the reading habits of fictional characters: matilda

 

SFP of Pages Turned has come up with a most fun project for the new year - examining the reading habits of fictional characters. And she has invited all to participate. Simply visit this link to hook up with Mr. Linky (something about that doesn't sound right) to share reading lists of fictional characters with the book blogosphere.

Now this is a very appealing idea to me, and I immediately thought of a book perfect for the project - Matilda by favorite children's author Roald Dahl. Matilda, a petite genius, is cursed with the most base, ignorant family imaginable. She is an unbelievable wonder in a whole house of awful. So different from her own. By the age of four, she read through the only book in the house ...

• Easy Cooking

She knows she had to get her hands on more so she begins going to the library most every afternoon while her brother is at school, her father at work, and her mother has gone to play bingo. She reads through the entire children's section in record time, her favorite book being ...

• The Secret Garden

Guided by kindly librarian, Mrs. Phelps, she then picks up a book by her soon to be favorite author, Charles Dickens.

• Great Expectations

"Over the next six months, under Mrs. Phelps watchful and compassionate eye, Matilda read the following books:"

• Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• Gone to Earth by Mary Webb
• Kim by Rudyard Kipling
• The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• Animal Farm by George Orwell

She also reads ...

• The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

This is not the story here of course. Matilda's reading life is just an insight into who she is, "the reader of books." And she has many fine observations about the books she reads including these two favorites:

"Mr. Hemingway says a lot of things I don't understand. Especially about men and women. But I loved it all the same. The way he tells it I feel I am right there on the spot watching it all happen."

"I liked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I think Mr. C.S. Lewis is a very good writer. But he has one failing. There are no funny bits in his books."

If only more adults had the reading habits of this wee one. 

Join in the fun? Are people really what they read?