Tuesday, March 15, 2011

If you could choose your literary family


This week the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish ask us to pick 10 literary characters we wish could be part of our family.  As per usual, the only order to this list is the order I came up with the characters.

1. Thursday Next from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde - I'm fairly certain Thursday has been on about 1/2 of my lists but what can I say? I love the character and I'd love her to be an aunt of mine.

2. Lizzy Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen - I finally got around to reading the original Pride and Prejudice so the Bennet family is fresh in my mind. I'd love to have a sister like Lizzie. She's witty, kind and even within such a restrictive time period, seems free to do and say mostly as she pleases.

3. Biff from Lamb by Christopher Moore - Funny, sarcastic and extremely loyal, I'd love to have Biff as a brother. He seems like a pain to his siblings when he's young, but really, who isn't a pain in the ass to their brothers and sisters at that point. So I think I'd want him to be the older brother.

4. The Weasley family from the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling - Yeah, I'm counting the whole family in this one, cos really if you take one you have to take them all. The family is so loving without being sappy, how could you not want to join them? Plus they can do magic! Besides, I already have the hair to blend in. I'm thinking they'd be fantastic to have as aunt, uncle and a mess of cousins.

5. Jonathan Strange from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - While we're on the subject of magic and how awesome that would be in (the right) family members, I can't forget Jonathan Strange. A gentleman that knows magic. He'd be a fun uncle

6. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee - Atticus is full of so much wisdom I would love to have him in the family and have access to his brain whenever I need advice. This is to say nothing of my dad, but if I'm going with a fictional one, it'd be this guy.

7. Scout Finch from To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee - And while we're on this subject, I'd like to have Scout Finch as a little sister or younger cousin. She's not precocious like Oskar from EL&IC, who I thought of adding to the list but realized he'd bug the hell out of me. She's a normal but very bright and loving kid.

Well I made it to 7. Most of the characters I like to read are not ones I'd want anywhere near me, so I had some trouble coming up with ones I'd actually like to be related to.  Who's on your list?