This week’s theme is all about what you’d put on a syllabus if you were teaching a 101 class. Being me, I’m going to pick fantasy work, because if I could get away with teaching a 101 class on this somewhere, I would.

1. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The quest adventure is a big staple of fantasy literature, and Sir Gawain is a good early example that demonstrates some of the later tropes. I’d possibly add Chrétien de Troyes, The Mabinogion, Malory, some other Arthurian stuff, because that was a huge influence on later fantasy fiction.
2. A Norse saga. I’d have to do some thought on which one, but the Norse stories were such a big influence, it needs to be considered.
3. William Morris. I haven’t read any of his books yet, which I know is a grave lapse, but I know that his work was important in the development of fantastical novels.
4. Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword. This one is probably my favourite, and it would amply demonstrate the way fantasy pulls from Celtic and Nordic mythologies.
5. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. Of course. Hugely influential. The Hobbit was first, but it’s the scale of The Lord of the Rings that later fantasy has tended to emulate.
6. C.S. Lewis. For a Christian-inspired fantasy, also common.
7. Ursula Le Guin, all the Earthsea books. My students would cuss at me, but it’s for their own good. Here fantasy starts engaging with those older, sexist tropes. Less explicitly, also with racial tropes — and we’d have to discuss the cover issues, where many covers have portrayed Ged as white.
8. N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. We’ve got the background. Now let’s start looking at stuff that’s by more diverse authors: we’ve had enough dudes on this syllabus, for sure, and Jemisin is also a person of colour.
9. Patricia Briggs, Moon Called. It’s also worth getting a look at the urban fantasy that’s emerged in the last couple of decades. It’s often dismissed into the genre of paranormal romance; would we be doing that if the author was male? (Glance at Jim Butcher: no. No, we wouldn’t.)
10. Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death. As I recall, this is post-apocalyptic and shows where fantasy and science can converge. It also discusses gender, sexuality and race issues, and it’s by a person of colour.

Oh, man, I would so like to teach this as a real curriculum. What’s everyone else been coming up with?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is Top Ten Authors we’ve read the most books from. It’s hard to tell on this one — Goodreads will only show me the authors I own the most books by, but let’s have a wild stab at it…

1. Jacqueline Carey. I own and have read almost all her books, which makes at least… 13 in total. That’s a good number!
2. Guy Gavriel Kay. I’ve only got one book by him I haven’t read yet, River of Stars.
3. Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm. I’ve read books by her under both identities, and there’s at least 13 on my shelves that I know I’ve read, so she’s probably high on the list.
4. J.R.R. Tolkien. I think I’ve read everything put out by either him or by his son after his death. I’m not sure how much that is, but I’ve read his academic work as well, so we’ll say he counts.
5. Jo Walton. I’ve read all but her most recent book, so she definitely counts.
6. Garth Nix. I haven’t even read all his books, but there were the seven Keys to the Kingdom books, the Old Kingdom series, another series… Yep, probably the most read author.
7. Tad Williams. I’ve read two quartets by this guy, he’s got to qualify.
8. Brian Michael Bendis. Ultimate Spider-man and some other comics.
9. Alistair Reynolds. Long due a reread, but yeaaaah, I read most of his books at one point.
10. Brian Jacques. I used to read the Redwall books exhaustively. I haven’t touched them in a long time, but there were at least a dozen. This one has to count! Tempted to do a nostalgia reread, too.

What about everyone else? This was surprisingly hard to think of…

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday celebrates characters who are fellow book nerds.

1. Adrien English, Fatal Shadows. He owns a bookshop and it sounds awesome.
2. Matilda Wormwood, Matilda. Well duhhh.
3. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter. Oh Hermione.
4. Cath Avery, Fangirl. She writes fanfic!
5. Jo March, Little Women. One of my favourite characters when I was a kid. I wanted to sell my hair to be just like her, at one point.
6. Jo Bettany, The Chalet School. Who else read these books? It can’t just be me??
7. Celaena Sardothien, Throne of Glass. May have been the first thing I related to about this character.
8. Beauty, Robin McKinley. Booooks. I want that library.
9. Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables. Honestly, probably the originator of my hankering for red hair.
10. Harriet Vane, Strong Poison. She’s a writer as well as a reader!

