Tuesday, July 28, 2015

11 Literary Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds


The subject of this week's Top Ten Tuesday listed, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is about characters after my own heart -- fellow book nerds! I had a great time compiling this list, and all these books are total winners (I mean, how could a novel with book-nerd characters not be?!). Who are your favorite literary book nerds/academics/writers/librarians/bookstore owners? (P.S. If you're interested in a very adventurous, very fascinating, not at all bookish woman, check out my review of Paula McLain's wonderful new novel, "Circling the Sun," which is out today!)

Diana Bishop of "A Discovery of Witches" is a brilliant academic who frequently visits Oxford's Bodleian Library. Hermione Granger, well, she needs no explanation -- but this quote from the first time we meet Hermione in "Sorcerer's Stone" about sums it up: "I've learned all our course books by heart, of course. I just hope it will be enough -- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

Two adorable, lovable super-smart kids: Bee of "Where'd You Go, Bernadette," and Tanzie of "One Plus One." 

Lady Emily of Tasha Alexander's mysteries is a brilliant amateur sleuth who enjoys pastimes like translating works from Greek. One of the main characters of "Guernsey," Juliet Ashton is an author fond of letter-writing.

The protagonist of "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry" owns a small independent bookstore, and one of the people who helps turn his doldrum-filled life around is Amelia, a publishing house sales representative. Skeeter, star of "The Help," is working as the Miss Myrna column writer for the Jackson Journal but she aspires to be a serious writer.


Mary Russell is a girl genius -- smart enough to attend Oxford University, oh yeah, and apprentice Sherlock Holmes! Josh Hanagarne of the memoir "The World's Strongest Librarian" works as a reference librarian in Salt Lake City.

This makes 11 but Holden Caulfield came to me after I had already put the rest of the list together (this is becoming a weekly problem!). This quote from Holden is one of my favorites: "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up whenever you felt like it."

7 comments:

  1. Awesome list!! I included Hermione on my list as well. I'm sure she will make most lists this week. I read The Catcher in the Rye quite some time ago, but I do remember that quote. Great choice!

    Here is my TTT: http://www.jacquesbooknook.blogspot.com/2015/07/top-ten-tuesday-characters-who-are.html

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  2. Forgot Discovery of Witches! You've got a bunch on here I didn't include because I haven't read the books...yet. And I love that you included Catcher in the Rye. Didn't even think of that one.

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  3. I did not know that Discovery of Witches had a book loving character. But when i think about it, it does make sense since the summary says that the main character find a witchcraft book in a library. My mistake.
    I also love that you included Catcher of the Rye. I forgot about that one while thinking about my own list!
    I love you list because most of those books i have not yet read, and can put them higher up on my TBR list since i can add yet another reason for wanting to read them.
    Fantastic List :)

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  4. I don't know if my first comment posted since it just disappeared, so I'm trying this again, haha.
    I didn't think to add Bee or Holden, and I still need to read Discovery of Witches. Thanks for sharing your awesome list! Here's mine: http://jmillwanders.com/2015/07/29/top-ten-tuesday-book-nerd-characters/

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  5. I love your list! Guernsey is one of my favorite reads! I forgot to include it on my list.

    Check out my TTT: https://greenishbookshelf.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/top-10-tuesday-fellow-book-nerds/

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  6. Fantastic choices! I had both Diana and Matthew on my list, as well as Hermione and Mary Russell, but I totally forgot about Lady Emily! I still need to read The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; they're both on my TBR list.

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  7. Oh gosh, I don't like Catcher in the Rye, but that Holden quotation is perfect.

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