Fourth week and counting! I’m really enjoying participating in these Top Ten Tuesdays hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week, though, I felt the subject rather difficult. I am afraid if I met one of my favorite authors I would either get star struck or they would turn out to be not so perfect, intelligent and charming as I imagine them. I do feel that if I could overcome my sense of awe, I could have some great conversations with a lot of authors – but still, I’m afraid that I would end up feeling that I didn’t hold up my end of the conversation…
- Samuel Richardson. My first choice is a no-brainer. Samuel Richardson is the author of Clarissa and if I got to meet him, we would have a very long, very serious talk about book editing and how one shouldn’t write the longest book in the English language, if one hasn’t got enough to fill it up without repeating oneself. I think it would involved raised voices and maybe a raised finger as well!
- Astrid Lindgren. Astrid Lindgren is one of the authors who gave me a love of reading. Her books were hugely important to me as a child and I’ve read a lot of them, maybe all of them. As I’ve mentioned before, I even named my daughter after the main character in one of her books (Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter). I would like to be able to thank Astrid Lindgren for this.
- Joyce Carol Oates. Oates is one of my favorite authors. She completely blew my mind with the way she writes in Blonde. I’ve read several of her novels since then and although they are not all amazing, they are all good. Oates is a college professor and therefore, I think she has experience helping people along if they suddenly become speechless when in front of her!
- Don DeLillo. I would like the opportunity to sit down with Don DeLillo – and then get him to explain his books to me! I simply don’t get them. And the worst part is that I feel like there’s something there. Something, I would like to understand. It feels like he has some insights and I would love to understand them. I just don’t. But maybe, he could explain them to me!
- Caroline from Beauty is a Sleeping Cat. Three weeks ago, Caroline posted a review of Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate. In her review, she asked, how gruesome does a realistic account have to be. She felt, that Winterson’s book about the trial of the Lancashire Witches in 1612 was too gruesome and went into too much details of torture and more. The comment discussion of this review turned into a great discussion about this subject and Caroline and I have also branched out a bit to discuss Joyce Carol Oates (whom we both love) and her take on violence. I would love to be able to sit down and talk with Caroline about this subject!
- The Doctor from Doctor Who. Yeah, I know, he’s more of a TV guy than a book guy. But there are a lot of books with him, so he counts! And who wouldn’t love to meet the Doctor and get a chance to go with him in the Tardis?
- The Companions from the DragonLance series. I would love to sit down in a comfy chair in from of the fireplace at the Inn of the Last Home and listen to Tanis, Tas, Goldmoon, Riverwind, Cameron, Raistlin and Flint tell their stories while Tika serves up Otik’s famous spiced potatoes… The best of the DragonLance series, especially the books written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, are my favorite cozy reads!
- Paddington. Paddington is the cutest little bear ever! And he always get into trouble. I would love to get to spend a day with him and to see first hand how he gets into all that trouble. I would bring a extra clothes, though! And of course I want to go visit Winnie-the-Pooh too! (Again with extra clothes – honey is sticky!)
And that’s it, I’m afraid…
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The Literary Bunny 
That’s not something I’ve dreamt of… being mentioned among such illustrious names.
That’s so nice of you and I feel pretty much the same, it would be great to be able to actually discuss in “real life”. But it’s also nice to have a good virtual discussion.
I should read Blonde but I never did because I always meant to write about Marilyn Monroe myself and never did. My favourite Joyce Carol Oates is still Solstice.
I haven’t heard of the Dragon Lance series to be honest. Something to check out should I be in need of a comfort read.
Virtual discussions are wonderful too, yes. But it’s in some ways easier to sit face to face and just go with it, let the associations fly and just see where it goes.
I haven’t read Solstice. I love Blonde but I think even JCO almost couldn’t write that book. I remember reading somewhere that she would never write a book like that again.
DragonLance is a light fantasy series based in a shared universe which means lots of different writers write the books – not all good. It was my re-introdution to fantasy as an adult and I just love to curl up with them. Especially the Chronicles trilogy.
Yeah, I’d like to have a nice long chat with DeLillo too. I know I should read Underworld again, but, frankly, I don’t want to. He needs to clear a few things up for me.
I started Underworld years ago – and didn’t finish… I’ve read Mao II and Falling Man and I just don’t quite get what all the fuss is about. I have Underworld on my list of books I want to read this year – but I dread it! I just feel like I need to give him one last chance… But I would like to sit down with him and get him to explain what it is he thinks he’s doing!
I almost put Joyce Carol Oates on my list, I love her writing. And the Dragonlance companions – that is a good choice!
Joyce Carol Oates is such a good writer. It seems more and more JCO fans are emerging – maybe a JCO read-along could be a good idea at some point.
Wouldn’t it just be amazing to hang with the Companions?
I got to meet Tracy Hickman of the Dragonlance books when I was in sixth grade. His niece was in my class so he came to talk to us. I think I’d appreciate it more now than I did then.
I love that you picked Paddington and Winnie the Pooh! – cuteness overload 🙂
And I, too, would love to meet the Doctor!!
I choked on my cup of tea when reading your first comment about Richardson and what you’d say to him. It’s the funniest thing I’ve read all day. And you are so right – how you are keeping going with Clarissa is beyond my comprehension. You must have a lot of fighting spirit…
I’d love to eavesdrop on your conversation with Samuel Richardson, lol! JCO is one of my favorites, too.