The Imagined Favorite Books of 7 Literary Characters

The Imagined Favorite Books of 7 Literary Characters One of the things I love most when reading a book is when we get a glimpse of the characters reading or even get to glance over their bookshelves. What characters read can tell us so much about them in a flash: we learn more from Marianne Dashwoods love of romantic poetry than we do from Jane Austens more overt statements about her sentimentality, for instance. But, sometimes we dont get that glimpse into the reading lives of our favorite characters. Well, dont fret! Here for your reading edification are the books I imagine might be the faves of seven literary figures.  (Since this is Book Riot and were making up the rules as we go along, Ive assumed everyone has access to a TARDIS or something and can get books from as recent as last week.) Without further ado: Anne Shirley (L. M. Montgomerys  Anne of Green Gables): In her youth, Anne devoured fantasy novels like Ursula Le Guins Earthsea cycle.  More recently, though, Anne has settled on a new favorite: Susan Swans  The Wives of Bath, which made her question the true nature of her childhood friendship with Diana Barryâ€"she tried to remember: had she ever seen Diana and Gilbert Blythe together?â€"as well as how much she truly lived by her own rules, rather than those of men.  Plus, its CanCon (even if it is set in Toronto). Philip Marlowe  (Raymond Chandlers The Big Sleep and other novels): If theres one thing Philip Marlowe likes as much as a flask of whiskey, its a good mystery. He lives them by day, and reads them by night, at least until the bourbon  kicks in and he dozes off on top of a dogeared mass market mystery bought at an airport bookstore. His personal favorite? Gone Girl  by Gillian Flynn,  which had Marlowe second-guessing himself at each twist and turn. Plus, it had a duplicitous dame at the center of a web of lies. Marlowe knows you can never trust a dame. Miss Havisham  (Charles Dickens  Great Expectations): Miss Havishams  bookshelves are filled with foxed  books and mildewed  magazines from decades past, slowly decaying like the the wedding cake that still sits on her table. But, after a lifetime of misery, Miss Havisham knows who to blame:  the goddamn patriarchy. So,  every month or so  she sends Estella off to the comic shop to pick up her copy of Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro. Miss Havisham loves the story of non-compliant women fighting back against the system, as well as the fantastic essays and interviews in the back matter. She loves the book so much, she has Estella carefully bag and board every issue to protect from ambient cake molds. Macbeth (William Shakespeares  Macbeth): Macbeth loves  stories about politics. He loves  House of Cards, though he cant decide if he prefers the original UK version or the US remake. But his favoriteâ€"both on screen and on paperâ€"is George R. R. Martins  A Song of Ice and Fire series  because of its  unexpected twists, epic battles, and political intrigue. Macbeth  especially loves Cersei, who has a governing philosophy much like his own, and he has a really good feeling shell be the one sitting on the Iron Throne when its all over. (You know nothing, Macbeth.) Cosette (Victor Hugos  Les Misérables): Lets be real: Cosettes life has not exactly been the most thrilling. She grew up  as a servant, and just when it looked like things were about to get exciting, she was shuffled off to a convent. She did have a secret romance with Marius Pontmercy, but he totally left her behind when he went to fight at the barricades. And even now that shes more-or-less happily married, Cosettes life is still as boring as ever. She now reads primarily  action-packed YA novels, through which she can live vicariously. Her current faves? Margaret Stohls  Black Widow: Forever Red and its sequel Red Vengeance. Susan Pevensie (C.S. Lewiss Chronicles of Narnia):  Susan is the one Pevensie child who broke free of Narnias embrace. When her siblings all returned to Narnia one last time (i.e., they died), Susan stayed behind and picked up the pieces (made the funeral arrangments). And why did she stay behind? Because shes interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. In other words, she grew up. (Terrible sin, I know.) Susan is now a  professor of gender studies, and regularly falls asleep reading essays from  Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist. Iphigenia (Euripides Iphigenia at Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris): Iphigenia has lived a bit too much for one person. She was nearly sacrificed to Artemis by her father, Agamemnon,  only to be saved at the last moment by the goddess herself and whisked away to Crimea, where she was given the fun task of sacrificing any foreigners who happened to wander in. (The Greeks and their gods were a fun-loving, welcoming bunch.)  As an immigrant herself, Iphigenia now reads a lot of novels about people who find themselves in distant, hostile lands, but her true love is Bernardine Evaristos novel in verse The Emperors Babe  about the love life a Nubian immigrant in third century Londinium.