# Fictional characters who love to read for pleasure **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768 "2012-06-10T23:48:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/41 "2012-06-12T19:56:01Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Large numbers of books depressed Scarlett O’Hara, as did people who liked to read large numbers of books…all except _Ashley Wilkes_. Melanie Hamilton Wilkes is also a reader and, while it’s never expilcitely stated that Rhett Butler reads a lot, he quotes a lot of classics and seems to know an astonishly lot about everything. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/42 "2012-06-12T22:12:45Z")
> [@Syme](#): > > Don Quijote embarked in a quest after having read to many silly books of knights embarking in romantic nonsensical quests or so Senor Miguel de Cervantes tells us in the first novel ever written in Spanish or any other language. **Syme** , if you were talking TO Miguel de Cervantes in that sentence, then it’s your English grammar that sucks. Seriously, dude, you think you know more Spanish than I do, when I’m Spanish and you claim to admire the Quijote and to have read it in Spanish because you did not want to subject yourself to the vagaries of translators, but you missed half the story? ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/43 "2012-06-12T22:42:56Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Sherlock Holmes, I believe. Holmes was a reader, but not for pleasure. Ran against his empty attic theory of the mind. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/44 "2012-06-12T22:44:20Z")
> [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > Holmes was a reader, but not for pleasure. Ran against his empty attic theory of the mind. This was contradicted later in the Canon–Holmes quotes Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/45 "2012-06-13T00:29:36Z")
Francie Nolan from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” was reading her way through the library. A book a day, in alphabetical order by author. Klaus Baudelaire in “A Series of Unfortunate Events” ---
**Author:** ![Syme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Syme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syme)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/46 "2012-06-13T01:32:29Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > **Syme** , if you were talking TO Miguel de Cervantes in that sentence, then it’s your English grammar that sucks. Seriously, dude, you think you know more Spanish than I do, when I’m Spanish and you claim to admire the Quijote and to have read it in Spanish because you did not want to subject yourself to the vagaries of translators, but you missed half the story? I simply read it in Spanish because this is my language, in other words is the language we speak in my native country, so why would I read it in translation ? and I admire Don Quijote, not’ the Quijote’, first time I read someone calling him ‘the Quijote’ and I didn’t miss half the story either Oops! before I forget and since I am addressing one of those who think they know it all pedants , in my country of birth we speak Castellano to be precise, not Catalán or the ancient language spoken in the land of ETA :rolleyes: Adios compadre ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/47 "2012-06-13T02:05:41Z")
> [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > Holmes was a reader, but not for pleasure. Ran against his empty attic theory of the mind. That’s what I was going to say. Even if he later quoted Shakespeare and the Bible, for instance, I don’t recall any scene in which Watson found him reading a non-work-related book. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/48 "2012-06-13T09:15:37Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > Just about any of Heinlein’s characters. How could I have forgotten. In both “Have spacesuit - will travel” and “Job : a comedy of justice” Heinlein expresses his high thoughts about libraries and librarians through the words of the main characters. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/49 "2012-06-13T13:55:04Z")
Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/50 "2012-06-13T15:33:44Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > This was contradicted later in the Canon–Holmes quotes Shakespeare. There are better ways to come to know Shakespeare than by reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/51 "2012-06-14T05:24:43Z")
> [@bahia\_hombre](#): > > My thought exactly. (I wouldn’t have known the name though) I had to look the name up. I had no trouble remembering the episode title. To the OP, also, Matilda. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/52 "2012-06-14T09:59:33Z")
Daria is always reading. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/53 "2012-06-14T12:03:36Z")
Twilight Sparkle literally lives in a library. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/54 "2012-06-14T12:28:19Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Hermione Granger And Severus Snape! Also Sarah Crewe from A Little Princess. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/55 "2012-06-14T19:53:12Z")
> [@Southpaw](#): > > Francie Nolan from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” was reading her way through the library. A book a day, in alphabetical order by author. And Annie Brown in Joy in the Morning is an avid reader and writer. Both charaters are obviously based on author Betty Smith. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/56 "2012-06-20T20:21:42Z")
All-of-A-Kind Family hasn’t been mentioned. The weekly trip to the library was a major event for Ella, Henrietta, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertrude. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/57 "2012-06-21T15:36:09Z")
> [@Zabali\_Clawbane](#): > > And Severus Snape! Also Sarah Crewe from A Little Princess. And the [better version](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality) of Harry Potter. Yeah, I said it. Honestly the first character I’ve so thoroughly identified with in any fiction. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/58 "2012-06-22T03:51:11Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Twilight Sparkle literally lives in a library. And in Season Two she helped Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, get hooked on reading. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/59 "2012-06-22T14:30:13Z")
Mark Herron in _Then There Were Five_, by Elizabeth Enright ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768/60 "2012-06-22T16:53:36Z")
Robin in _[The Velvet Room.](http://www.amazon.com/Velvet-Room-Zilpha-Keatley-Snyder/dp/B000I3C5S4/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340383992&sr=1-3&keywords=the+velvet+room)_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-who-love-to-read-for-pleasure/624768.md?page=2)