. Pam from Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampires / Sookie Stackhouse series. She is such an interesting individual. I’m sure she’d had great stories to tell.


7. Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. He’s so wicked. I need a wicked friend.


8. Danica from R.A. Salvatore’s The Cleric Quintet. Another strong female character, who kicks ass. I like a person who is as powerful at love as they are at fighting.


9. Willow Rosenberg from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight. I know she’s a television character, but she’s a graphic novel character now too! With the freedom of a graphic novel, her powers are growing and becoming more complex, just as she is as a person. She’s not just Buffy’s sidekick anymore.


10. Princess Elizabeth from Robert Munsch’s The Paperbag Princess. Another strong, ass-kicking lady. I see a trend.


I’m feeling a bit better, so I thought I’d throw this list together. I know it’s late in the day, but I hope there are a few people who enjoy it.

Added Later:  I'm still so out of it, I forgot to say, Thanks to the Broke and The Bookish for another great Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Criminals, Villains and Degenerates

In no particular order:

1. Jarlaxle from R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt series and now his own Sellswords trilogy. Jarlaxle is a male who survived in a female dominated society by forming his own mercenary group. He’s innovative and intelligent. He might even turn into a good-guy one day.

2. Draco Malfoy from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I love a villain who’s not all bad. Draco just had a bad father who followed a bad man. In the end, he sees the light. I like redemption.

3. Bertha Antoinetta Mason, aka: Mrs. Rochester from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. I don’t know what’s worse than having a crazy lady standing in the way of your true happiness.

4. Lucy Steele from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Speaking of crazy ladies… well, she not actually crazy. She’s just an opportunistic b*&%^, who gets in the way of Elinor and Edward’s happiness.

5. George Wickham from Jane’s Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I don’t think he’s all bad. He made some bad choices and had to give up his desire for love and replace it with the need for money.

6. Gollum from J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord Of The Rings. What can I say about Gollum? His obsession brought about his destruction.

7. Count Olaf from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. He’s just plain nasty.

8. The man in black/Walter o’Dim/Marten Broadcloak/Randall Flagg from Stephen King’s The Stand, The Dark Tower series, etc. He’s the man of many faces. He wreaks havoc, though for a moment, he loved his enemy’s mother. He’s the ultimate villain for King, I think, as he keeps using him in many different books.

9. Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984. He is the unseen villain, the omnipresent but never met force. His representative in Winston’s story is O’Brien. Someone who watches and uses your own inner most thoughts against you.

10. Hatsumomo from Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha. She is vindictive and spiteful. I felt sorry for her only for a moment, she lost everything. Mostly, though, I hated her.


Honourable mention to Voldemort.  I figured he'd be on a few lists though, so I didn't need to write about what a crazy bad guy he is.

After reading my list, I think that I like villains who have some kind of redeemable quality to them, something that makes them not all bad. I also like villains that are just totally, plain evil, something to be afraid of. Who’s your favourite baddie?

Top Ten Fictional Crushes

Thanks to The Broke and The Bookish for hosting such a fun meme.

Except for number one and two, they are in no particular order.

1. Roland Deschain from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I’ve loved him since The Gunslinger and will hopefully continue to love him, even though they’re doing some crazy movie/television thing with the books.

2. Drizzt Do’Urden from R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt.

3. Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. It started with Interview with a Vampire and grew with The Vampire Lestat.

4. Mikael Blomkvist from Stieg Larrson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. He’s my new crush.

5. Fitzwilliam Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudices.

6. Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen (but really Seth Graeme-Smith’s) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Everything I liked about Lizzy in the original, plus she can kill zombies and kick ninja @$$.

7. Eric Northman from Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series. I think I always liked him, but Dead to the World really made me fall for Eric.

8. Wolverine/Logan from the X-Men.

9. Danica from R.A. Salvatore’s series The Cleric Quintet.

10. Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

I thought this was going to be difficult and it was a bit. I’m not a swooner (except for Roland, I’ll always swoon for you), so I had to think about some of these guys (and girls) for a while. Each person on the list has qualities that make me happy.

When I told my husband what this week’s top ten was, he wanted to share a few crushes with me too. He didn’t reach ten, but here are my husbands top six.

1. Storm/Ororo Munro from the X-Men.

2. Hermione from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

3. Catti-Brie from R.A. Salvatore’s series, The Legend of Drizzt.

4. Danica from R.A. Salvatore’s series, The Cleric Quintet.

5. Arwen from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

6. Buttercup from William Goldman’s The Princess Bridge.

My husband reads a lot of fantasy. These are six great females and I like them a lot too. One even appears on my list!