Still have power and internet access. Irene hasn’t hit me full force yet (still another hour to go), so have a blog post and those on the East Coast, stay dry.

Thirteen: Book whose main character is most like you

Without a doubt, I see myself most in Stephen Maturin, from Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. No, I’m not a laudanum addicted ship’s surgeon/spy, but our personalities are quite similar.

For one, Stephen and I both have dry senses of humor. For another, we’re both incredibly observant, particularly of things that interest us. And we could both spend hours watching insects move about, or birds flying, etc. Or in my case today, watching the rain pelt against the pond in my backyard. For things that hold our interest, nothing can distract us.

And probably most like Stephen, I am always completely oblivious when I’m on a boat. I know port, starboard, bow and stern, but beyond that…honestly, why would ropes be called ‘sheets’? They don’t look like bedsheets in the slightest.
Fourteen: Book whose main character you want to marry

Well, I’m probably the first girl who has said “Not Mr Darcy.” Why? Well, from what I have gleaned about the character (from film adaptations rather than reading Pride and Prejudice), I’m far too much like him for any relationship to work. We’d end up annoying each other to no end. That or ignoring each other.

I really can’t think of any book character who I would want to marry. Perhaps its because I don’t think of characters as potential mates, knowing that they are fictional.
Fifteen: First “chapter book” you can remember reading as a child

This is an easy one, perhaps the easiest of all the questions! The first chapter book I read as a child was Ann Rinaldi’s A Break With Charity, which I read when I was eight. Yeah. I was eight.

Anyways, the book was about the Salem Witch Trials. Being a New Englander, this was pretty interesting, especially because the event happened in (essentially) my backyard.

Ann Rinaldi remained one of my favorite writers from that point until middle school. I just haven’t read anything of her’s since. I never reread A Break With Charity. But I remember loving it.