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?
RW says
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.)
Alice Luther says
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???
Anne Louise Bannon says
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.
Elisa says
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!)
hannah says
Fight Club 🙂
Anonymous says
Peter Pan
Anonymous says
I'd settle for nothing less than: 501 Great Writers: A Comprehensive Guide to the Giants of Literature
Anna says
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.
Anonymous says
anything by j.p. donleavy. those guys are bent all day long and all night. that, or an autobiography.
CKHB says
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.
thoughtful1 says
I would like to be Wart in The Sword and the Stone in The Once and Future King by T.H. White.
abc says
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.
Margaret Yang says
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.
Thermocline says
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.
Janet says
Duh, the Narnia books, of course. It's where I spent most of my childhood in any event. ;o)
wonderer says
Star Trek, or else Harry Potter like everyone else. Guess there's a good reason those books are so popular!
D. G. Hudson says
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.
Icy Roses says
Percy Jackson. 🙂 Greek mythology ftw!
That Girl says
I would be in Pamela Dean's Tam Lin — getting to do college all over again on a pretty cool campus, in the 1970s.
Anonymous says
John Carter from the Burroughs Martian novels
Mike says
The Right Stuff
Carol Piasente says
Anne of Green Gables.
Wuthering Heights, but, been there, done that.
Brendan says
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
M. K. Clarke says
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
Aimless Writer says
I read thrillers mostly. I don't want to be in any of them.
Maybe I should pick up a romance…
Julie says
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
David says
Right now I would choose to have a character in The Dresden Files named after me.
Anonymous says
Let me loose in Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales!
Anonymous says
harry potter. definitely.
eden tyler says
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….
Anonymous says
I'd like to be in an Elmore Leonard novel. I could get some really cool dialog lines.
Anonymous says
I have a dark streak in me, so I'd have to say Sophie's Choice.
Jess Haines says
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…
Amanda says
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.
Kristi says
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!
A P Miller says
Hitchiker's Guide: see the universe for under 40 Alterian dollars a day, Magrathea, flying. Easy, easy choice.
jjdebenedictis says
The Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling novelist ever.
Horserider says
I'd be in Wild Magic of Tamora Pierce's Immortals series. I love those books…
Beth Harar says
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.
anniegirl1138 says
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.
Anonymous says
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.
Thomas Burchfield says
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.
Joy D. Wilson says
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.
Kristin Tubb says
"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!
Joe Iriarte says
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!
Anonymous says
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!
Laura Martone says
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.
Laura Martone says
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…
Anna Claire says
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…
Mariana says
Definitely The Lor of the Rings!
Or maybe Harry Potter?