Top Ten Authors I Want At My Thanksgiving Dinner (and a Challenge)

We don't actually have Thanksgiving, but its the top American Celebration I wish we did have. It seems so pleasant and honest (and kind of like an early start for Christmas). This is kind of my Disclaimer.

1. This has to be JK Rowling. She is the epitome of my second most favourite series and I could ask her a truckload of question- Harry Potter ones as well as about reading, her life, opinions- because as well as a being a good writer, she's marvellously opinionated. She's just a great Human Being.
2. David Eddings. He's dead, I think, or at least very old. This is a sad thing because he is the author of my favourite series, and I'd love him to tell me about how he wrote the books, the inspiration and also what he was like when younger. Mostly I want him to tell me more stories within the world he created.
3. Veronica Roth. Divergent's probably my favourite book this year, and I follow her blog, so I think I have an idea on this Lady's opinions and stuff. Mostly I'd just like to hear more about them. She's sounds relatively similar to me so I'd like to see how far this extends (and whether I'm just complementing my ego).
4. Muriel Barbery, as the author of my favourite book, also would have to be there. She's another of those really intelligent ones and someone who makes me think with almost every point she makes and question everything I do. I'd be self-conscious with her there, but I'd also be the better for it.
5. I have to invite Suzanne Collins too since I have to know about her books. I know where she got her inspiration, but I have to know what drove her to finish as she did. Theorising is great and interesting, but I want to hear it from the horse's mouth. Why did she write as she did in the last book?
6. Stephen Fry is kind of a solely English Celebrity (though I think most people do know him in the English-speaking world). He's intelligent, witty and just a mesmerising speaker who uses the most resonant vocabulary known to man. He's just...I don't know. I am in awe to a point of speechlessness.
7. Jenny Lawson (AKA The Bloggess) because she could make me howl with laughter, but would also say something really sweet and thought-provoking. Also, as much as I love them, the above writers probably have a tendency to withdraw into their own little worlds and Jenny would draw them out and we could all be outrageous, yet happy, fools together. There's the problem that she doesn't like lots of people but I'd get around that. She isn't actually published but will be soon!
8. Allie Brosh, who write Hyperbole and a Half (if you didn't know), is another really funny writer who hasn't really finished her book yet, but has lots of material online. She's be a hoot and I'd love her to tell us all some funny (hyperbolic) stories too. And she's been absent online for a while, partly due to depression. I need my hyperbolic fix, and maybe I could help her in some manner. 
9. Kathryn Stockett, who wrote The Help, is also a necessary addition because she moves me and wrote another of my favourite books from this year. I'd just have to hear about her experience while writing and the what Mississippi was like when she was there.
10. My final is Jane Austen. Of all my authors, she'd the least likely to even consider coming. Not that any probably are, but bar one, she's the only one who is undeniably dead. Makes it kind of hard. But she wrote amazing books: romances that I enjoyed. I'd want to know what she thought of the people in her time and how she would react to our modern society.

That's the cut off point. I can think of at least 5 classic authors I would invite too, but I tried to concentrate on modern writers. Jane Austen is there because no way could I miss her. She's my favourite Classic writer for the time being. Anyway, part two of the post.

I've decided that I'm going to take part in the Shakespeare Reading Month hosted by Allie at A Literary Odyssey. Shakespeare is a writer I really like and respect, and I'm disappointed I've hardly read him. I've read A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, but they were both with the school. I also argue that I've read Hamlet, since I saw the play done (without cuts) and it had the lines coming up on the sides, which I read. Hence, I read it. But that is a fraction of his work. I've seen more that I've read (Richard III, Titus Andronicus, MacBeth, King Lear) but that's still only a total of 7 of 38 (not including other poetry), perhaps a fifth of them. I need to rectify this.

I've heard it said that you should read the Bard not just to understand; that it is even advisable to read merely for the pleasure of fluent writing and enrapturing imagery. To read him merely for the experience. I have no illusions that I'll read loads: I'm aiming to read but one if I can. For that reason, I will be taking part. 

Happy reading!