This week’s question for Exploring My Bookshelves, hosted by Addlepates and Book Nerds, celebrates Father’s Day! Each Friday, bloggers are invited to post a picture of their bookshelf, and write in response to a prompt about said-bookshelf.
Today’s prompt is…Favorite Bookish Father.
This prompt mostly served to remind me how many characters in fantasy or historical fiction novels are orphans, or at least have largely absentee parents while they go about their own business! But then I thought of Sam Vimes…
Sam Vimes, Commander of the Night Watch in Ankh-Morpork, is my favorite Discworld character, and also a good father–or at least, at the center of two of very delightful father/son scenes! In Thud!, Sam’s son, Young Sam, is a year old. Sam (the elder) is always, always, ALWAYS home at six o’clock sharp to read Young Sam his bedtime story…even if the Ankh-Morpork Watch has to stop traffic, commandeer vehicles and declare a state of emergency to get him there on time. Because some things are important.
Young Sam’s best beloved book is Where Is My Cow? which gave rise to an equally delightful spin-off picture book. In the real-world book, Sam begins reading Where Is My Cow? (Is that my cow? It says, “Cluck cluck!” It is a chicken. It is not my cow.) He decides this is a little silly for a city boy like Young Sam, and veers into a variation, “Where is my daddy?” featuring many of the regular characters in Ankh-Morpork. Havoc ensues in the nursery and it’s such fun.
I suppose it’s very me to choose a bookish father who reads to his son! But after all, some things are important. Who’s your favorite bookish father? And Happy Father’s Day!
You’ve made me realise that many of my favourite books have absent fathers in, whether that be their away or have died! I do rather like Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter books, although I do rather love all the Weasleys 🙂
Guilty! Guilty! My characters in my current book have absentee parents …
When I read to my little brother, he is always asking me to read the same stories over and over again. Sometimes I’ll change something up (In ‘Hansel and Gretel’ it says, ‘They were poor, and had very little to bite or to sup’ and I added ‘because they had no teeth’) and when I do, it drives him crazy, lol. But then the next time we get to that place, all I have to do is pause and look at him, and he’ll crack up because he knows what I’m about to say 😀
As for favorite fictional fathers … I really like Frank in the 100 Cupboards series. He’s a really cool dad to his own daughters, and a great father-figure for the main character. He also doesn’t come across as stupid or fuddled, like most similar fictional fathers do.