Meme: Top Ten Tuesday

The Top Ten Tuesday meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. If you like my list, visit the main site and click on to some of the other lists.

First I have some predictions: I predict that Fitzwilliam Darcy will appear on at least three lists and Rhett Butler on at least two. Lord Peter Wimsey and Mr. Rochester may appear as well, but I hope not Heathcliff. However, you will not find any of these well-loved gentlemen on my list ;-)

Here are 10 literary crushes of mine, past and present, platonic and romantic, in no particular order – except the first one, who can always make my knees tremble.

Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon, from These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. I love to read about bad boy heroes, and this is the archetypal reformed rake.
William of Baskerville. This may seem like an unusual choice, but I was very taken with this character when I first read The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), because of his honesty and fairness and sharp intelligence. Any relationship would have to be a platonic one, as he is a monk. Disclaimer: This choice was not influenced by Sean Connery hotness.
Davy Dempsey. Another bad boy. I found him scary-sexy in Welcome to Temptation, but he had mellowed out and become rather attractive once he got his own book (Tell Me Lies by Jennifer Crusie).
Sir Kenneth from The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott. A very old crush of mine – I think I was about 14 when I first read the book. It has a very romantic and highly implausible adventure plot, but oh boy, Sir Kenneth is the epitome of the chivalrous lover.
If I had to name one Austen hero I have had a crush on, it would be Mr. George Knightley from Emma. For his sense of humour, practicality and patience.
Roderick Alleyn, from the Ngaio March series, especially as he is in the early books before he meets Agatha Troy.
Commissaire Adamsberg from the books by Fred Vargas. He is often morose and depressed, but at his best he is funny and very, very sexy. Definitely influenced by Jean-Hugues Anglade hotness.
Inspector Montalbano from the books by Andrea Camilleri. I love a man who loves good food.
Roarke, from the In Death books by J.D. Robb. Yet another bad boy and an archetypal romance hero: sexy, rich and very intelligent.
Hugo Darracott, from The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer. For his naughty sense of humour.

Book 7: Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński (reading notes)

-This reads like fiction - prose more beautiful than one has come to expect from non-fiction and many of the chapters are structured like fiction stories. There is little continuity between most of the chapters, although some of the narratives or stories spread over more than one chapter. This is therefore more a collection of short narratives than a cohesive entirety. You could pick it up and read the chapters at random and still get a good sense of what is going on. -Here is an author who is not trying to find himself, recover from a broken heart, set a record, visit 30 countries in 3 weeks or build a perfectly enviable home in a perfectly enviable location, which is a rarity within travel literature, but of course Kapuściński was in Africa to work, and not to travel for spiritual, mental or entertainment purposes (he was the Polish Press Agency's Africa correspondent for nearly 30 years). -I have no way of knowing how well Kapuściński knew Africa - I have never been there...

How to make a simple origami bookmark

Here are some instructions on how to make a simple origami (paper folding) bookmark: Take a square of paper. It can be patterned origami paper, gift paper or even office paper, just as long as it’s easy to fold. The square should not be much bigger than 10 cm/4 inches across, unless you intend to use the mark for a big book. The images show what the paper should look like after you follow each step of the instructions. The two sides of the paper are shown in different colours to make things easier, and the edges and fold lines are shown as black lines. Fold the paper in half diagonally (corner to corner), and then unfold. Repeat with the other two corners. This is to find the middle and to make the rest of the folding easier. If the paper is thick or stiff it can help to reverse the folds. Fold three of the corners in so that they meet in the middle. You now have a piece of paper resembling an open envelope. For the next two steps, ignore the flap. Fold the square diagonally in two. Yo...

Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

Reading in Reykjavík

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