I've Got a Crush on You

Reader, I've noticed that things at my blog have been a bit serious of late. Scrolling through, all I see are words words words. It's like GEEZ do I ever shut up??

So to lighten the mood, I thought I'd blog about my long term literary loves. These are the crushes I will never forget, and never regret. I'll put them loosely in order of when I read them.

1. Princess Eilonwy of The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd AlexanderThat's right, I'm starting the list off with a girl. To clarify, I didn't want to date Eilonwy, I wanted to BE her. I wanted this so badly. I can't tell you how many times I stood in a mirror, trying to look exactly the way she does on this cover (The Castle of Llyr), or how often I whined to my mom about how she had failed to give me red-gold hair.

And when I read Alexander's dedication in The High King, I felt that he was talking to me. It said, "For the boys who might have been Taran, and the girls who will always be Eilonwy."

She also deserves to be on the list because despite wanting to be her so completely, I had no interest in Taran whatsoever (no offense, Taran! It's not like I was crushing on Fflewddur Flam.)

2. Dennys Murry of The Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L'EngleOh, Dennys. You are so delicious in your flannel shirt and cutoffs. Do I even need to justify this crush? For starters, Sandy and Dennys were twins, so my sister and I could share them. And this cover was pretty much porn to our innocent eyes.

So why did I choose Dennys? Hello! He could hear the singing of the stars. That, folks, is a major turn on.

3. Garion of The Belgariad by David EddingsGarion, my lovely sixth grade crush. You were so much sweeter and safer than those nasty real life middle school boys. Look at him all adorable and confused on the cover of the third book in the series! Garion was cute--not sexy. He was kind and befuddled about all things relating to women. In short, he was the perfect tween crush.

It doesn't hurt that he was also the Chosen One. That's a turn on too, guys, in case you're taking notes.

Of course he ends up with the red headed girl. Mom, again I ask you: WHY couldn't you have birthed me with red-gold hair? WHY?

4. Sir Gareth, T.H. White's Once and Future KingGareth was my big high school crush. I met him in The Once and Future King, which is why I'm crediting that book. Of course he was a knight of the Round Table and appears throughout Arthurian Literature. Gareth is noble and kind and idealistic. In White's unicorn scene, Gareth runs after the virgin. He feels badly and doesn't want to hurt the unicorn, unlike his brothers. He is the sensitive badass.

Oh Gareth. You know what? I still love you. And I will NEVER FORGIVE YOU, LANCELOT. You KNOW WHAT YOU DID.

And that completes my list. Anyone else want to share?

(Image of Sir Gareth from art.com)

Edit 3. 23.12: I just thought of another literary boy I fell in love with when I was a kid! Dickon Sowerby from The Secret Garden. He was magical and kind and could talk to animals. He was friends with a fox, if I remember correctly. It doesn't get any better than that, people!!

I suppose you could say that Dickon represents the good boy and Colin the bad. (Lets ignore all the English class stuff, since that went way over my head when I read this book as a kid.) In the end, Mary chooses Colin. He's like the predecessor of vampires in YA lit. He's moody and pale and passionate. But I prefer Colin. I always prefer the good guys, the ones with good hearts and easy smiles and an affinity for animals.


Anyone else want to weight in on Dickon vs. Colin?