Reader Neil Vogler passed along a recent Guardian post about the number of authors who are auctioning off the chance to name a character in one of their novels.
This sparked Neil’s idea for today’s You Tell Me: if you could inhabit any book, which would you choose?
I’d go with THE GREAT GATSBY. No! THE SUN ALSO RISES. No! HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.
What about you?
I'm named after a book of the Bible. Does that count?
The Hobbit.
As long as I was one of the good guys!
Not "The Road".
Oh, yeah, Galaxy, or if not that, then the lead dog in "Fool On The Hill". and, while I'm on here, your last post–the Llama one, I didn't know much about you(even though I'd read all your bio-info) but those pictures and what you did down in South America made me a fan for life. If I ever get one of my books in progress in agent form, I hope you want to read it, just so I can meet you. I'm going to look into that Travelocity trip idea.
Thanks,
DeborahB
You've got to admit, the Harry Potter world would be a blast.
Harry Potter world. If I were a wizard.
I'm not sure about how I feel about the auction thing. It's a great idea in terms of charity. But it does lend some…..feelings about the integrity of a work.
That said, I'll be posting here tomorrow. I'm auctioning off the chance to be named in my post.
It will not go for charity, because Mama (that would be me) needs a new set of wheels. My car is perfectly fine, I just want a new one.
Bidding starts at $10,000 (ice-blue sports car, those things are so over-priced). Let me know. For 20,000, I'll name you in two posts.
I'd only want to be in a book if I was a very minor character. So minor that no one would kill me and nothing bad would happen to me like the main characters.
If that was so, I'm all for Harry Potter as well.
The Lord of the Rings.
I just did a post similar to this, after reading THE EYRE AFFAIR. I'd like to be in any book by L.M. Montgomery. I'm writing about her today too – she's one of my favorite themes.
I've always wanted to swing a sword around. But kill someone? Hm. Sort of goes against everything I believe in considering I'm vegan and won't even kill bugs. But I read about killing people all the time! Hm.
Not Harry Potter – no more teenage angst for me – at least not where I have to experience it directly.
I think I'll just be happy to write since I'm in all of my characters in one way or another.
The Count of Monte Cristo. (But I should probably learn to speak French first.)
SENSE & SENSIBILITY so I could be rude guest at a dinner party hosted by Fanny Dashwood.
Any book in the HAN SOLO TRILOGY so I could have some quality time (IYKWIM) before Princess Leia sinks her claws into him.
But not necessarily in that order.
The book world of the Thursday Next novels. But then, sometimes I feel like I live there already.
Apart from that, either Wrinkle In Time, John Stoddard's The High House, or Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy.
nah… not a novel. I wanna be in a Diablo Cody-written, Jason Reitman-directed SCREENPLAY.
Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden. To live in the Kashmir, inside the covers of an elegantly written book.
You were right the first time, Nathan! I'd be in the Great Gatsby.
Oh wait. . . .
Marijuana horticulture's bible. Smoke everyday!
I wouldn't mind being in the world of Christopher Priest's "The Prestige." Even knowing how the illusions work, it would be nice to see the spectacle of the New Transported Man.
How about Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' Trilogy…..that way you could find out what your daemon really is.
I think I'd like to walk through a wardrobe and spend the day in Narnia: maybe eat Turkish delight and meet Aslan (during one of the peaceful periods when the White Witch isn't around).
I think if you're going to get the chance to be in a book, you might as well go for a world totally different from your own. A Wrinkle in Time or The Chronicles of Narnia.
Captain Underpants and the Perlious Plot of Professor Poopypants.
Definitely NOT Lord of the Flies or anything written by Steinbeck.
As a teen I would have said LOTR hands down, but now I think I agree with Dawn Maria- I'd like to be the mistress of an estate like Pemberly. (as long as my privileges would extend to really easy childbirths and fabulously healthy children.)
Think I'd go w/ any of Eddings books from The Elenium — be one of Sparhawk's blithe sidekicks and get to maul some baddies, too 🙂
HP or Narnia works, too.
I just finished Updike's "Couples." NOT THAT.
