Favourites on Friday: I need a hero!

This is a new feature I want to try out on my blog where each Friday (more or less) I talk about some of my favourite book related things. I'll decide the topic each week and tell you about my favourites.

This week's topic is: Favourite Male Characters

1. Harry Potter He had the be in there, didn't he? But really he is (in my eyes) a truly great character. He's so well rounded it's almost unbelievable. He's smart, but not over-the-top-intelligent, he's brave something to the point of stupidity, and he gets angry, jealous and is sarcastic - just like any other teenage boy. He feels extremely real to me.

2. Percy Jackson Another one of those great three dimensional characters. Well actually I just think he's absolutely hilarious - like seriously funny. I enjoy reading from his perspective so much, I could read his POV forever I think.

3. Richard Gansey III He's a relatively new favourite of mine and since I've only read two books with him in it's hard to pin down exactly what I like about him. It might just be the way Maggie Stiefvater translates his charm onto the pages but it's very hard not to like him.

4. Dominic Courtenay Perhaps a lesser known fictional character but wow do I love him. He seems to be a bit of a typical nice guy at first but he's passionate, tragically loyal and refreshingly honest. I'm so sad the Boleyn Trilogy is over and I'll only have rereads to visit him again.

5. Gideon Lightwood I could see this being an odd choice especially against the likes of Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs, and considering that he's only in Clockwork Princess. But I just instantly fell in love with him; he's awkward and a little bit uptight but pretty god damn adorable.

Do you agree with my picks? Or not? Who are your favourite male characters from books?

Favourites on Friday: Feeling Nostalgic

This is a new feature I want to try out on my blog where each Friday (more or less) I talk about some of my favourite book related things. I'll decide the topic each week and tell you about my favourites.

This week's topic is: Favourite Books From My Childhood

1. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling I think this kind of goes without saying for anyone between the ages of eleven and twenty five. This series got me completely hooked on reading and literally no other book series in the world means as much to be as this.
2. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder My mother read these books when she was a child so naturally she forced me to read them. Luckily I loved them. They're not quite like anything I've read, and honestly not the most exciting books ever. I just love the insight it gave into someone's life and a time and culture I knew nothing about.
3. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman I was about eight or nine when I read these and besides from the Harry Potter books they were the first real fantasy books I read. It was my first real experience of really relating with a main character. Also shipping. Will and Lyra were my original otp.
4. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild I read this after watching a BBC film of it starring Emma Watson. Again it's one of those books were I can't quite work out why I loved it so much. Again it was probably the insight into a time and way of life I hadn't experienced. And the relationship between the three sisters.
5. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett This book shaped quite a lot of how I write now. The description and characterisation just made me fall in love; it was so honest and real to me. I considered Sara pretty inspirational as a little girl, this was the only story that really taught me that any girl can be a princess and that perseverance could get you through anything.

Quotes

'You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.' - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

'There's no great loss without some small gain.' - Little House on the Prairie.

'Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they wont' just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight...' - The Amber Spyglass

'It might have all the same; you never can tell what's magic.' - Ballet Shoes

'If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.' - A Little Princess

What were your favourite books growing up? Have you read any of these before?