I'm thirty-six, so I tend not to use the term "fangirl" to describe myself. But I absolutely use the verb "fangirling" to describe my behavior at times -- I can act all fangirly even if I'm not exactly a fangirl. Just drop a character name or quote a line, and *boom!* I'm ready to discuss, dissect, drool, or daydream. Also bounce and make happy noises. Pretty much this:
I belong to a multitude of fandoms, both literary and filmed, but today I'm going to limit myself to talking about my top ten book fandoms because, after all, this is my book blog. And I have to draw the line somewhere, or we'd be here all summer.
1. Sherlock Holmes
I'm a Sherlockian. Or a Holmesian -- I'll answer to either :-) I first started reading his stories in my early teens and have grown to love the canon dearly. I also love Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novels by Laurie R. King, the Granada Television show starring Jeremy Brett, and much of Sherlock. But the canon is the best.
2. Lord of the Rings
I came to LOTR backwards. My college friends dragged me to the theater to see The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, and I bought a copy of the books that same week. I've read the trilogy six times, and am calling 2017 My Year in Middle Earth because I'm reading it again, and digging into several other books about Tolkien or Middle Earth as well.
3. Anne of Green Gables
I've been an Anne fan since one of my mom's friends introduced us to the books when I was probably seven or eight. We watched the movies over and over as I was growing up, but I like the books best, especially Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of Windy Poplars, and Anne's House of Dreams. I dream of visiting PEI one day.
4. Raymond Chandler
My absolute favorite author. I've read all his novels and short stories numerous times, and re-read one now and then just for the pure delight of soaking in his amazing descriptive power. People ask me what my favorite Chandler novel is, and the truth is, I don't truly have one. My favorite tends to be whichever one I read the most recently.
5. William Shakespeare
This one's pretty obvious, given that I've taken my blogging name from one of his plays. I love Hamlet the most, and also Much Ado About Nothing and Taming of the Shrew, but I get a lot of joy from many of his works.
6. Jane Austen
Ahh, the divine Jane. I prefer being called an Austenite rather than a Janeite, but either way, I'm a fan. She makes me laugh, she makes me think -- it's all good. I love Persuasion the most <3
7. Nero Wolfe
I came to Rex Stout's mystery series backwards too -- first, I started watching the A&E series starring Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin and Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe, then I found some of the books at the library and tried them. How I love those books! They're my bookish version of comfort food.
8. Robin Hood
I've been a fan of Robin Hood in books and on film since I was very tiny. It started with the Disney read-along book that came with a record, which I totally still have -- my kids listen to it now. I've had to tape the cover of the book back on like three times. Then I progressed to the Great Illustrated Classics version, which I wore out. Except the last chapter. I never read the last chapter in any Robin Hood retelling that is going to involve Robin Hood d-y-i-n-g. If I don't read it, it doesn't happen. Just the fact that the chapter is titled "The Death of Robin Hood" or something equally dismal doesn't make it so, as long as I don't read it. My favorite book version so far is definitely Howard Pyle's, which delights me to no end.
9. Harry Potter
Yup, I'm a Potterhead. (Is that still what HP fans get called?) My favorite characters are Sirius Black, Severus Snape, and Ron Weasley. My favorite book is Prisoner of Azkaban. I like some of the movies too.
10. Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
I read all 20 of Patrick O'Brian's naval novels more than a decade ago, before there was a movie, and I have been itching to re-read them. Maybe I'll dedicate the next two years to them or something. I love hanging out with those characters!
Sherlock Holmes is my #1 fandom too. :)
ReplyDeleteExcept I quit reading the Mary Russell novels after the first one; Sherlock Holmes... married? EWWW. ;)
Lol! Maybe it's because I was already married when I started reading King's books, but I am charmed by the married Holmes. Especially because he remains so thoroughly undomesticated.
DeleteI like the idea of Holmes being single all his life; rather like how annoyed I was when Doctor Who, this tremendous 900 year old Time Lord, fell in love with an earthling. NOOO, leave my asexual heroes alone! ;)
DeleteCharity, I know others like you who prefer him asexual and single. You're not alone!
DeleteLet's see: I'm with you on Sherlock (since my folks gave me the omnibus edition for Christmas when I was 11) - and I am "canon-only" even though I like some of the pastiches, LOTR since a friend turned me on at the age of 13, Harry Potter ("always ...") I just finished reading them straight through.
ReplyDeleteAmong those you don't have listed: Narnia (in fact, most of Lewis' writing), Dune (although I quit part of the way into "God-Emperor of Dune", I super <3 the original book), and the Temeraire books of Naomi Novik.
I like Anne, Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Nero Wolfe (who I read before even Lee Horsley was a gleam in some television execs eye) :). I don't consider myself a "fan" of any of them though. Robin Hood and Raymond Chandler -- I read the Howard Pyle "Robin Hood". I think I read "The Big Sleep" by Chandler. Aubrey/Maturin ... I wish I had tried to read the books before I saw "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World". There's a big difference between the books and movies, and I might have liked the books better if I wasn't trying to see Russell Crowe in them. :)
Janet, my son is a major Narnia fan too! I've read the books, some of them more than once, but they never exactly sucked me in.