If we're sticking to well-known literary fiction, I'd pick Homer's "Odyssey" or Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."
Err, have you ever read "The Kugelmass Episode" by Woody Allen? In it a professor has an affair with Emma Bovary by being projected into the book. You can actually read the entire story here: http://www.woddyallen.art.pl/eng/kugelmass_episode.php.
It's hilarious. Especially the ending.
One of the Harry Potter novels, but nobody who gets killed. Or even bruised.
Dawn Maria, have you heard about SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS? I just read about it in PW Daily. I assume you want to be in the original version. 🙂
Link correction for the Woody Allen story:
http://www.woodyallen.art.pl/eng/kugelmass_episode.php
Sorry everyone!
My mom named me after the main character in a fantasy series. That's the book I want to be in, anyway 🙂 She kicks a**!
Thanks for your helpful response yesterday, Nathan, that was an old post so I really appreciate you taking the time to write back.
Anything by Jane Austen.
Harry Potter. Definitely.
I thought I would be original and say the Eyre Affair (Tuesday Next) only to see two other people beat me to it. But if you want to inhabit a novel why not one that let's you hop into any novel ever written?
Whoops, I forgot to name the books: The Dragonriders of Pern series. Lessa is one of the main characters in the initial trilogy, though others of the 23+ book series follow other characters, of course. Actually, that's why I am thinking of L.T. Host as my pen name… I don't want to publish *crossing my fingers I'll have to worry about this for real some day* under my real first name because I don't know how it would be perceived. Which reminds me of another question I had: when do you mention a potential pen name? Should you query as what you want it to be, or would your agent help you pick one after they represent you?
I'd want to be Clair in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series with Jamie.
I love air conditioning, comfortable beds, and real life. I can deal with this.
I don't think I'd want to be in any book, even if set in modern day. Unless you're suggesting we could inhabit the world of the book without the scary conflict. For example, in Narnia during the Golden Age (which wasn't directly written about) rather than during the wars, etc.
I'd like to be in the 'reality' of STAR TREK, but I'd be a homebound Earthling enjoying world peace and 23rd century technology.
Atomik Aztex by Sesshu Foster. To live in an alternate universe where the Aztecs are called in to fight the Nazis… that'd be swell.
The Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Flies. But then again, I have agression issues.
Book I wouldn't want to be in: Flowers in the Attic. EWWWW.
I'd say Blood Meridian, but, you know, I don't want to be scalped.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
Mira,
Do you take Monopoly money?
I guess I wouldn't mind being in a Stephanie Meyer book. Vampires and souls who inhabit humans are kind of scary, but unlike my real life, everything always works out the way you want it to in the end in her books. So I would feel safe as long as I started out as a good guy/gal 😉
Harry Potter, definitely. I've read it millions of time, enough to imagine living in it. And I'd like to be either Hermione Granger or George Weasley… if not Harry Potter himself 🙂
I'd like to be in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (if I got the title role)
I'd hate to be anyone in 1984
Lord of the Rings
I also want to be in Harry Potter. have Hermione as my best friend, and be able to also be friends with Harry and Ron, and grow old together and talk about good ol' Hogwarts days, and the war etc.
Nevermind me. I saw the movie last night, hauling my very tired husband and four kids, and I'm still seeing the images in my head. So frigging awesome!
Goodkind's Sword of Truth series…
Morgan
High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby.
Twilght
I've having a bit of a craving right now, so I'd kinda like to be riding on that chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with a mug in my hand.
In most novels, the characters suffer too much for me want to trade places with them. However I came across a novel recently that was unusual for how smooth the lives of its characters are and how happily they all end up. Sounds boring, but it worked. It was Happy All The Time by Laurie Colwin.
(BTW, props to the New Haven Review for re-introducing the work of the late Laurie Colwin in their last issue.)
Anything by Gene Stratton Porter, C.S.Lewis' The Chronicle's of Narnia, The Court of Belshazzar by Earl Wlliams, St Elmo, by Augusta J Evans, Laura Ingalls Wilder . . . how many do I get? Maybe it would help if I believed in reincarnation???
