Do you think James T. Kirk was a fan of C. S. Forester, or was Zane Gray more his speed?
Was Lord Peter Wimsey a fan of the poetry of Keats or Browning, or did he perhaps have a soft spot in his heart for Donne?
Before the zombie apocalypse, did Rick Grimes speed to the bookstore on the day the new Robert B. Parker novel came out, or was he more of a Iain Banks man?
Well, that’s for the thread to decide. Pick a fictional character you like whom you judge likely to be a reader of literature, and tell us who that character’s favorite novelist, short story writer, or poet is. And, of course, explain your answer. The best answer gets the second piece of chocolate cake.
Nero Wolfe loved all kinds of books, but was particularly devoted to Jane Austen and Emma.
That’s not my opinion- Rex Stout said so in print many times.
And Bertie Wooster was very fond of Rex Stout, while his valet Jeeves read Spinoza.
Steven Dedalus, protagonist of Joyce’s*** Ulysses ***and ***Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ***was devoted to Lord Byron.
Lord Peter Wimsey quoted Donne constantly, most notably while having sex on his wedding night (“not faint canaries but ambrosial”).
But if you just want opinions…
WIlly Loman definitely read and re-read Dale Carnegie’s*** How to Win Friends and Influence People.***
Dirk Gently would probably enjoy Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Arthur Dent would want you to know he enjoys Keats, Shelley and Byron, but actually has (uh, had) a stack of cheap thrillers by his bedside.
Apparently Mr. Spock liked Dickens well enough to gift Captain Kirk with a copy of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.
Of course I want opinions. This is me, remember?
That could mean that he knew KIRK liked Dickens. I’m not a huge Sue Grafton fan, but I used to give the latest alphabet mystery to my baby sister for Xmas each year, because I knew she liked them.
I started reading Sue Grafton because I was reading Lawrence Block’s “The Burglar Who…” series, and Bernie Rhodenbarr (The Burglar Who) recommended Grafton to his best friend.
Molly Bloom liked Paul de Kock, at least partly because of his name.
Lord Peter also evidently enjoyed Wodehouse enough to at least caution Bunter “not to go all Jeeves on me”. (Or did Wooster compare Jeeves to Bunter? No, I think it was Lord Peter–Bertram was hardly a reader).
Jean Valjean reads a lot of Victor Hugo. He identifies with it.
In something of an in-joke (she’s partly based on Horatio Hornblower, note the initials) Honor Harrington likes C. S. Forester.
Agreed. Wimsey loved Donne above all. But also read Ernest Bramah’s Kai Lung, and was thrilled when Harriet could play quotations from Kai Lung, too. He obviously read PG Wodehouse and imitated the silly ass characters.
Brawne Lamia totally went for Johnny Keats.