Coffee List = (n.) a list of authors, living or not, whom I would like to take out for coffee just so I could have an excuse to listen to them talk.
(in no particular order)
• Lewis Carroll--he wrote two novels about math. Math rules. 'Nuff said.
• Norton Juster--he also wrote a novel involving math, so right away, he's racking up the coolness points. He also wins the prize for writing the most original inscription of any signed book I own.
• E. Lockhart--she is so goshdarn funny, and when she reads her work in public, she does the voices.
• M.T. Anderson--when I heard him speak on an author's panel, he used words like "ethos" and "postulate" to talk about teen literature. Coooool.
• Louis Sachar--anyone who can weave that many plot threads together and pull off what he did in Holes while still making it look easy... that takes serious talent... and guts.
• Gaius Valerius Catullus--he could make a poem about a cute little bird sound raunchy. Can any other poet do that without coming across like a perv? Think about it.
• Jane Austen--because even in a time when women weren't allowed to inherit land, she wrote strong-minded female protagonists and made them seem believable.
That's my list for now, though I will be adding to it as I think of more authors.
What's yours?
---Edit---
Duh, and how could I forget?
• Samuel Johnson--king of snark and literary bad@$ness, a man not intimidated by even the most insane of literary projects (he wrote a dictionary for crying out loud!). If you doubt me, look up the word "patron" in a copy of Johnson's dictionary. But I have one caveat: he'd better not bring Boswell.
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Found you at Literary Rambles. I love The Phantom Tollbooth and have read it dozens of times, first as a student and later with my own.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the inscription??
Jules Feiffer (don't know how to spell that one)signed my worn copy. He wasn't the friendly sort.
The inscription is: "The extra L is free" which only makes sense if you know two things:
ReplyDelete1) He misspelled my name "Gabriella" instead of "Gabriela."
2) I was holding up my conference name badge for him to copy.
Anyone who can laugh at their own muss-ups and think up with a clever comeback that fast definitely makes my coffee list. That, and the talk he gave before the signing was fantastic.