Do you believe it’s mid-way through July already? It’s time for a Top Ten Tuesday and the subject for today is Ten Bookish Characters in Books (that I have read and enjoyed).
I found it interesting that these bookish characters I enjoyed spent time with me when I was younger. Though I still revisited several of them in later life.
1. Anne Frank loved her books in the Diary of Anne Frank. It surprises me how much I think of and remember her and often wonder what would have become of her had she not perished in the Holocaust.
2. Atticus Finch is a bookish character that many of us know from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I loved him in both the book and the film. Gregory Peck certainly did justice to him in the film version. A lovely character.
3. Elizabeth Bennet and all of her sisters, for the matter in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen were certainly bookish characters. I often wonder how much more we would all read if we didn’t have tv, Netflix and the internet. It becomes harder and harder to focus on books at times of tiredness when these are 
available. We must be strong!
4. Liesel Meminger shared her reading with us in the wonderful story of The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak. What a great book that is.
5. Jay Gatsby had that huge library in The Great Gatsby. He must have been a reader to have had so many books in his home. Another wonderful tale I have read a couple of times. F. Scott Fitzgerald.
6. Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and other characters in Betty Smith’s books were readers. Francie would sit on the fire escape outside of her Brooklyn apartment and read during the summer days. A character I continue to love. 
7. Jo March in Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott. Who doesn’t remember the influence she had on our reading as a young person. I can still see her sitting by the fireplace reading her books. An image 
that will remain forever.
8. Clare Abshire in the Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Although she was an artist I will always remember her as a very old woman sitting in her chair when her husband revisits her once more, reading a book and sees 
her sitting there. An unforgettable image.
9. Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch by George Elliot. She had such high hopes of working with that awful husband of hers that she thought she would assist. She was most certainly a reader. That early life was certainly a disappointment. 
10. This is one non-fiction character who sat in his study with his wife Helen and good friend Seigfried Farnon in front of a roaring fire reading their veterinary journals and books. I’m referring to the well known veterinarian, James Herriot. I remember the scene fondly from the wonderful series with Christopher Timothy playing the lead role. Mr. Penguin and I went to Thirsk in the early 1970’s to tour the areas the books and series mentioned. We were fortunate enough to meet the wonderful James Heriott in the flesh. We visited his surgery along with about 12 other people and chatted to him. We saw the little border terrier that he is often pictured with and he signed our
book. It was unforgettable to us.
What an eclectic collection of travels through wonderful books and characters this little meme has been. 
Last night a friend and I went to the Playhouse Theatre in Hobart. It is the home of the Hobart Repertory Theatre Society that was established in 1926. They feature amateur community productions. One often sees the same actors from play to play. The plays can be excellent and there is a very congenial attitude of mixed ages in the audience. Also chocolate is very cheap. You get a chocolate bar, a glass of wine if you wish, take it to your seat and enjoy the play. I support them every year by going to most of their performances. Last night we saw a production of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was a cold and windy night and the audience wasn’t packed like it usually is but the people who bothered to come out had a good time. They didn’t seem to have enough men/boys for the pirates so many girls played both girls and boys. They made good pirates. A young woman played the part of 14 year old Jim Hawkins and she did such a good job. Long John Silver was great fun. (Can’t find actor’s name). It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday night despite the cold.
I finished the Mongolian horse race book by Lara Prior-Palmer, Rough Magic. I found it to be an average read. I liked her writing and hearing about the logistics of the horse race. She wrote about some of the Mongolian people she met and that was interesting. I got a little bit tired in parts when she flashes back to other times in her life. I think she had a lot of time to think of her past as the traversed the long days on the Mongolian steppes. I know when I rode my Scooter from Hobart to Long Reach, Queensland in Australia (one way 2300 kms/1450 miles) I was on very long straight stretches of road and your mind wanders to all sorts of memories, thoughts, creative ideas, future plans. She put a lot of these thoughts into her book. I would give it three stars. Just a good read. However I do think she is a character whom I will remember for a long time and I will remember her story. That is always a good measure of a book.
Good Reads describes it as: A gripping and shocking story of a serial killer mother, and the brave daughter who brought her to justice. Dulcie Bodsworth was the unlikeliest serial killer. She was loved everywhere she went, and the townsfolk of Wilcannia, which she called home in the late 1950s, thought of her as kind and caring. The officers at the local police station found Dulcie witty and charming, and looked forward to the scones and cakes she generously baked and delivered for their morning tea.
Travellin' Penguin 