There are very few books I do not want to be in. But if anyone decides to make a film or TV series of the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, I want to play Amelia. I really, really want to play Amelia.
I'd love to be in Richard Russo's *Straight Man* as an expressivist rhetoric-composition adjunct in Hank's lit-intensive English Department (I can so relate!)
Fight Club 🙂
Peter Pan
I'd settle for nothing less than: 501 Great Writers: A Comprehensive Guide to the Giants of Literature
Asta's Book by Barbara Vine, view London back in the early 1900's. Or maybe In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. I'd love to see the different days of sugar, or perhaps the entrance into the Forgotten Works.
anything by j.p. donleavy. those guys are bent all day long and all night. that, or an autobiography.
Anything where she's a lead character who kicks a$$ and takes names. Super powers/wizarding abilities are optional.
As it is, I spend a decent amount of time trying to find children's books with kick-butt characters who have the same name as my daughter! She has a somewhat traditional name, so I've found quite a few.
I would like to be Wart in The Sword and the Stone in The Once and Future King by T.H. White.
Gatsby sounds nice as far as wearing all those beautiful 1920s clothes (If you are rich, I guess) and drinking mint juleps and attending fancy parties.
No, no, no! Didn't any of you read INKSPELL by Cornelia Funke? Going into books=bad. Taking fictional characters into our world=worse.
I just saw that movie with my kids this weekend, and my son has read the whole series. Scary!
I'm staying right here.
I would like to own a shop in Ankh-Morpork, though not too close to the river, in one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. I'd probably have to rebuild it on a regular basis but life would never be boring.
WV: nogyro. A vegetarian version of the popular Greek sandwich.
Duh, the Narnia books, of course. It's where I spent most of my childhood in any event. ;o)
Star Trek, or else Harry Potter like everyone else. Guess there's a good reason those books are so popular!
It's a tough choice, but I would pick The Foundation (series) by I. Asimov, so that I could meet R.Daneel Olivaw, the humanoid robot, and Elijah Baley.
I would pick a backup book of Moveable Feast (Hemingway) placed in Paris in the early part of the 20th century during the time of the Lost Generation.
Love this question, Nathan. It brings out the dreamer in me.
Percy Jackson. 🙂 Greek mythology ftw!
I would be in Pamela Dean's Tam Lin — getting to do college all over again on a pretty cool campus, in the 1970s.
John Carter from the Burroughs Martian novels
The Right Stuff
Anne of Green Gables.
Wuthering Heights, but, been there, done that.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
Good grief, you PT coasters never let me get in here first! 🙂
HUCKLEBERY FINN, A WRINKLE IN TIME, HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL and two plays: OTHELLO and OEDIPUS THE KING.
~Missye
I read thrillers mostly. I don't want to be in any of them.
Maybe I should pick up a romance…
Harry Potter would be my top pick, I would want to be Hermione since I love intellectual characters.
Since so many people said Harry Potter I will pick two more
1.Esme in "Twilight" she isn't really the fighting type but she still has cool vampire super powers.
2. Shug Avery in "The Color Purple" because I'm a terrible singer and would love to be a sexy blues singer like Shug
Right now I would choose to have a character in The Dresden Files named after me.
Let me loose in Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales!
harry potter. definitely.
I would love to be a character in the book Cherry by Mary Karr.
Such a great book and a great time.
I'm a bit too young to have lived then and I wish I had.
She seems such an interesting person and her experiences sound fun…even the sad ones.
It's one of my favourites.
I definitely wouldn't want to be one of the burnouts who end up with no life, though….
I'd like to be in an Elmore Leonard novel. I could get some really cool dialog lines.
I have a dark streak in me, so I'd have to say Sophie's Choice.
I'd love to have a spot in one of Jim Butcher's books. Maybe a wacky assistant to Butters (am I twisted or what?), or one of the D&D-playing werewolves…
Song in the Silence series, by Elizabeth Kerner. Or Anne McCaffery's Pern series. Anything where dragons are real and benevolent to the deserving would be awesome.
I couldn't decide so I asked my 5-year-old son this question. He said "Sleeping Beauty" so that he could have a real sword and marry a princess. Then he asked if Daddy & I would visit him, since the castle was probably far from Denver. I love kids!