DeleteI felt like Master and Commander did an amazing job of bringing the books to life -- I had read most, maybe all, of them before it came out, and I sat in the theater basically going into paroxysms of delight over the ways they nailed various characters and scenes. They amalgamated a bunch of different books into one story for it, though, so I know a lot of people have been annoyed by that. I still consider it one of the best book-to-film adaptations I've seen, though.
I forgot: Since you like Chandler, maybe you'd like this spoof, written by one of my favorite comic writers (who also wrote a couple of films for the Marx Brothers), S. J. Perelman. Without further ado, "Farewell, my lovely appetizer".
ReplyDeletehttps://johnesimpson.com/blog/2013/05/story-up-my-sleeve-1-farewell-my-lovely-appetizer-by-s-j-perelman/
And thanks for the links, Janet! Yes, I've read "Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer" before. I have a couple of S. J. Perelman's books, in fact!
DeleteMake that:
ReplyDeletehttps://github.com/poritsky/A-Treasury-of-PDFs/blob/master/Perelman,%20S.%20J./1944-12-16%20%E2%80%93%20Farewell,%20My%20Lovely%20Appetizer.pdf
The other link I pointed you to is only an excerpt.
What a fun post! These all fit you so much!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have any book fandoms any more, but I sure did when I was young. Mostly fantasy worlds, of course. The Han Solo books. Pern/Dragonriders, and Piers Anthony's Phaze/Proton world. I still love all those but haven't read any of them in at least fifteen years. I'm also still in love with Barbara Hambly's awesome Darwath Trilogy, which I do re-read every few years. And with the Land from the first three Thomas Covenant books by Stephen R. Donaldson, but that's a contentious choice I understand. People complain he stole everything from LotR, but since I read Covenant long before I ever read LotR, I never had any issues. Never had any issues after I finally read LotR either. That's still a world and characters I think about a lot.
And it's really funny, cuz no matter how much I've read the Darwath Trilogy and the Thomas Covenant books -- which is a lot -- I can NEVER remember how either series ends. It's crazy. I cannot hang onto the endings. Every time I re-read, I read just as fast as I did the first time to find out what happens because I seem to get memory-wiped after I finish each re-read. Bizarre.
DKoren, those all sound like they suit you, too. Interesting that you are also a fan of a series people complain is derivative -- people complain that about the Eragon books too, but I found them more just complying with the great mythic structures than copying LOTR or Star Wars. I'd like to re-read them at some point, too.
DeleteI love books that I forget the ends of! I have that with The Westing Game, though I purposely don't read it for several years so that I will forget the end and it will be all fresh.
7/10 of these are definitely in my top 10 as well. I love these Top 10 Tuesday posts. :)
ReplyDeleteLaura, wow! That's cool we share so many fandoms :-)
DeleteI agree -- they're such a fun series.
Wonderful list! Jane Austen and Shakespeare would definitely have made my list as well if I had stuck with bookish fandoms :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Suzanne! Hard to go wrong with either of them, huh?
DeleteI love Jane Austen so much. I just bought the most beautiful edition of Pride and Prejudice. I think I might be part of this fandom too.
ReplyDeleteAlicia, so cool! I love finding gorgeous copies of books I love... especially if I can afford them :-)
DeleteYour list of fandoms has led me to add several books onto by TBR list, like books from Nero Wolfe and Raymond Chandler. Since I have never read any Raymond Chandler books, which book or books would you suggest I read first?
ReplyDeleteThe Howard Pyle version of Robin Hood is the only version I have read, so I'm glad I haven't read a version of Robin Hood where he dies. That would be depressing and sad.
Besides the authors I have not read, I also have not read the Harry Potter books, not the Patrick O'Brian ones. I do have Master and Command on my bookshelf, but I just haven't gotten around to reading it. Besides those 4 fandoms, I am a fan of all the other fandoms you mentioned.
Ekaterina, that's so cool! I hope you like them :-) Hmmm. I'm not sure which book of his would be best to start with. "The Big Sleep" is the most famous, and it's also the one I read first, so I guess I'll go with that.
DeleteCool that we share a lot of fandoms!
Ok. I will read "The Big Sleep" first. I know there is a movie called "The Big Sleep" with Bogie and Bacall. Is that based on this book? If it is based on the book, should I read the book or watch the movie first?
DeleteI read the Thin Man book after I watched the first 4 movies. I think I liked the movies more than the book, so I'm glad I watched the movies before I read the book.
Ekaterina, I like the Thin Man movies WAY better than the original book.
DeleteThe Bogie/Bacall movie is indeed based on the book, and it's a remarkably faithful adaptation. Really, you could do either one first -- I don't think the movie would blight the book, or vice versa. The movie plays up the romance more, IIRC, just because Bogart & Bacall were falling in love in real life right then, and their romance made them a hot commodity, so the filmmakers wanted to cash in on that.
I'm so pleased to see Chandler make your list! :)
ReplyDeleteLauren @ Always Me
Lauren, absolutely must have Raymond Chandler on as many lists as possible <3
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