Books, Authors and Characters! Oh My!

I decided that since I went a little deeper earlier this week, I can take a post to just ramble about favorite things. Clearly, I love books. No surprise - you don't study English Literature if you don't enjoy literature. 


So here's the thing with me - I'm all about some character development. There are times I find myself enjoying books that others didn't find all that interesting simply because I fell in love with the characters. I don't always have to have a crazy amazing plot to enjoy reading because I'm pretty much in their world - I hear their voices, I see their faces; I'm actually a part of their story. 

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.”
- Ernest Hemingway


Jane Austen isn't for everyone - her stories are a bit slower moving than our generation prefers, but I happen to love the characters, the time period, the language - all of it. Here are some of my favorite Austen characters: 

• Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice: I always went back and forth between whether I loved him for his sarcasm and ability to put up with a house of six women or disliked him for his lethargic attitude toward their well-being. In the end - I've decided I love him. You can't help but enjoy that dry sense of humor. 
• Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice: Hilarious. That's all I have to say about him. He is so unbelievably ridiculous that it's just funny. 
• Jane Fairfax from Emma: She doesn't get as much attention, but I always find myself fascinated with her and the reasoning behind her actions. You're forced to view her in a different light and rethink her attitude toward everything when you learn about the twist in the story (I won't say it in case you haven't read it and are planning to). I give her a lot of credit for staying as calm and reasonable as she could.
• Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey: He is by far my favorite leading man in the Austen novels. He's got a lot of the characteristics I like in a man - he's witty, sarcastic and clever all while still being very loving and nurturing to both his sister and Catherine. Love him. 
• I won't even start on Persuasion because I love a good majority of those character. 

I'm just now getting off my Jane Austen kick, so don't think that's all I read. I love all kinds of books! Here's a short list of some of my favorite books:

• A Passage to India - E. M. Forster
• The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• Canterbury Tales - Chaucer - I don't recommend this if you're not familiar with Middle English. Of course you can get a translation, but a lot of the references are lost and half the fun of it lies in the language. 
• Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
• East of Eden - John Steinbeck
• The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - You'll learn a lot about him that you never knew.
• Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
• Dubliners - James Joyce
• Major Barbara - George Bernard Shaw
• To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
• Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare
• Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
• All's Well that Ends Well - Shakespeare

There are many more, but that's all I'll say for now. I'll leave you with a quote from a favorite author. 


"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
- C.S. Lewis

If you have any book suggestions, please send them my way because I love reading new things! On the flip side, if you would like book suggestions, I'm always more than happy to help on that end as well!