Top Ten Authors Jenny Would Like to Meet

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is top ten authors you would like to meet. The timing of this topic is funny because Lesley Anne and I just went to a book signing/author interview with Sarah J. Maas. It was the first time I have done something like that and it was really enjoyable (of course there is a blog post to come). I will not get into literary theory and the postmodern view of the "author" - I can see all the relieved looks on your faces now - but suffice to say that I believe learning about an author is beneficial for a reader. (Which is why I am not a postmodern scholar!) As the lovely ladies at the Broke and the Bookish did not say whether the author had to be alive or not, my list is full of dead people. They are even more intriguing, to me, because of all the stuff we will never have the opportunity to know/ask.

P.S. - I will probably start asking everyone I see this question from now on. I really like it. Get ready if you have the dubious pleasure of being in my presence for more than 5 minutes.

1. The Beowulf scribes/poets. Like y'all didn't see that one coming. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS. My thesis ended up being 75 pages of me trying to answer one question I have. As they were most likely monks, I am hoping to corner them in Heaven one day.

2. J.R.R. Tolkien. I would love to sit down and just listen to him talk about Old English and Old Norse literature. The essays he has written on different pieces of literature are so insightful it is as if he were able to become part of whatever culture he was writing about for a short while, so well did he understand the mindset.

3. C.S. Lewis. I do not know if I would actually be able to form coherent sentences if I were able to meet him, but just to get a peak into his mind, in person, would be amazing.

4. Marie de France. No one is exactly sure who she is, but she wrote some of the most clever fables of the Middle Ages. Every time I read them I am struck by something new I had not noticed before. If I were an author I would want a style like hers.

5. Neil Gaiman. The way this man's mind works is fascinating. I feel that any conversation with him, be it about books or not, would be enlightening, entertaining, mind-blowing, and enjoyable. (Wow, that is a lot of pressure I just put on him. I firmly believe he is up to the task, though.)

6. Deborah Harkness. She is a scholar and an author and I so admire how she is able to make her books smart and readable. She does not sacrifice realities of history for the sake of plot. I am dying to know what she is going to write next, now that she is done with her All Souls Trilogy.

7. Desiderius Erasmus. If you do not know who this is, google him. He was one of those people that the made the world a poor place when he died. His work, The Praise of Folly, is what every modern satire aspires to.

8. Ovid. This one is weird, I know, but he was such an interesting character. All we have of him, really, is his own works. I would love to know the man behind the pen... quill... whatever.

9. G. K. Chesterton. Talk about some astute social commentary. He saw the world in such a clear way, much clearer than most of us. Check out his thoughts on Jesus's mirth and then think on that for a while.

10. Elizabeth Kostova. She has only written two books and I want to know WHY. Her stories and her way with words are the best. The creativity, depth, and settings of her books draw you in and do not let you go. I want to talk to her about travel and why she needs to write at least one book every two years.