Tuesday Top Ten

tuesday top tenTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten of a particular type of character.  I chose to list the top ten geeky characters, be they bookish geeks or tech geeks or just plain geeks, because hey – I’m more than a little geeky myself!  😉

  1. Clay Jannon from Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – A former web-designer, now working in a strange bookstore, he goes on a quest involving ancient tomes and Google.  What could be geekier than that?
  2. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – The quintessential geek girl – smart, talented, bookish, and more than a little bossy, she knows that if you’re in doubt you head to the library!
  3. Violet Baudelaire from The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket – Violet can solve almost any problem with her imaginative inventing skills!
  4. Artemis Fowl from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer – He may be a teenage criminal mastermind, but let’s face it – he’s also a geek…
  5. Colin Singleton from An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – A washed up child prodigy, Colin is on a quest to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability based on data collected the nineteen times he was dumped by a girl named Katherine.  Maybe it’ll predict the success of his next relationship before he gets his heart-broken again.
  6. Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Anyone who feels compelled to steal books, and finds solace in them, is definitely a book geek.  And that’s a good thing!
  7. Robert Langdon from the series by Dan Brown – He may go on adventures that take him all over the world and have him fleeing from assassins, but at the core of his being he really is just a bookish geek.
  8. Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl – Child prodigy, voracious reader, super geek!
  9. Willow Chance from Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan – One of the more recent geeks I discovered and one of my favorites!  Completely obsessed with counting by 7s, botany, and researching medical conditions, she is definitely one of a kind!
  10. Eleanor & Park from Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell – Two for the price of one!  Two completely endearing misfits who are all “wrong”, yet so perfect together in their geekiness!

 

 

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Tuesday Top Ten

top ten names Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten names that we love from book characters.  I guess I don’t generally give character names a ton of thought, so this one took me a while, and I’m sure I missed a great one somewhere, but hey – I gave it a try!

  1. Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Dumbledore, Neville Longbottom, Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – Seriously, what a bunch of fantastic names!
  2. Pippi Longstocking from Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
  3. Pip from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  4. Ebenezer Scrooge from The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  5. Sherlock Holmes from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  6. Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  7. Atticus Finch, Scout Finch, Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  8. Mary Poppins from Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers – OK, Mary alone isn’t all that exciting – but add the Poppins and you’ve got something!
  9. Artemis Fowl from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
  10. Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh from The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

Tuesday Top Ten

top ten series enders Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten best and/or worst book series endings.  This was tough for me, because although it seems like I read a lot of series, I generally don’t have that strong of an opinion on how they end…  But I did what I could…  What series endings did you love/hate?

First, the best:

  1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – OK, probably everybody picked this one, but I don’t care.  The only thing disappointing about this ending was that it was the end.
  2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver – I know some people were disappointed in the ending of this series, but I liked its relative realism – everything doesn’t always get wrapped up tidily!
  3. Pendragon by D.J. MacHale – If you’ve never heard of this series, it’s worth checking out if you are a fan of young adult or fantasy fiction.  I enjoyed it all the way through, even to the ending.
  4. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – In my opinion, the series got a little weak in the middle, but all the things that made me love Artemis were back for the final book!
  5. The Giver by Lois Lowry – Finally!  All of our questions are answered!  I though the final book did a great job of bringing all of the other disparate stories back together and telling the story from a different point of view.
  6. Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness – An engrossing series, amazing from beginning to end!

Now, the worst:

  1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer –OK, the whole series was ridiculous, but at least it was entertaining.  Unfortunately, there’s a point where it just got too ridiculous…
  2. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – I LOVED Hunger GamesCatching Fire got there eventually – but I found Mockingjay disappointing…
  3. Fallen by Lauren Kate – I liked the series when it started, but by the end I was just annoyed…
  4. Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare – I enjoyed the book, it was a fun read, but really?  Could her decisions have been any easier?  Could it all have come out any more perfectly?

Tuesday Top Ten

top ten sequels

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the ten best sequels.  There are plenty of series that I have highly enjoyed, but it is often difficult to pick out the best in series, the sequel that is truly the highlight, and most times I can’t even remember what happened in which book, but I’ll give it a try!

  1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling – It may be the only time that the final book in a series didn’t let me down in some way…  The only let down was that it was over.
  2. Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny – A heartbreakingly beautiful novel, far more about the characters than the mystery, although that is fascinating as well.
  3. How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny – The sequel that I have most anticipated (OK – after the Harry Potter series!) and it did not disappoint!
  4. Son by Lois Lowry – This sequel to The Giver brought together the three previous novels beautifully and answered a lot of questions within an engrossing story.
  5. Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls – This story of the author’s grandmother is gripping and a wonderful sequel to her memoir The Glass Castle.
  6. Insurgent by Veronica Roth – Maybe it’s just because I am anxiously awaiting the final book in the series, but this novel did not disappoint as so many middle books in a trilogy often do.
  7. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larrson – As raw and gripping as the first!
  8. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith – While I have enjoyed all of the books in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, finding the language and cadence of the stories like a mini-vacation, this one has always been one of my favorites.
  9. The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer – This is when some of the first indications appear that Artemis Fowl may actually have emotions…
  10. Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman – One of my favorites of the Moe Prager series, gritty and sad.

Tuesday Top Ten

top ten movie

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books.  And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the books that we would love to see as a movie or TV series, assuming that it was done well!

  1. Book Thief by Markus Zusak – This is actually going to be a movie coming to theaters on November 15!  I’m a little nervous, hoping that they will do the book justice, but I can’t wait to see it!
  2. Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny – Another favorite that is about to hit the screen and is making me keep my fingers crossed!
  3. Commissario Guido Brunetti Series by Donna Leon – I would love to see this character come to life, and the setting of Venice would be wonderful!
  4. Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – Done right, this would make a great movie – touching and horrifying!
  5. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – I would love to see these quirky characters come to life, and a quest full of intrigue, history, and technology would make a great movie!
  6. The Giver by Lois Lowry – There has been talk about this becoming a movie for years now, and it looks like it’s finally going to happen…
  7. Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer – There have been rumors around this series becoming movies for a long time, but hopefully they will finally bring this evil boy genius and the world of fairies to the big screen!
  8. Thieves of Book Row by Travis McDade – This non-fiction historical book could be made into a really interesting historical drama.
  9. The Spellman Series by Lisa Lutz – This wacky set of characters would make for a great comedy/drama with some romantic tension thrown in!
  10. Spenser Series by Robert B. Parker – OK, I know this was a TV series in the 70s but it seriously needs to be redone!  Less corny and without cutting out all the swearing and politically incorrect conversations!