Hitchiker's Guide: see the universe for under 40 Alterian dollars a day, Magrathea, flying. Easy, easy choice.
The Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling novelist ever.
I'd be in Wild Magic of Tamora Pierce's Immortals series. I love those books…
Outlander, but only if Jamie leaves his wife for me.
Harry Potter, but I'd want to be a witch.
Any heroine in a Dean Koontz novel.
I would be a queen dragon rider on Pern. Mistress of a weyr and very beautiful. I can totally see my husband as a weyr leader. He's a Virgo. They can just do that.
My first and middle names are Elizabeth Jane, not by coincidence. I don't know how I managed to grow up loving Jane Austen as much as I do. However, none of her novels would be that much fun to live in.
I pick the Vorkosigan universe by Bujold. She's practically my idol, and worth extra points if I get to bring along all the trans people I know and get them sex-change surgery on Beta Colony. Utopia with all problems solved? No. But I'd barter a LOT for the sanity of those I love. Heck, if I could make enough money at something, I might change and change back, to see whether I like having a cock. Plus, uterine replicators OMG.
Good question and one that takes some thinking. I have three possible choices of books I'd like to be in.
1. One of M.R. James' ghost stories (see a real ghost).
2. A suspect (but not the guilty party) in a P.D. James novel so I'd get to talk to the literate and fascinating Inspector Dalgliesh).
3. One of Alan Furst's WW II spy novels as one of the hero's (surviving) allies or sidekicks.
Speaking of being "in" things, I went wandering in the Huntington Library gardens a couple weeks back and did a posting on it at the
Red Room.
After much though, I'd have to pick Narnia as well. Probably voyage of the Dawn Treader if I could. Though I wouldn't want to be turned into a dragon. :)Maybe I could be Lucy, shes was always my favorite.
"On the Road." Nothing tops a beatnik with wanderlust! (I say this not having read the book in years. I might recall that vote after a re-read.) 🙂
Would also love "Gatsby" or "Pride and Prejudice." I think Mr. Bennett and I could have a most pleasant chat!
I'm a little surprised nobody has said this yet, but I'd want to inhabit Ender's Game. Specifically, I'd love to attend that Battle School–and have the prerequisite skills!
There are so many great books it would be fun to be in! Yes!
I would love to visit Harry Potter's world.
And I would like most of all to be in my own book's world!
What a wonderful question… so many terrific books to choose. I love so many of the ideas here (especially Kristi's son's choice – LOL).
But I'm feeling rebellious today, so I'd like to hop into REBECCA – just to stop Mrs. Danvers from burning down Manderley… so I can live there, of course.
Anon 1:16 –
I know exactly what you mean. I, too, would like to live in my book's world. Ah, if only an underground town like that existed…
Holy schnikes, Dawn: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS? Are those the same people as the P&P & ZOMBIES crowd?
If I were a murderous kind of person, I'd want to go into an Ayn Rand book and kill everybody before they had a chance to make even one 175-page speech.
Otherwise, I'd love to be in an Austen book as long as I could also take showers. And use regular toilets. And have air conditioning. And not eat British food…
Definitely The Lor of the Rings!
Or maybe Harry Potter?
I'd love to be in Anne McCaffry's Dragonriders of Pern series, especially if I Impressed a dragon:)
Eric, LOL and ditto on your "not The Road" comment.
I would like to inhabit the heath and country manors of Thomas Hardy's world, as long as I was an aristocrat with servants and all I had to do was paint and write.
Any light contemporary romance! Not into personal drama and conflict or chamber pots but I'd be guaranteed AWESOME SEX!
I want to be in my own book, it'd be nice to live in a world where you know what happens after you die.
If it has to be someone else's book then one where you can be immortal but not have to drink blood would be rather nice. So not quite Twilight.
Probably shows that I'm sick with the flu and feeling sorry for myself right now!
I agree: Claire in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series is at the top of the list. Not only is she a surgeon during a time in history when women didn't do more than cook and have babies, but she is married to Jamie. He's a great character.
