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Top 5 (or 10) Wednesday


Athena

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This week's topic is: Books For Your Hogwarts House

 

Author's Note:
-- Show your Hogwarts House Pride, and tell us the top 5 books that represent your house!

 

I feel this topic is quite Harry Potter centric, and while I think I know which house I'd be in (though wouldn't be 100% sure), I have no idea what books would apply. To me the differences between the houses aren't entirely clear, I feel in the books Griffindor and Slyterin are well described, yet I feel we know less about Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I think I'd be a Ravenclaw but I'm not 100% sure. I have no idea which books go with it though, that just.. seems odd to me, to be honest. Nor can I take any random character from books I've read and place them in houses the way they sometimes do on YouTube or on blogs.

 

Anyway.. if anyone else knows more about what's meant with this question, please feel free to explain it to me.

 

Failing that I have an alternative topic:

Tell us your top 5 books that represent you the best, with which character(s) you most identify, with whose character(s) you are most like.

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I really can't answer that Harry Potter one, or even the alternative one :giggle: I frequently tend to like characters because they have qualities I don't, rather than identifying with them.

 

However, I wanted to add to the previous one (fandoms) - I used to be a huuuuuge Twilight fan. I even had a bracelet with a crystal and a wolf on it. No idea what possessed me. Also used to be a huge Supernatural fangirl, and while I still adore the first 5 seasons of the show, they're flogging the skeletal remains of a horse that died of old age with it at this stage and I've honestly lost a bit of respect of everyone involved in it now.

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Not sure about the Harry Potter one, but as for a book that best represents me - I'd have to go for The Hitch-Hikers guide to the galaxy, in particular  the character of Arthur Dent. This is because unfortunately because when placed in a stressful situation, I think I tend to become very English  - i.e pompous, generally ineffective, with a tendency to make cups of tea! :P

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On 6-6-2017 at 1:07 PM, Nollaig said:

However, I wanted to add to the previous one (fandoms) - I used to be a huuuuuge Twilight fan. I even had a bracelet with a crystal and a wolf on it. No idea what possessed me. Also used to be a huge Supernatural fangirl, and while I still adore the first 5 seasons of the show, they're flogging the skeletal remains of a horse that died of old age with it at this stage and I've honestly lost a bit of respect of everyone involved in it now.

 

I used to be a bit of a fan too (just a bit though, it was never my favourite series or anything), but not anymore now.

 

On 7-6-2017 at 10:36 PM, ian said:

Not sure about the Harry Potter one, but as for a book that best represents me - I'd have to go for The Hitch-Hikers guide to the galaxy, in particular  the character of Arthur Dent. This is because unfortunately because when placed in a stressful situation, I think I tend to become very English  - i.e pompous, generally ineffective, with a tendency to make cups of tea! :P

 

I like Arthur Dent!

 

 

This week's topic is: Side Ships

 

Author's Note:
-- Tell us your favorite relationships that don't involve the protagonist!

 

I'm not yet really sure what to answer to this.

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This week's topic is: Favorite "Unlikeable" Protagonists

 

Author's Note:
-- People always tear down "unlikeable" protagonists. But tell us the ones you pulled for!

 

I'm not quite sure what would be called an 'unlikeable' protagonist, of most books I read, I do like the protagonist(s), or at least some of them. I guess some people from the A Song of Ice and Fire series could apply, as I didn't like some of them but I did root for them. But I wouldn't really call them my favourites, just the only ones I can think of right now.

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Definitely Tyrion from those books. Probably the most morally grey character in a series full of morally grey characters!

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Oh - and for last weeks side relationships thing. I can't remember the names, but there is a budding relationship throughout the second half of The Count of Monte Cristo between the son & daughter of two of the original antagonists. Everyone is against them (Including The Count), which just made me root for them more.

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On 22-6-2017 at 1:54 PM, ian said:

Definitely Tyrion from those books. Probably the most morally grey character in a series full of morally grey characters!

 

I totally agree about Tyrion, he would be my number #1 choice.

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This week's topic is: Hate to Love Ships

 

Author's Note:
-- Ask and you may receive. By request, a topic all about your favorite hate to love romances!

 

I have to say, I find most of the topics lately not quite to my liking. I don't like love-hate relationships, and I don't like love-hate friendships. For me the feelings of love and hate are far apart, and I don't understand how people can really love someone while also dispising them at the same time. To me, that just doesn't fit. Not that I could come up with examples of love-hate relationships anyway, I don't think I read about them much. Or is 'hate to love romances' not the same as 'love-hate relationships'? Is a hate to love romance perhaps one where the two characters involved first hate each other and then later love each other? I'm not a big fan of that either. I have confused myself and am now unsure what this topic means. Maybe someone else can help.

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Perhaps they mean a relationship between two characters that the reader hates but can't stop reading about?  Kind of like a train wreck/toxic romance that you just can't look away from?! :wacko:  I don't know, that's what first came to my mind.