I always need more bookish characters to be friends with; who’ve I missed out?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is the last books that you got your hands on, whether you bought them or got them from the library. There’s always my STS posts for that, but hey, I never miss a chance to squee about books. Plus, excuse to talk about all the cool bookshops I’ve been to.

1. Adaptation, Malinda Lo. Picked this up at the Chapters in the West Edmonton Mall on the day I left Canada, and promptly read it on the plane.
2. Inheritance, Malinda Lo. The sequel. I haven’t read this one yet.
3. City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett. I’ve been meaning to read this foreeeever. Also from Chapters in Edmonton.
4. Artemis Awakening, Jane Lindskold. I don’t actually know much about this one, I just thought it looked kinda fun. From Chapters in the Chinook Mall, Calgary.
5. Dreams of Shreds and Tatters, Amanda Downum. Eee, Amanda Downum. Looking forward to this. Got this one from the Indigo in the Core in Calgary.
6. The Stone Prince, Fiona Patton. I’ve had this on my list for a while, and hey, Fiona Patton is apparently Tanya Huff’s wife? Cool. Got this from Fair’s Fair on 14th Street in Calgary.
7. Illusive, Emily Lloyd-Jones. I had this as an ARC once upon a time. Heh. From Shelf Life in Calgary, on 4th Street.
8. A Desperate Fortune, Susanna Kearsley. Aaaages ago, Susanna offered to send me a spare ARC she had. It finally arrived. Whoop!
9. Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho. Received to review via the publisher. I’m excited for this one; people mentioned Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Georgette Heyer as influences…
10. Heir of Fire, Sarah J. Maas. Bought in Fnac in Leuven while I was at my partner’s. Excited for this one, though I need to read The Assassin’s Blade first. Which I also got.

What’s everyone else been getting? Any exciting bookshops?

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “top ten hyped books I’ve never read”. Hmmm, let’s think…

1. Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer. I read Twilight, because I thought I ought to give it a chance, but it’s really not for me and I have a whole lot of objections to it.
2. Divergent, Veronica Roth. I think it’s technically on my TBR somewhere.
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling. Though I am planning to read this soon, ’cause I’m doing a readalong with some other folks.
4. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare. Doesn’t really appeal, especially since I know about the author’s history of plagiarising.
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. I have this to read, but I’m pretty uninspired about getting round to it.
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky. It’s never appealed at aaaall.
7. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. It really doesn’t sound like my thing, even if cancer didn’t freak me out unbearably.
8. A Game of Thrones, G.R.R. Martin. I am actually going to read this. Eventually.
9. On the Road, Jack Kerouac. I’m sorry, I hated it.
10. The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks. Not my thing at aaaaall.

What about you guys? And are you listing books you intend to read someday, or books you never read?

This week’s theme is the top ten books read so far in 2015. Which is at least easier than all-time favourites or something like that!

1. Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan. Or Tropic of Serpents, in fact. I gave them both five stars!
2. Acceptance, Jeff VanderMeer. Though it’s the whole series, really; they’re so weird, and I think you do need to read all three to get a good picture.
3. Grave Mercy, Robin LaFevers. Or the second book… I might even prefer the second book. But yeah, I was surprised by how much I liked these.
4. The Just City, Jo Walton. Nobody’s surprised. Are you?
5. Season of Storms, Susanna Kearsley. Go on, break my heart, you meanie.
6. Lock In, John Scalzi. Really fascinated me.
7. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. Okay, okay, I know it’s a reread, but I discovered a whole new appreciation for it.
8. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie. I might not have given it five stars myself, but it is pretty awesome.
9. A Court of Thorns & Roses, Sarah J. Maas. I wasn’t a huge fan of Throne of Glass, though it’s fun, but ACOTAR… yeah.
10. The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge. I don’t love it like I loved A Face Like Glass, but. Yeah. <3

Looking forward to seeing everyone else’s, but bear in mind I’m in Canada on holiday right now and might not get much chance to comment!