Anne Claire – lol about Ayn Rand.
Rick D., I thought and thought. And as the bids are coming in rather slowly, I decided I like monopoly money. But only the gold ones. They're the pretty ones.
So I accept your offer, and shall mention you in my post here tomorrow, as agreed.
National Velvet. What heaven to be left a small stable full of horses. And the wonderful Pie to ride! I can't remember if the old man left Velvet money to look after the animals with but if I were the protagonist he most certainly would!
When I was a kid I wanted to be Mowgli with his jungle full of friends.
I guess I'd have to go with any of the books in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher.
Or one of my books– since the characters all know me I'd always be revered. Also, I've gotten quite attached to my books 😉
There are so many entertaining and magical worlds to explore it's hard to decide. I have many but if I had to choose one and only one, I'd have to choose Ephemera, in Belladonna by Anne Bishop.
The Jungle Book
I'd be in Alpha Rising, using my mind, not weapons, to defeat the evil Rooks and rescue a select group from extinction.
Hi, Mira!
Well, I didn't mean to ignore your kind offer to include me in a post – if only the price were right. But I got to thinking… why buy the milk when you've gotten it for free? After all, you've already mentioned me in a post or two… In fact, I think you blamed me once for something. The memory's hazy, though. 😉
Good luck with the bidding!
Clare Dunkle's "HOLLOW KINGDOM"
I love stories with goblins in them! …*stinks that there aren't more* 😛
Oh! "BLOOD & CHOCOLATE" too. *wink
The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury. I'd like to meet Uncle Einar.
Inhabit?
Where the Wild Things Are.
I'd love to make mischief on one kind or another–with monsters no less.
Decisions, decisions! I'd rather be living in Narnia or Middle Earth–provided I didn't get stuck as one of the villains. The Star Trek universe would also be rather awesome.
I'd say PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF CHOCOLATE NOOO to anything by Lovecraft. I love horror–as long as the fourth wall's firmly in place!
I want to be a *Relationships Counselor* in WUTHERING HEIGHTS!
Haste yee back 😉
I would want to be Sookie Stackhouse. She gets her arse kicked, but she has a lot of hot sex and adventures too!!!
The Harry Potter series, but I wouldn't want to be Harry. I don't handle headaches well. I would be some obscure, but respected powerful witch.
Stranger in a strange land
The Princess Bride. Or LotR. Or Harry Potter. A fantasy world, definitely.
The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. Then I could join a merc company.
Yamile – wasn't the movie awesome?! I too went last night. Had a blast. It was my favorite since CHAMBER OF SECRETS. David Yates did a fantastic job. Confession: I might go back and see it tonight…
You're right Amy Cochron, There are so many entertaining and magical worlds to explore it's hard to decide
HP is always a good time. Jane Austen? Love her novels too. Bella & Edward – well, they do live happily ever after. But I'd really love to be Cornelia & Theo's daughter in BELONG TO ME. She's just a baby, and the book ends with her birth, but you know she's going to have an amazing life.
This question is going to create a comment-bonanza… How many books I would love to be in!!!
I really can't resist the idea of "The Sun Also Rises". I seem stuck in early/mid-20th century literature… Salinger, Kerouac, Hemingway, Mann, Carson McCullers. Stick me in any one of those worlds and I'd be flying it.
I think I'm an analog spirit stuck in the digital age…
Doug Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe…"where it is nearly always Saturday afternoon just before the beach bars close."
Barring that, one of Updike's Witches of Eastick. Sleeping with the devil. Hmm. I am rather a hedonist.
After some thought I'm going to have to go with a history or science text book. Preferably as someone who changed the world for the better in one way or another.
Definite pass on Slaughterhouse Five, will gladly join Anna Claire to eliminate characters in The Fountainhead trilogy. As for Fight Club, the first rule in Fight Club is not to talk about Fight Club! The 2nd rule is not to talk about Fight Club! Pass the Haldol.
