Books

From www.hserus.net

• Humor:
  • P.G.Wodehouse
  • Terry Pratchett
• Classics:
  • William Shakespeare
  • Charles Dickens
• Historical Fiction:
  • Patrick O'Brian
  • Sir Walter Scott
• Westerns:
  • Louis L'Amour
  • Will Henry
• Detective Fiction:
  • Agatha Christie
  • Georges Simenon
  • Raymond Chandler
  • Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael)
  • Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose"
• Sci-Fi
  • Lois McMaster Bujold
  • David Weber
  • Arthur C. Clarke
• And lots of other books

Here's a ranking of my top ten favorite characters from various books -

1. Miles from Sideways by Rex Pickett - excellent book, and great movie, with Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, that should have done far better at the oscars this year.

2. Stephen Maturin, from the Aubrey Mathurin novels by Patrick O'Brian (the Russell Crowe / Paul Bettany movie is kind of an amalgam of 4..5 books of a 20 book series)

3. Sam Vimes, Commander of the Ankh Morpork City Watch, in the Terry Pratchett novels

4. Miles Vorkosigan in a series of novels by Lois McMaster Bujold

5. Gollum

6. Sgt. Barbara Havers, in the murder mysteries featuring Inspector Lynley / Sgt. Havers, by Elizabeth George

7. Valentine Michael Smith (Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein)

8. Johannes Verne, from Louis L'Amour's "The Lonesome Gods". Starts out "My name is Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid ..." and grips you right from there on.

9. Harry Flashman - the school bully of Thomas Hughes' "Tom Brown's School Days", in the novels by George McDonald Fraser, where the guy joins the british army and runs scared from one pitched 19th century battle to another - Bull Run and Balaclava to the Zulu wars and the Boxer Rebellion

10. Bridget Jones, for sheer, loveable silliness (great set of books as well as the Renee' Zellweger movie. She reminds me of a large, silky haired labrador pup - Roger Ebert seems to agree with me anyway:

Renee Zellweger is lovable to begin with, and combining her with
Bridget Jones creates a critical mass of cuteness: You don't want to
just watch her, you want to tickle her ears and scratch under her
chin. She has that desperately hopeful smile, and the endearing
optimism of a woman in a dress two sizes too small.

A common thread, of course, is that most of them are highly gifted losers and underdogs, who somehow manage to make good. In fact, every time I see Miles in "Sideways" and hear him talk about Pinot, I'm like "There, but for the grace of God, go I". It rings true, every word of it.

I don’t know. It’s a hard grape to grow. As you know. It’s thin
skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It’s not a survivor like
Cabernet that can grow anywhere and thrive even when neglected. Pinot
needs constant care and attention and in fact can only grow in
specific little tucked-away corners of the world. And only the most
patient and nurturing growers can do it really, can tap into Pinot’s
most fragile, delicate qualities. Only when someone has taken the
time to truly understand its potential can Pinot be coaxed into its
fullest expression. And when that happens, its flavors are the most
haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient on the
planet.

For a wine connoisseur's take on Sideways, see http://slate.msn.com/id/2109290/