So, Chris over at Stuff as Dreams apologetically tagged me with this meme last week (though he need not have been sorry) as it is a fun and relatively simple one. So, without further ado, here is the

Booked By 3 Meme

Name up to three characters…

1. ….You wish were real so you could meet them:

*The Little Hairy Man, from Stardust. He is such an odd, interesting, mysterious, quirky, and ultimately sweet character. I am always sad when the parts of the book with him present are over.

*Anne Shirley, from Anne of Green Gables, etc. I fell in love with the character initially because of the Walt Disney Wonderworks films. In the opening scene she is walking through the trees reading Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott…at that point I was smitten. I became further enamored by the delightful novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Megan Follows was an excellent choice for the role and she will always be the image of my Anne when I read the books.

*Betty Cooper. Okay, so I know this isn’t a book, but I grew up reading Archie comics and was still reading them in my late teens/early 20’s. I never understood why Arch didn’t push Veronica out the door and devote his all to Betty. She is the ideal crush: beautiful, smart, courteous, compassionate, devoted…the list could go on and on.

2. ….You would like to be: (I hate this one)

I think Chris might have added the ‘I hate this one’ and I sort of agree. It feels very much like what we all used to do as a child, play-acting our favorite characters from movies, television, and books. But, since I’m a child at heart, here goes:

*Slippery Jim DiGriz (The Stainless Steel Rat) from The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat (and sequels) by Harry Harrison. I saw myself as a bit of a rebellious kid growing up (and I did have my moments) and I did not have alot of respect for authority when it got in the way of doing what I wanted to do, so it was easy for me to idolize characters like Han Solo (who I would pick as well but since Star Wars was a movie first I won’t totally cheat!), and good ol’ Slippery Jim. He was smooth and cunning but also made alot of mistakes and got into his fair share of scrapes. And his better half, Angelina…woo! Ever since seeing Mr. and Mrs. Smith I have maintained that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would be the perfect pair to cast in a Stainless Steel Rat movie.

*Richard Mayhew, from Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. And who wouldn’t want to be him? Richard Mayhew experienced the life I daydreamed about as a child. Falling through the cracks in the world to discover another, more exotic, more exciting, and more dangerous world. Who wouldn’t want to leave a drab job and a relationship with someone who didn’t really love you to go on adventures with the Lady Door and her friends? Especially if she looked like Laura Fraser (from the film version):

*Harry Creek, from The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi. Out of all the fun and interesting characters in this rollicking caper of a book, Harry Creek is my favorite. He’s a brave and talented everyman and a very likeable guy.

3. ….Who scare you:

*The three vampire women from Dracula by Bram Stoker. The first time I read this book was at age 11 or 12 and I remember being swept up in the sense of foreboding and dread of the first act of the book. These three women, who Jonathan Harker was both attracted to and repulsed by were, and are, frightful figures. Seductive and yet sickening, with their aroma of death and decay underlying a sickly-sweet perfume, they remain very creepy in my remembrances.

*Laura, Shadow’s dead wife from American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Laura dies in a particularly sad and memorable way and then enters Shadow’s life at odd times as his guardian angel, of a sort. She, like the 3 vampire women, has an underlying stench of death and decay that makes being around her difficult. This isn’t what makes her scary, however. It is the gruesome and violent ways in which she protects her widowed husband, Shadow. For some reason when I thought of her I pictured Marley Shelton in the above image from Grindhouse.

*Balrog, from The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Admittedly my images of the Balrog come from the film version of LOTR, but reading about them in The Silmarillion and thinking about creatures like this inhabiting the darker places of the world makes it easy to conjure up images of just how frightening it would be to meet something like this. I like all the unspoken subtext of the idea of a creature, or creatures, as it were, like this existing. Very spooky and evil.

Well, that’s it folks. That was fun. I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you want to do this meme here in the comments or on your site I’d love to read your answers.

And remember, you have until 11:59 p.m. to get in on the contest. The details: leave a comment on a post in each of the (at the time) 53 blogs listed on the Once Upon a Time Challenge Review site. Up for grabs, a signed Terri Windling print and an Endicott Studio t-shirt. There are now more than 53 sites listed, and one of those previously listed didn’t allow comments, so all you need do is hit 52 of the blogs on the list and leave a comment. That’s less than an hours work if you’re quick and witty! Even less if you’ve already visited some of the sites and commented! Get to it. Leave a comment here telling me you finished, or email me at cvincent68@comcast.net, or leave a comment on last week’s announcement of the contest. If you already have done so, you’re covered. The winner will be announced tomorrow!!!