One of the very best parts of readathon is the food (trust me on this). I am all about planning my snacks and meals in advance, and the name of the game is, ALL THE CARBS. I try to eat healthy, I promise, but then again, its winter, I don’t have to be in a swimsuit for like six months, and mac & cheese exists in the world. It’s only a problem if you say it’s a problem, right?
I say, combat the sneaking suspicion that food and books are not as closely related as you might think by dreaming up your perfect dinner party. Who would you most like to attend a bookish dinner party with? Authors (living or dead), fictional characters, anything goes. That’s your next challenge: which five bookish people (or animals, I’m not picky) would be around your perfect literary dinner table?
Post a comment with your dinner party guest list, and I’ll pick a prize winner at our final check-in of the readathon, Hour 48 at midnight ET tonight.
Now to announce the winner of our Hour 36 #Diverseathon challenge.
Karen (@wellreadpirate on Insta)
You guys gave such great recommendations — my TBR is overflowing with them all!
We’re getting low on prizes but we’ve still got more to give away:
Emily Drake
Kris Wiley
Kristen M. (@webereading on Twitter)
CameG
Congrats and head to the Prize page now!
24in48 Readathon 
1. Winnie the Pooh
2. Toni Morrison
3. Jericho Barrons (Fever series)
4. David Sedaris
5. Shakespeare
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Wow….a literary dinner party! It’s so hard to choose, but I think I’m going to stick with authors that I’ve met at different author events who really took the time to get to know their readers and make them feel special. My list would include: Jennifer Niven, Jeff Zentner, David Arnold, Brendan Kiely, and Adam Silvera. When would you guys like to set something up ;)?
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Wendell Berry & Madeleine L’Engle (they’d get along, I think)
Also Luna Lovegood & Anne Shirley
I wouldn’t want it to get overcrowded. And actually, I’d prefer a dinner one-to-one with each. 🙂
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If I could have a literary dinner party, I’d probably invite my three favorite authors: Fannie Flagg, Lorna Landvik and Anne Tyler. They each have a knack for quirky characters and I think they would be a HOOT and have many hilarious tales to tell. And just to mix it up, I’d invite Ava Gardner. Her autobiography was mesmerizing and I think she’d really liven the party up, regaling us all with stories about her Hollywood life and Frank Sinatra.
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JK Rowling, for sure. Beyond that? Oh god I dunno I’d need, like, 500 spots to make it perfect. A literary feast.
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So I have a ton. I’ve been lucky to meet some so here would be my top 5 authors
F Scott Fitzgerald
Jk Rowling
Jojo moyes
Maeve binchy
Jonathan tropper
Characters
Harry Potter and friends
noah (from the notebook)
The Wakefield twins
Scarlett O’Hara
Jo march
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Hello, JK Rowling is always #1.
SJ Watson
Diana Gabaldon
CS Lewis
James Patterson
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Let’s see… (I prefer the “living or dead” option, so) Jane Austen, Emma Thompson, Luvvie Ajaiyi, Sarah MacLean, Celeste Ng, Margaret Atwood, Roxane Gay, Mary Wollstonecraft, Janet Mock, and my friends Kate and Kat because this is a dinner party of damn smart ladies and it’s going to be a hell of a conversation!
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All female crew:
1. Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird)
2. Jane (Jane Eyre)
3. Catherine Earnshaw (Wuthering Heights)
4. Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)
5. Daisy (The Great Gatsby)
I think it would make for some very interesting conversation.
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Oops, I missed the bit about five! Oh well – I like big parties 😜
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Lively, sharp conversation is the key to a good dinner party, so with that in mind…
The ladies: Irene from The Invisible Library to drop her in-depth knowledge of books and alternative dimensions, Elizabeth Bennett to throw shade disguised by manners, and real life author Sarah J Maas because I saw her speak and she is insanely funny.
The men: Dorian with his pre-Queen of Shadows self-obsession and lady’s man charm so Sarah can face off against her own character, and Warren from Shatter Me because he and Dorian would be smooth-talking besties but this table can only handle two men like that.
This dinner party will be the showdown of the century, as long as nobody resorts to slitting throats.
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Oh, man, what an intriguing thought…..
If I could invite anyone, I would want to have BookQuester, Sherlock Holmes, Alagan Dhiren Rajaram (Ren), Sohan Kishan Rajaram (Kishan), Katniss Everdeen. I might be slightly too much awesome for one evening. I would almost want one evening for classic’s characters, one for the Tiger’s Curse gang and one for every one else, haha! But that would be my list if I could only have night.
