Top Ten Tuesday!

It’s Top Ten Tuesday, one of my favorite days of the week!  Clicking on the picture will take you to The Broke and the Bookish blog, which created Top Ten Tuesday.

This week’s list is a really fun one–Top 10 Characters You’d Love to Switch Places with for 24 Hours.  I may take it one step further and do Top 10 Character’s You Couldn’t Pay Me to Switch Places with for 24 Hours, as well.  I’ve linked to the Goodreads pages of books that might not be familiar to everyone.

1.  Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind–-from her beautiful gowns to her millions of suitors to her epic romances (oh, Rhett, you are so dashing and handsome!), Scarlett lives one of the most interesting lives of any book character.  She survives the Civil War and its aftermath, runs a sawmill in an age where women didn’t even set foot outside their homes once they found out they were pregnant, and marries of the biggest rogues in literary history.  I had a series of books in middle school called Teen Witch, and one of the series (Gone With the Witch) the main character, Sarah, accidentally wishes herself and her best friend Micki back to the pre-Civil War South.  If only it was that easy!

2. Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy–a normal human being who gets to explore the crap out of outer space?  Count me in!

3.  Claire from the Outlander series–she’s originally from post-WW2 England and gets transported back in time to late 1700s Scotland and ends up falling in love with a handsome, younger Scotsman.  If only for the kilts wearing Scotsmen, this would be worth it, but on top of that, Claire gets to experience Paris and meet so many famous names in history, as well as being part of the American Revolution (though…the Firey Cross?  Not the best book in the series).  Now if only her daughter Brianna wasn’t such a twit…

4.  Chester the cat from the Bunnicula books–Chester is suspicious and sarcastic, and has wild and crazy ideas about the family bunny, Bunnicula.  He’s a crazy cat, and I think it would be fascinating to see things from a cat’s point of view.

5.  Harriet from Harriet the Spy–I loved loved loved this book growing up.  I even, for a while, kept a notebook like Harriet–though mine didn’t fall into the wrong hands.  I really need to re-read this book!

6.  Anita Blake, pre-Narcissus in Chains–this Anita Blake was more concerned with kicking ass than sleeping with anything with fangs or fur.  I loved the series up until then, and I would switch places with Anita in any of the pre-Narcissus books in a heartbeat.  She’s St. Louis’ #1 preternatural (HA!  TAKE A SHOT!) bounty hunter Federal Marshall.  Seriously, if I wanted that much supernatural sex, I’d read Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series!

7.  Sheila McCarthy from the Secret of the Unicorn Queen series–Sheila works after school for the town’s eccentric scientist, Dr. Reit (think Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future), and one day she falls through one of Dr. Reit’s inventions and ends up in the world of Aran–which has princesses, unicorns, and men who shape shift into eagles because they were cursed.  Sheila, at first, is confused and out of her element, but eventually comes into her own and becomes a Unicorn Rider, and a lot of the stuff that she brought with her (she was wearing her backpack) ends up helping out the Riders as they battle evil.  The #1 reason I want to switch places with her is she GETS TO RIDE A UNICORN.  A UNICORN.

8.  Eve Dallas from the In Death series–I love J.D. Robb.  I hate Nora Roberts.  It makes my brain hurt sometimes because they are the SAME PERSON.  My brain hurts even worse when I look at the book she WROTE WITH HERSELF.  Anyway, Eve is a kick-ass cop from future New York, where everything is made out of soy and cars can fly.  She’s married to Rourke, the richest, most powerful man in the universe (literally, as there are colonies in outer space and I think he owns 90% of them).  She and Anita Blake would probably get along fairly well, once they stopped pounding on each other.

9.  Elena Gilbert from The Vampire Diaries (NOT the new ones or the TV show)–Elena is beautiful, popular, and her boyfriend is the quarterback of the football team.  She has it all, but then Stephan Salvatore comes to town, and suddenly none of that matters anymore.  Elena is a bit catty and selfish, but her story is an intriguing one–torn between two vampire brothers and an evil force that has been haunting them for years.  Despite her flaws, Elena is a strong character, and I’d love to fill her shoes for one day, though I’d rather it be after she and Stephen get together and not before.

10.  Pepper Martin from the Pepper Martin Mystery series–Pepper gives tours in a Cleveland, Ohio graveyard.  During on of those tours, she trips, falls, and hits her head.  When she wakes up, she finds out she can commune with the dead, and BOY are they annoying.  I got to meet the author, Casey Daniels, at a the Buckeye Book Fair recently, and got a signed copy of one of the books.  Pepper’s a fun character with a list of problems most other people don’t have.

Runners up:  Ilse Burnley from the Emily series, Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series, Jo from Little Women (hey, I may not sell my hair, but I do donate it!), Meggie Cleary from The Thorn Birds and Mina Grime from UnEnchanted.

And for the Top 10 Characters I would not Switch Places With:

1.  Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games trilogy–chosen as a sacrifice not once but twice?  Forced to kill other tributes or else herself be killed?  And then ends up with Peeta Mellark?  No thank you.

2.  Julie from Julie of the Wolves–-loved this book, would not love to be in her shoes

3.  Old Yeller from Old Yeller--I think this is self explanatory

4.  The “disposible character” from the Fear Street series–the R.L. Stine equivalent to the Star Trek red shirt, destined to have every bad thing in the book happen to them.

5.  Anita Blake post-Narcissus in Chains–sleeps with anything with fangs or fur and forgets that a book should actually have more plot than sex.

6.  Anyone from Pretty Little Liars–love the books, but…honestly, these bratty girls probably deserved everything they got.

7.  The Starks from Game of Thrones–-if you’re a Stark you’re guaranteed to either die or be lost in strange and unusual places.  Or married to Tyrion Fordring Lannister or Roose Bolton (well…you know what I’m saying…it’s supposed to be Arya, even if it isn’t).

8.  Zoey Redbird and Stevie Rae from the House of Night series–I totally agree with Aphrodite…Zoey’s annoying.  Her best friend, Stevie Rae, is even more annoying.  Together, they’re the most annoying friends in literary history.  I do like the books, though.

9.  Thomas from the Lincoln Rhymes series–He has to put up with Rhyme’s daily abuse AND change his dirty diapers.  Thomas, my man, you are a saint!

10.  Kira from Bound–written a little to close to Bella Swann, Kyra needs a lesson on when to run FAR FAR AWAY from a guy who will tell you in one breath he’ll never harm you and then in the next almost kill you because you may have looked sideways at his sister, your best friend.