In much of literature, love stories are about couples who have to overcome tremendous obstacles to be together – but sometimes the only obstacle to a happily ever after is the couple itself.
Two characters who spend most of a story arguing until a sudden realization and declaration of love is, of course, a romantic comedy staple, and not unique to the silver screen. Some of our favorite fictional pairs spend their books completely oblivious to the relationship that’s right in front of them.
Emma and Mr. Knightley in the 1996 film
Butterbeer via Food Through the Pages
Though the idea of exploring fantasy worlds through their food has been around for decades, sharing recipes taken from the pages of favorite books has become a rising online trend. If you know where to look, you can find instructions for baking lembas bread, groosling stew, or Fruity Oaty Bars.
Some enterprising chefs and fans of Game of Thrones have even ventured into the world of medieval grilling with wild boar, snake, and birds not commonly found in the refrigerated case at the grocery store.
Many of the web sites devoted to fictional feasting are still growing, but their collaborative efforts bring cooking, community, and literature together in one place. Check out a few of them with the links below:
Photo by Loudest Noise
Some of fiction’s greatest stories revolve around the anti-villains, the wrongfully accused, or the unfortunately misunderstood.
Today, we take a look at ten characters whose crimes ought to be excused by reasons of redemption-by-death, traumatic childhoods, or a shift in the moral event horizon.
Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter): A married woman has an affair that results in a child, but refuses to give up her lover, and is literally branded a slut for everyone to see. Sure, during the era the novel is set adultery is a stoning offense, but by today’s standards, Hester’s dalliance with Dimmesdale would only earn her a spot on Real Housewives of Boston.
When you take into account that her elderly husband sent her to live in the village by herself, the outcome is hardly surprising, or deserving of such punishment. Hester deserves a pardon, and if she lived today, she’d probably have a book deal.
Severus Snape (Harry Potter): The Potions master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry makes the list as it remains unclear whether or not Severus Snape’s bravery is known after Harry defeats Voldemort. The only proof of Snape’s true loyalty lay in Dumbledore’s Pensieve, and probably didn’t survive the Battle of Hogwarts, so the world may never know that Snape was, in fact, the greatest triple agent the Wizarding World had ever seen. With that secret out, he surely deserves forgiveness for whatever crimes he might have committed while undercover.
There are hundreds of podcasts out in the ether these days, with a range of audio quality from one guy in a basement with a computer microphone to company-sponsored full-cast performances. Finding programs to listen to while you’re in the car, going for a jog, or just hanging out at home is largely about trial and error, starting with a topic that interests you and downloading the usually free shows until you find the voices that suit your tastes.
One of the great things about the growth of podcasts as a means of expression is that modern technology can connect people from across the country for a chat, and the content is one hundred percent up to the creators.
Here we’ve compiled a list of some great podcasts that tackle books, authors, publishing, and everything in between.
What better way to celebrate July 7th, Chocolate Day than a look at some of the sweet confections the Etsy marketplace has to offer?
Though chocolate itself is available in abundance on the site, we thought we’d shine a spotlight on the creations inspired by the number one Candy Man himself: Mr. Willy Wonka.
The Sunnydale High Library in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
It’s National Library Week, and even fictional characters need a place to check out books from time to time. Though it’s not always the case, fictional libraries tend to be magical; after all, they’re created by writers, and writers know the power of the written word. If they’re going to invent a repository for knowledge, then at the very least, it should be an interesting one.
Of course, in the manner of mice, cookies, and milk, when a writer creates an unusual library, he or she is going to invent an unusual librarian to go along with it. Here are a few memorable made-up archives and their equally memorable keepers:
Matilda & Mrs. Phelps in Matilda: The Musical
The Local Public Library & Mrs. Phelps (Matilda): Roald Dahl’s classic opens by introducing the protagonist, Matilda, as a Reader, which perhaps makes Mrs. Phelps the most important librarian of them all – in taking a four-year-old’s request for a ‘grown-up’ book at the local library seriously, she sets the rest of the story into motion. Mrs. Phelps is the first adult in young Matilda’s life to encourage her to learn, and the first to feed her hunger for knowledge.
The magic here is in the moment when Mrs. Phelps presents Matilda with a library card and tells her she can start taking books home.
The Great Library & Cheshire Cat (Thursday Next): In the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, characters can travel in and out of books, interacting with public domain heroes and villains – as long as an intrepid explorer has already found a way in. In Lost in a Good Book Thursday enters the Great Library for the first time, which contains every book ever written, every book that ever will be written, “and a few others beside.”
The Library is the starting point for all Prose Resource Operatives, or members of Jurisfiction, and is overseen by the ‘quite mad’ Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland (technically, the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat due to adjusted county boundaries). He can give you the publication date, ranking, and up-to-the second reading figures for every book in the library – as long as you have tuna-flavored Moggalicious to trade.
