Today’s theme is interesting: our favorite books from ten different series. Have I read ten different series? But first, a tease!
“A thousand years! The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets will last forever, Gilbert!” “It will need a better government than this current lot if that is to be so, sir.” (Damned Unenglish, Andrew Wareham)
(1) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azka – or maybe it’s The Half Blood Prince. Azkanban! Prince! I can never decide. Azkaban is funnier, though.
(2) The Lords of the North, Bernard Cornwell. Third in the Saxon Chronicles series, this is the only Uhtred book I’ve both read and listened to an audiobook of. In it, Uhtred is betrayed and enslaved, but befriends an Irish prisoner and makes his escape: I remember lots of twists and an incredibly satisfying finish.
(3) California Diaries #2: Sunny. Ann M. Martin. Number 5, Ducky, was my first book in the California Diaries series, and originally I was going to highlight it here, but then I realized how important Sunny was to my really falling for this series. Sunny’s depressive angst over her mother’s cancer, her somewhat destructive attempts at escaping her life by running away to Venice with a copy of On the Road — this is the book that made me look for Palo City on a map of California. Nothing in my life looked like Sunny’s, and yet she nearly overshadows Ducky in my memory.
(4) Sharpe’s Prey, Bernard Cornwell. Sharpe and company do some sneaking-about and burn an entire fleet of Danish ships so Bonaparte can’t get them.
(5) The Jeeves and Wooster stories, P.G. Wodehouse. Dash it, Jeeves, you can’t expect me to pick a favorite. Might as well ask Aunt Agatha to stop foisting fiances on me!
(6) Roma sub Rosa / Gordianus the Finder, Steven Saylor. One of the earlier series I featured on the blog, this is late-Republic detective work!
(7) The Chronicles of Narnia. My favorite would be The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, of course, but I must mention The Silver Chair, if only for precious Puddleglum. Silver Chair has two of my favorite Narnia quotes:
“We’ve got to start by finding a ruined city of giants,” said Jill. “Aslan said so.”
“Got to start by finding it, have we?” answered Puddleglum. “Not allowed to start by looking for it, I suppose?”“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. ”
(8) Tales of the Black Widowers, Isaac Asimov. Every month six men of varying professions gather in a small room to enjoy one another’s company over dinner and to confront a mystery presented to them by their guest. It always hinges on some bit of scientific, literary, historical, or geographical trivia, so readers can suss out the truth along with the Widowers.
(9) Bernard Cornwell’s King Arthur series, especially Enemy of God.
(10) Ben Kane’s Richard trilogy.
Reading Freely 
How’d you like Jeeves compared to Blandings Castle?
I’ve got the Black Widowers on my tbr so it’s either already in my rotation or will be coming up this year. Considering it’s in a Top 10 post, I hope I enjoy them even half as much as you did.
I forget the Jeeves/Blanding comparison.
Black Widowers is such fun. I hope you enjoy them. I bought my own copies to continually re-read at home.
Great list! I love the Chronicles of Narnia movie, but I haven’t read the book yet. I really need to put it on my TBR list. Happy Tuesday!
I was just about to ask you which Narnia book was your favourite, but you already blogged about it. Yeah, The Silver Chair was fantastic, too. If you’ve never seen the British adaptation of it from (I’d guess?) the 1980s, you might like it.
I keep hoping they will made modern adaptations of the later books in that series. Theres’ a lot of good material there.
Thanks for stopping by earlier.
Lydia
Thanks! I’ll take a look. I have a series of audio-dramas based on the books, with performances from the likes of Paul Scofield. 😀
It’s hard for me to choose which book about Harry Potter, they all have something, in movies it’s the prisoner, but in books, it changes depending on my mood.
It is great when you can find those favorites within series.
Puddleglum is a gem! The Silver Chair was my favorite of the Narnia books, though second place was always harder to determine. But I loved the quest and puzzle aspect of The Silver Chair, plus Puddleglum and the owls.
Wow Bernard Cornwell made it three times on this list! & Oh my I only read the first of the Narnia books and never finished it!
The Jeeves and Wooster books sound like good fun, something about the descriptions is giving me Fawlty Towers vibes, is that in any way accurate?
They’re definitely as FUN as Fawlty Towers, but the delight in reading Wodehouse is his treatment of the English language. I frequently comment that people don’t know how funny English can be unless they’ve read him. I share some quotes here ocassionally:
One big difference between Wodehouse and Fawlty Towers, though, is that Wodehouse’s books are full of….mirthful innocence, whereas Fawlty Towers has its malicious moments — Basil’s constant abuse of Manuel (Qué?), that sort of thing. I’d HIGHLY reccommend reading Wodehouse — and if you can’t, then checking out the Hugh Laurie/Stephen Fry adaptation of his works on Youtube.
This gives a bit of the spirit:
And yes, Bernard Cornwell is phenomenal. Great characters, rich historical detail, frequent use of humor.
Ah okay wow thanks for the comparison here, It’s making me want to try them out 🙂 I love Fawlty towers but agree that Basil is such a jerk to Manuel! “On Those Trays” is a line we repeat in my family like all the time hahah. I may actually try the adaptation that’s a good idea thank you. It sounds like the type of thing I’d like to hear given that it plays with language. Thanks for the link!
Glad to hear that he’s just that good!
I don’t think there’s a single episode in Fawlty Towers that doesn’t reduce me to stitches at some point. Even the little stuff, like Basil mouthing “BASIL!” and then slapping his own hand in the absence of Sybil. XD
I agree, they’re all hilarious and I’ve been wanting to re-watch it since I got my parents tickets for a ‘Fawlty Towers Dinner Experience’ earlier this year. I’m past due for a re-watch for sure! hahah that is hilarious XD!
I love the HP series. I read them as they came out, so it’s been too long to remember which book I like best. The first is the only one I’ve reread multiple times, so it’s the one that stands out most. I really do need to reread the whole series though.
I love THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE as well and have read it multiple times. For some reason, I’ve never read the other books in the series. I need to!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Oh man I loooooved that Sunny book! The California Diaries were iconic.
Okay, I’ve been book-blogging since 2007 and you are the first person I know besides me who has read them!!
I never finished them (I think I read about half of them) but I was like the perfect age for them…I was like 12ish when they were published so I was aging out of the BSC and they felt so much more grown up! Now I’m really curious if they hold up at all, I haven’t thought about them in ages!
I still have mine, though my “Dawn #1” is falling apart. Planning to do a re-read soon. 🙂
How could I forget Jeeves & Wooster? Well, I haven’t read all of their stories, yet, though I have watched all of those they put in the TV series, best ever!
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Ooh, choosing a favorite HP book is hard. I usually say Goblet of Fire. But Azkanban is good too. And Half-Blood Prince! So hard! 🙂
Firstly snap on not just the Azkaban choice but also the possibility of Half Blood Prince being in the running. Those are the two I’m always torn between too although I adore the whole series.
I’ve read Narnia too although I only really have clear memories of Magicians Nephew & Lion, Witch & Wardrobe. That mention of a giants castle does sound vaguely familiar though.
I haven’t read any of the other series listed here but I saw some of the Last Kingdom and was enjoying it so may check out the Saxon books one day. And after you mentioned it before I added the King Arthur series to my TBR by the same author.