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If I were to host a dinner party I’d like to invite the six of crows crew , Kaz , Inej , Jesper , Wylan , Nina and Mattias !!! I don’t know amidst all the chaos if they ever sat together and go a meal together … It would be the best dinner ever !!! (I know I’m allowed to invite only 5 but when you are with the crew I bet the rules can be mended/broken😁😉)
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I thought really hard about this… and it just speaks to me on a very deep level. I would want an invitation to the Mad Hatter’s tea party, ala Alice in Wonderland! All the treats and absurdity would be my ideal literary meal experience ⏰🎩🐭
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1: The Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland) Because he’s good at entertaining
2: Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit) I bet he’d have amazing stories to tell
3: Leo Valdez (The Heros of Olympus) Good sense of humor would be fun to hang with
4: Piper McCloud (The Girl Who Could Fly) Just a decent southern kind of girl
5: Peeta Mellark (Hunger Games) I don’t want to have to make dessert
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Hmm… how about
1. Captain Blood
2. Inigo Montoya
3. Reepicheep from Narnia
4. Zorro
5. D’artagnan
I think I’d like to see a table full of swashbuckling swordsmen. 😉
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hich five bookish people (or animals, I’m not picky) would be around your perfect literary dinner table?
1. Rick Riordan
2. Ellen Hopkins
3. Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games)
4. Daisy (The Great Gatsby)
5. Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)
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I would set the table for the following guests (in no particular order):
1. Hermione Granger
2. Alice
3. Matilda
4. Coraline
5. Violet Baudelaire
All as teenagers. Sharing victories, close scrapes, and notes on what works (in this and alternative realities) would make for a fascinating evening!
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JK Rowling
Louise Penny
Rory Gilmore
Michelle Obama
Nora Roberts
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I could probably make this list entirely out of ASOIAF characters (Tyrion, Arya, Jaqen, Syrio, and Varys), but to make it a challenge, here’s the no-ASOIAF fictional character list:
1. John Watson (Sherlock Holmes)
2. Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter)
3. Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit)
4. Lisbeth Salander (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
5. Johnny Truant (House of Leaves)
Which means we’re all going to get super drunk and it’s gonna get super weird.
But the authors list is:
1. Hans Christian Andersen
2. J.M. Barrie
3. Clive Barker
4. J.K. Rowling
5. George R. R. Martin
Let’s just talk about mythology and folklore all night and make new wonderful weird worlds together and also teach me your magic. All of your magic. Let me learn it.
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I am going to pretend they all lived…
1. James Potter
2. Lily Potter
3. Sirius Black
4. Remus Lupin
5. Fred Weasley
They could talk about their crazy experiences at Hogwarts!
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Hmm. A dinner party? I’m gonna cheat and say the cast of Shades of Magic: Lila, Kelly, Rhy, Alucard, and Holland!
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Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Joshilyn Jackson, and Sarah Addison Allen.
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1. Victor Hugo
2. Lisbeth Salaner
3. Amy Poehler
4. Tina Fey
5. Roxane Gay
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Just posted mine on Instagram and Litsy (@katedensen on both): Dorothy Parker, William Shakespeare, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, and Mindy Kaling. It would be so delightfully witty and snarky and clever. Sigh.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPl1tUThxsM/
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Ellen.
Roxane Gay.
Amy Poehler.
Negin Farsad.
Lena Dunham.
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Janet Mock too! Can I have 6?
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M.F.K. Fisher. She knows her stuff!
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Merlin
Gandalf
Hobie from The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Myrtle Clover (from the cozy mystery series by Elizabeth Craig) to keep these men in line
and
Oliver Twist (because no matter how bad my cooking is, he will ask for more)
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I’d invite Robert Frost, Jodi Picoult, Neil Gaiman, and some of my more recent fave authors: Kitty French, Elle Wild, and Zoe Kalo!
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The Brontes and Jane Austen — to have them fight it out lol.
And I’d be sitting pretty and eating popcorn with Zora Neale Hurston.
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It’s impossible to say this will always be my list, but to make it easier I’m going to limit this to some of my favorite dead authors:
1. Jane Austen
2. Virginia Woolf
3. C.S. Lewis
4. John Galsworthy
5. Roald Dahl
If I were actually having a dinner party, I would want more diversity, but I would probably also invite more than five people…
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Neil Gaiman, Sandman, Bigby Wolf, Bluebeard and Edgar Allan Poe – although I feel like it would be a murder mystery dinner…
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I would love to have a mixed crowd at my table. This would be an actual dream come true!
1. Matilda
2. Violet Baudelaire
3. Michelle Obama
4. Lisbeth Salander
5. Ellen
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My dinner party guests: Roxanne Gay, Trevor Noah, James Baldwin, Amy Schumer and Jonathan Tropper
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