Greetings from Australia
Hi Nathan,
I write to you from chilly ( at the moment) Australia. What a great question. I think I would most love to inhabit the world of any children's /children's fantasy book ranging from Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest to Wind in the WIllows to Harry Potter. There are too many wonderful children's/YA/ fantasy worlds out there to choose from. A lot of them, I am proud to say, written by fellow Australians such as Sonya Hartnett, John Marsden, Mex Fox, Gary Crew, Paul Jennings, John Flanagan, Jackie French to name but a few.
Your question made me consider reasons why I choose such worlds. In writing my first children's/YA novel, it tells me my genre choice is greatly influenced by these other worlds. I have a strong desire to create worlds of my own that I hope one day will positively influence others. Also because the majority of these writers I mention above, whose worlds I fell in love with, are Australian. Their work resonated deeply within me.
As an aspiring author, I am concerned by the latest news of Australia's Productivity Commission pushing to abolish parallel importation restrictions. I wonder what chance new writers within Australia will have if this goes through? Who is going to take a chance on us fledglings? I would love to hear your thoughts about this matter. If the proposal goes through, I fear it will mean a very grim future for the Australian publishing industry and as a new writer, I am concerned that no one will ever get to live in the world I am creating.
Thanks for your time, and thank you for your ongoing and inspiring blog.
Kindest regards,
Lynn Priestley
http://lynnpriestley.wordpress.com/
This is kind of cheating because this franchise is more popular as movies than books, but there are a plethora of books in it. I've always wanted to be a Jedi, so my answer is STAR WARS.
At first I liked the Hitchhiker's idea, and then I thought Wuthering Heights (because I could do dark and twisty pretty well I think!) but it would be great to be in something completely insane like Jilly Cooper's Polo!
At the risk of sounding unoriginal, the kid in me wants to be in Harry Potter. I'd love to be Hermione so I can be the smartest AND have Ron…the adult in me would LOVE to be Eve in J. D. Robb's In Death series, just so I could have Roarke!
Breakfast at Tiffanys
LOTR
I would be Scout Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird!!
How could you choose anything but Harry Potter? Not as a teenager though….I shudder to think of being a teen again. But a world where anything is possible. I could live with that. I also just saw 'Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince' so it's fresh in my mind.
I know your all dying to ask and the answer is no, of course not. The movies are never as good as the books.
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende–except I would be a human being from this world who discovers the book and goes on the adventure.
I've never commented on your posts before, but this one had me thinking about it a long time!
My first reaction was similar to others. A Wrinkle In Time! Since I don't have a top choice now, I chose one I used to LOVE as a kid.
Most of the books I like tend to be a little more dark, so nothing stands out as too appealing. 🙂 I started to say Wuthering Heights or Time Travelers Wife, but decided I'd rather go to an entirely new place. I won't list all my choices here, but needless to say…I can't decide! It was great fun thinking about it, though!
Side note…I was named after the girl on The Exorcist because my parents had just seen it. They had yet to decide on a girls name they both liked. I would NOT want to be her character! I'll keep lying and say I was named after King Lear. Not that she was much better. 🙂
Ah Lessa! my alter ego; though sometimes, I think it would be better to be the dragon than the Dragon Rider. I wouldn't mind being in a Jack Chalker novel; some creature with wings, or even to be Djin.
Oh, I got it; I'll be in an Xanth novel and pick lady slippers off bushes and visit the gourd world and meet a brassy and . . you know, just have fun in a world for a while.
I realize Sue Grafton isn't literary but her character Kinsey Milhone seems to have a great time, plus she has that cool beachside apartment! I could do that…
I'd think I'd also like to live in The Dragonriders of Pern. I've always liked dragons. I'm a lot like Hagrid in that way.
Margaret on The Thirteenth Tale, reclusive and introspective…
All of them.
Any book by Somerset Maugham, loved "The Razor's Edge"
The Chronicles of Prydain (Taran Wanderer being my favorite) made me fall in love with Wales when I was a kid. I've been wanting to go to Wales ever since, but if given a real dream come true, I'd go to Prydain in a heartbeat, especially if guided by Lloyd Alexander's gifted hand. But there's always LotR, and Harry Potter, and even Harry Dresden's world, if only I could get to know Harry (and have some kick-butt abilities of my own).
