Indulging In My Second Favorite Topic of All Time

Writer TrudyJ tagged me for a meme and, because I pounce on any and all opportunities to relentlessly jabber on the subject of books, I felt it was necessary to pull out the Two Memes in a Row card and play. Allow me to present you my Literary Meme answers:

1. If you could host a party with 7 literary characters, who would they be and why?
It would be seven random characters, obviously including Lestat, from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. What could be more fun and fascinating than playing hostess to a group of histrionic, philosophical easy-on-the-eyes vampires that could tell me all about eighteenth century Europe in one breath and what aristocratic blood tastes like in the next? Sure, I'd have to lay down the oh-so-important ground rule that MY unsavory type A variety is off limits. But I think I could provide them with substitutes. Not a problem.

2. Who is your literary role model?
My lovely friend Cindy recently loaned me Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund. Two or three sentences in, I felt myself simultaneously falling in love with Una Spenser and wanting to BE Una Spenser. Every time I try to articulate how magnificent a protagonist she is, I fumble because calling her brave and wise and strong is like calling speedos, toe fungus and Nick Nolte's mug shot ugly. You know what I mean? Understatements of the century.

3. Which literary house would you like most to live in?
I'm with Trudy on this one. Who WOULDN'T want to spend the majority of their time attending quiddich matches, socializing somewhere between Potions and Transfiguration, all the while surrounded by British accents? The sad and the sorry that's whom. My answer is Hogwarts, in case you didn't get all that.

4. Which literary couple would you like most for parents?
Another stellar answer, Trudy -- Atticus Finch of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. But I also loved Uncle Torchy and Aunt Agatha of Ahab's Wife. They are the epitome of stable and normal, wise and loving...all of which really appeals to my hand-wringing, pitiful twelve-year-old self. My adult self who no longer fears abandonment would enjoy Ingrid Magnussen as a mother, from Janet Fitch's White Oleander. If only so I could glean from her poetic side.

5. Pick 3 literary characters you would like to have as siblings.
Lemony Snicket's Baudelaire children -- Claus, Violet, and Sunny, from A Series of Unfortunate Events. They stick together through thick and thin and are the cumulative equivalent of a certain MacGyver.

6. Who is your favorite literary villain?
Count Olaf, also of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Yes, it's true, he wanted to kill off a family of orphans and take them for all that they were worth... but he spoke about it so eloquently and, dude, that ankle tattoo was hot.

7. Name a character that most people dislike, but that you do not. Why do you like them?
This one's hard. I THINK most people disliked Professor Snape. But I never bought that hardass comportment of his.

8. Which minor character deserves a book all to themselves, in your opinion?
The character Grace, from March by Geraldine Brooks. I'd like to know what eventually happened to this educated slave turned nurse who, for a brief moment in time, was the object of Peter March's desire.

Then again, there's Uncle Fat Face in Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo...

9. Which character do you identify most with in literature?
MOST?? Hmm, that's a toughy. Probably Lala in Caramelo. I can relate to her attempt at making peace with the family that she was given, with all its melodrama, dysfunction, tragedy, exaggerated stories and otherwise craziness. I can relate to the slew of eccentric aunts and uncles, the "awful" grandmother, the one I wish I could've gotten to the bottom of before she passed. But also the bad haircuts, the gaud, the family road trips from hell, the nicknames (omigod, the nicknames) -- Kika, Tito, Pee Wee, Pepe, BeBet, Beebo, Mouse, Nana, but also Booga Wooga, Baldaraldi, and Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair. I also identified with the lack of privacy, the nonsensical cultural and religious traditions that I treasure to this day... It's a decadent book and, I can only imagine, a little difficult to read if you've never been around (and intimately so) an enormous Mexican-American family which heavily relies on Spanglish colloquialims to communicate. I gave it to another dear friend, Laurie... the beautiful Czech-American. Her general reaction after reading it was, "Ummm... Yeah, that was great fun. And kind of HORRIBLE, Catherine."

10. If you could go into a novel, which one would it be and why?
I'd love to go into Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and visit Susie Salmon's version of heaven where there's always a faint scent of skunk in the air and everybody in school studies fashion magazines while spying obsessively on their loved ones.

11. Name 3 - 7 books that you rarely see on people’s favorite book lists, that are high on your own.
1. Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
2. Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros
3. Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund
4. The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
6. A Garden of Sand, by Earl Thompson
7. I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb

At least, I haven't seen much of these on other people's favorite book lists, anyway.

12. Which is your least favorite book of those that are considered “classics”?
William Golding's Lord of the Flies, maybe?? Then again, it could've just been the age at which I read it. 16ish. It was way too dark, grim, pessimistic and YUCKY for my taste. Maybe I'd read it now and be all, "Wow, that Bill really nailed it, man.

So now there's only one thing I love more than doing a book meme. And that's reading YOUR book meme. Please let me know in the comments if you do this so that I can go admire your answers.