Tag: top ten tuesday

Top ten settings/worlds in books:

1. Gellert Grindelwald (Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling) – Okay, so we do know a lot about him – but only through Dumbledore, and a dead Dumbledore at that! He’s not just on the list because I love the dark, mysterious air of Dumbledore’s shocking past – though that’s the main reason! We first know about on the Chocolate Frog card in the first book, and at the end we know the whole story! Grindelwald is sort of scarily awesome – just like Voldemort.

2. The Death of Rats (Discworld – Terry Pratchett) – It is a rat skeleton, walking on its hind legs, wearing a black robe and carrying a teenie scythe. It is just an aspect of Death that is allowed to have a separate existence! It is called the Grim Squeaker. You don’t really know what this guy’s saying, because its vocabulary consists of “Squeaks” and “Eeks”(all spoken directly into people’s minds due to lack of any real voice, all in small caps font!)

3. The Luggage (Discworld – Terry Pratchett) – The large chest, with thousands of tiny legs, that follows its owner wherever he goes, and swallows people that annoy it. What’s not to like? No one really knows what happens to the people it ‘eats up’ and no one knows exactly how The Luggage came into existence. The Luggage is the most absurdly imaginative character ever! I love it!!

4. QT1 “Cutie” (I, Robot – Isaac Asimov) – The robot that begins to believe in a higher power! He’s a highly advanced model with great intellectual capacity, using which, he convinces himself that it is impossible for mere humans to have created him. He begins to believe in a Master and proclaims himself as His prophet. Sound familiar? Before you know it, the new ‘religion’ spreads throughout the station and the robots refuse to take orders from the humans!

5. Fermin Romero de Torres (The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon) – I loved this character! And specially his overwhelming sense of humour! A beggar, who is an ex-soldier with a terrifying past, who later works at Daniel’s father’s shop and goes on to become his great and loyal friend! He is kind of childish, but terribly funny and has the best lines!!

6. Professor McGonagall (Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling) – You know, it’s really hard to choose favourites in Harry Potter. I don’t really consider Hagrid, Sirius, Neville, Luna, Dobby as minor characters. I like Minerva McGonagall of all the professors, and she’s a ‘minor’ character, because we don’t really know much about her. But she is one of the ‘good guys’, she can turn into a cat, and Transfiguration is one of my favourite Hogwarts subjects!!

7. Dog – The Hellhound (Good Omens – Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman) – He is sent from hell, a ferocious beast, to be the young Antichrist’s protector. On earth, however, he becomes a small terrier! His name is Dog and despite himself, he loves being and acting like a small dog – chasing rats and jumping around and yapping at cats.

8. Francis Adirubasamy (Life of Pi – Yann Martel) – Pi’s “Mamaji”, a close friend of the Patel family, he not only teaches Pi to swim but is also the one to tell the author the story! He is a world class swimmer and names Piscine “Pi” Patel after his favourite swimming pool in France. I loved his swimming lessons with Pi and his family, and the fact that Ravi calls him “Mr. Fish”!

9. The Cat (Coraline – Neil Gaiman) – It has no name because cats don’t need names to tell each other apart. It’s Coraline’s guide in the Other World, where it has no counterpart because cats can keep themselves together. The clever, sarcastic and slightly smug black cat is my favourite character from that book (there aren’t many good ones to choose from!)

10. Jeremiah de Saint-Amour (Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez) – Not my favourite book, but I liked it at the start; where Jeremiah is a prominent character. While he is not important to the actual story, I love how we get insight into the book’s main characters through him. I found it kind of fascinating!

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