The Rum Diary
Joe; I might have to agree with you about Ender's Game. As long as I never grew older than, say fifteen.
I'd want to be Stencil on Malta, tracking Thomas Pynchon's inscrutable V.
Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice
Oh only one???? I want to be Rincewind in Ankmorpork, or maybe Vimes….. no no no i have it.
I want to be Druss, David Gemmell created a character i felt i knew personally! I wouldn't mind being in Harry Potter just so i could play Quiddich, definitely wouldn't want to be Frodo, too much weird sexual ambiguity between him and Samwise. And i know i don't want to be Bella, how creepy having a stalker watch you sleep every night!
Life in novels appeals far more than the mundane, perhaps that is why i decided to write in the first place.
I did a story like this once. My publisher ran a contest, and the prize was to be turned into a character and a story written about you. I was one of the authors. My winner sent me a number of details about herself and I turned her into an interdimensional fantasy heroine. She got shanghaied onto the set of Interdimensional Survivor, where she took the side of the monsters. Coming up with that story was an awful lot of fun.
this is a tough one because I tend to like books I would never want to be in, like "On the Road". Although the chance to be in Great Expectations would thrill me through.
Any of the PERN novels would be great as long as I got to be a dragon rider … or her Rowan series, as long as I was one of the high level talents.
That's hard! I guess the Percy Jackson series…or Little Women or any Jane Austen novel!
Duh. Under a Tuscan Sun. Not such a great book, but who cares? Tuscany!!
The Curse of Lono might be fun.
Steph: As soon as I go home, I'm gonna watch HP again in Imax.
Being in HP was a knee-jerk reaction, and if I couldn't be in it, I'd want to be in Percy Jackson's world, and maybe also "Gregor the Overlander" but I'd want to come back to the Overland and help Gregor and his family.
Regan: I'm sad your parents told you the real inspiration for your name. How scary! I'd lie too if I were you.
Harry Potter or Percy Jackson
Laura – in terms of not bidding for my post because why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free? First, can I say how much I love that saying?
Second, you're absolutely right. Which is why I've decided to charge retroactively.
You owe me a bunch of monopoly money.
Also, I've decided to write a novel and name the heroine Laura. I'll send you the bill.
Okay, Mira. I'm happy to pay up. Will you take an I.O.U.? I don't have any Monopoly money at the moment, as I recently tossed out all mean-spirited boardgames. 🙂
After all, my novel is about a socialist utopia… where money means nothing.
And besides, don't we have a policy against monopolies in this country? Oh, wait a minute…
'Brave new world'. Because, even if it's evil, it's a world where everyone is happier than the average here.
I have to go with Margaret Yang's comment and be wary of mixing the worlds… but, if I could choose my role (and could get away with being dressed as a boy) then TREASURE ISLAND would have been a real adventure, or for a place in which I'd have to get involved, then Atwood's A HANDMAID'S TALE – but I'd find it really difficult to passively follow the storyline, I'd have to be an underground saboteur so there's a risk I'd upset the plot somehow. For a peaceful retreat I'd go for WINNIE THE POOH any day, even on the blustery day.
Why are you so many people flinching from the idea of their character being killed? If I managed to get myself into a book I would do my best to ensure that I did – I think it's much more interesting to say 'yeah that character who was impaled upon their own sword/eaten by wolves/exploded by a pipe bomb/died painfully in childbirth was named for me' instead of 'that character who stood around and didn't do much'.
As for which book I'd like to be in…well Les Miserables would be amazing but to be honest I wouldn't mind as long as it was well-known so people would know which book I was in and find it cool as well.
I'm not sure I'd want to be in any of the stuff I read. Too scary!
I'll take Tropic of Cancer, 'cause life's too short not to be scandalous.
I'd have to say the Harry Potter books. As witch, of course!
Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys. Definitely. I would want to be Hannah Green.
Definitely Harry Potter series – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – The Velvet Room – there's a collection of Santa stories I wouldn't mind passing from one story to the next – take me away from this world!