 

With that being said, now I need to go and have a think if I know any book couples like this, LOL.

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:giggle2:

 

It's what they do in some of the BookTube and bookblog communities, they 'ship' a relationship between characters meaning they're rooting for them and want them to be together. I don't use the term myself, but I've seen it on blogs and in BookTube videos, some of those people use the term a lot.

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I know what shipping is (I ship Merthur mwehehe) I just didn't immediately process the term in the correct context here :)

 

There aren't any ships I 'love to hate', but I do get annoyed by utterly unfounded and non-nonsensical ships of every possible TV pairing on Tumblr, particularly the ones between characters who have very little screen-time together. I ship Merthur because that was a bromance for the ages, and even the show's creators kind of shipped it by the end. (Katie McGrath, who played Morgana, loved the ship. There's a bit of commentary by Katie on one episode where, when Arthur goes, 'Merlin!' Katie goes, 'I love you!' It's very funny.) Unfortunately, I believe Colin Morgan (who played Merlin) was always bothered by the ship :( The... I think he was a director or exec producer... referred to a final scene in the show where Arthur asks Merlin to hold him as 'Arthur wanting to be held by the man he loves' or similar, but he 'meant' a platonic love. Or did he? :giggle:

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Have you ever read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Noll?  I listened to the audio book recently and it was about a girl who wrote fan fic for books similar to Harry Potter.  Shipping was the name of the game with that book!  

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This week's topic is: Books Without Romance

 

Author's Note:
-- A few (very, very few) people complained about the "shipping" topics lately, so I thought it would be good to talk about books that don't have a romantic subplot! This is a really hard one, so if you can't find any, you can talk about some where the romance is super super minor. Like barely mentioned... at all...

 

I guess in YA there is romance in many books. I feel in adult literature there's definitely not romance in everything, there are plenty of thrillers and mysteries without romance, for example, right? And in children's literature, there are plenty of books without romance for obvious reasons. (Children's books is next week's topic though.). That said, a lot of my favourite books in the adult and YA ageranges do involve some kind of romance or love story, even if it's minor; but there are some books without it, as well. However, since my memory isn't so great, I wasn't entirely sure which one of my favourites might perhaps have an element of romance in them, so I've picked five of which I'm pretty sure there isn't an element of romance in it:

 

- Andy Weir - The Martian

- Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

- Garth Stein - The Art of Racing in the Rain

- Jostein Gaarder - Sophie's World (Dutch title: De wereld van Sofie)

- Ann M. Martin - The Babysitters Club 1: Kristy Great Idea

 

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If I was feeling cynical, then I would say that most of the thrillers I read don't have any romance in them - just badly plotted sex! Lee Child is a serial offender in that regard. As is Dan Brown.

 

However, to take the question as I believe it was intended, and without being cynical...

 

The Hobbit - a book that from memory (it's been a while since I last re-read this) has no female characters at all, so no romance at all in that.

The Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.

 

 

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This week's topic is: Children's Books

 

Author's Note:
--This can include Middle Grade (but try to recommend more than just Harry Potter and Percy Jackson!) Feel free to talk about your childhood faves or more recent reads.

 

This is quite difficult, because I feel there are so many good children's books around.

 

Here are a few:

 

- Geronimo Stilton's books

- Ann M. Martin - The Babysitters Club series

- John Flanagan - Ranger's Apprentice series

- Brandon Sanderson - Alcatraz series (I've yet to read #5, waiting for paperback release.. will it ever come..)

- Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

- J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter series (some YA, some children's)

- Roald Dahl's books

- Paul van Loon's books (Dutch) & also other members of the GG

- Thea Beckman's books (some are YA, some are children's) (Dutch)

- Carry Slee's books (again some children's and some YA) (Dutch)

- Jacques Vriens's books (Dutch)


But I could name so many more! Angie Sage, Rachel Renée Russell, Tim Collins, Liz Pichon, R. L. Stine, David Walliams, Terry Deary, Nick Arnold, Annie M. G. Schmidt, Terry Denton & Andy Griffiths, Lincoln Peirce, Astrid Lindgren, and many more. And that's just the authors that come to mind, and of whom I've read at least a couple of books. I love children's books! (and YA books and books for adults...)

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I personally think if you are writing books aimed at children that adults would enjoy too, you are a pretty perfect writer.

 

My mum was and still is a huge Roald Dahl fan and I have enjoyed all the books I have read by him. 

The Witches my favourite

 

Beatrix Potter is very popular over here in the U.K. I love some of her books and others I found quite boring. 

 

Terry Deary I absolutely love, as I have mentioned before. I loved history at school and I wish we got to read his books whilst there.

 

I am not a fan of YA books, however I wouldn't rule them out altogether. If I did I would never have read The Fault In Our Stars.

Which could be a runner up for my favourite read of the year so far.

 

 

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