I'd be in Jane Austen's PERSUASION. I'd try and convince Anne to ignore her ridiculous family and the advice of Lady Russell and marry Wentworth. Of course, if it happened early on, there'd be no story 😛
Or I'd like to be in JANE EYRE as another friend from Jane's boarding school, especially after Helen dies. The poor girl was entirely too lonely for most of the book. She should have a confidante outside of the brooding Rochester. 🙂
How about Artemis Fowl? I'd love to be Holly and watch Artemis transform into a normal human teenager while also kicking goblin a**.
Philip Pullman's THE AMBER SPYGLASS. Hands down. The world of the mulefa, especially, but I could live in Lyra's Oxford happily. It's one of the most peaceful and beautiful worlds I've seen written, and I say that after 7 years of English degree work.
My other choice was Butler's sister Juliet – not bright true but genuine, loved and capable of dishing out her own brand of retribution!
Oh, Belinda, I would LOVE to be in "Wonder Boys" with you – only I think I'd like to be Crabtree. He's a riot.
Rufo in Heinlein's Glory Road. Just want a really capacious fold box full of anything a guy needs for a long quest.
The Hotel New Hampshire. I really like bears.
I'd love to be a character in Gaiman's Stardust. How cool would it be to be Yvaine, a beautiful star?
I have imagined myself in many books, but in "The Three Musketeers" more than others.
I'd love to be in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It's clever, ironic, and gut-bustingly funny.
I'd have to say Replay. Get to live my life over and over while retaining all the knowledge from the previous life, that'd be pretty incredible.
WV: Hanagger. I will stab you with my pointy hand.
I would love to be Kirra Danalustrous in the series, The Twelve Houses by Sharon Shinn. She's a shape shifter and a healer. Kirra is an amazing character in an amazing series of books!
I'd want to be in anything written by John McPhee. As long as it was McPhee himself — I so would love to be that guy.
Anything by Georgette Heyer. Probably An Infamous Army as my top choice.
Aha! I'm changing my mind. I want to be in 'Lost in A Good Book' by Jasper Fforde. That way I could become a BookRunner and check out life in any book I wanted. 😉
The Harry Potter series (maybe one of the faculty) or Shogun by James Clavell
I'm not in a hurry to inhabit any book set in a reality that doesn't include indoor plumbing and air conditioning.
Oh bummer. I was hoping to be different than everyone else. Oh well. Here are my top choices.
1. Narnia
2. LOTR
3. Harry Potter
4. Wuthering Heights (I know. Kind of creepy)
5. Herman Melville's The Scrivener
6. C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
Corwin of Zelazny's Amber cycle.
I'd definitely go to a fantasy world, Middle Earth, Narnia, Alagaesia… as so many have said–but really, during peace? Where's the fun? I want to go there so I can use the sword, not stare at it.
Either Gatsby – I know I could help him get over Daisy!
or The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe – I've always wanted to visit Narnia. 😉
Harry Potter, but as a teacher.
Peter Pan – If Hook looks anything like Jason Issacs, sign me up.
LOL
G.
Let's see…does Martha Stewart Cupcakes count? 🙂 Honestly, I'd probably pick the first Harry Potter…all the newness of magic! How FUN!!!
Anything illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. How's that for sophistication.
Lonesome Dove, Neverwhere, and Northanger Abbey.
Why, because, Gus and cowboys, fantastic worlds that exist alongside ours without our knowledge, and, well, rooomance.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter!! I would love to look at McCuller's world through Mick Kelly's eyes!
Hands down…The Bridges of Madison County. Give me a cigarette, an apron, and a hot man any day…
Such a difficult ask, either:
A: An officer of the Ankh Morpork City Watch.
or
B: The rider of a Regal Copper.
(For the record that's either the works of Terry Pratchet or Naomi Novik.)
Almost everyone wants to be in a Harry Potter book, and I'm no different.
But having my name in The Phantom of the Opera, or Romeo & Juliet (any classic romance, basically) would be amazing, too.
Jim Morrison's Adventures In The Afterlife. Heaven as a DIY project. Doc Holiday having gunfights with Moses. Need I say more?
The Outsiders—so I can smell Ponyboy’s hair.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, of course. All those drugs and never have to deal with the come-down. Come on!
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