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It seems that twins are more abundant inside than outside the pages of books. Twins have fascinated writers for a long time, maybe it is because of the possibilities for them to switch places, or to pull the doppelgänger effects, or the creative possibilities given when two different stories have a common inception. Starting in our childhood with Tweedledee and Tweedledum, we have met more twins as literary characters than otherwise, and we plan to tell you about some awesome pairs in this episode. All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in this episode by checking our TBR Bundles in our Bookshop store.

I figure that when writers have a compulsion to put a story down on paper, and paper, as we might think of it, is not readily available, their urge to get the story out will improvise a writing surface out of anything. After listening to this episode you will see that the surfaces and materials used by authors to write their books might not always be pristine, convenient, picturesque, portable, or big enough to contain too much text; but when inspiration strikes, any available surface is up for grabs. All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in this episode by checking our TBR Bundles in our Bookshop store.

It is often the case that heroes in fantasy stories are in the company of a friend who helps them in their preternatural quest. It is also the case that many times these friends have one, or many, magical traits: talking animals, or chimeric beings come to mind. Regardless of these beings having fur, scales, wing, or all of those, these are the sidekicks our heroes can always count on. The brave, wise, and loyal companions for which no CGI can rival our readers' imagination when it comes to visualizing them. We readers have been meeting these magical sidekicks for a long time, and this episode is dedicated to them and the books that have, magically, brought them to us.  All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in this episode by checking our TBR Bundles in our Bookshop store.

We come to associate the fictional characters we love with an item of clothing, a hairstyle, or a phrase. But there are some characters that even have an address. Granted, many of these address are as fictional as the characters themselves, but that doesn't prevent us readers to add them to our fictional address books, or fictional rolodexes (because who knows when we are going to need a fictional detective or nanny, right?). So if you are up for a walk down fictional lane, we have prepared a compilation of famous literary addresses. All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

An allegory can specially resonate when it includes animals; since, as Donald L. Hicks said "those who teach the most about humanity aren't always human." We dedicate today's episode to books using animals allegorically, and you will see how powerful some of them can be.    All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

We have a weakness for public art celebrating books or famous literary characters, and you can bet we will have a picture in front of any we encounter in our travels. For the readers like us who would love a photo-op with sculptures inspired by their favorite books, we have compiled a list of them in this episode.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com Valentine's day is approaching and we would like to dedicate an episode to all those literary star-crossed lovers we have met in books. We will refer to those books that get us rooting for the couple despite having so many odds against them; stories which end up  wrecking our hearts and make us reach for the break-up ice cream. Stories of doomed love can be found at any literary period and across any literary genre; therefore, choosing just a few books to represent this topic is almost as hard as love itself.At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Just like in the music industry, there are also literary one-hit wonders. Sometimes these title is given to an author’s debut novel which also happened to be his or her last one, or to one posthumously published book, or to the one title that is very well known from an author that has other lesser known ones.  We want to highlight in this episodes several books that could be considered one-hit wonders, and they might have been the only well-known novel their authors produced, but they certainly topped the literary charts. Listen to this hit parade! All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Have you ever opened a book and cracked a smile with just the first line? We have, and usually that's an indication that the book will keep us amused throughout. In this episode, we want to share with you some humorous first lines, and, of course, the books they introduce.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Albert Einstein said that "today's imagination is tomorrow's reality". And if we judge by their books, writers from the 19th century were quite busy imagining future reality with astonishing accuracy. In this episode we give you a list of books published before 1900 which "predicted" future events or inventions. We promise you will be surprised.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

We might be biased, but we believe the book is almost always better than the book. However, an infographic with instances to the contrary, made us dedicate an episode to those books whose movie adaptation have been considered to be better.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

In this episode we discuss books which might take you 20 minutes, or less, to read. If an audiobook is available, we will let you know, since those will make great companions for a short commute.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Like one-name celebrities, there are books with one-name titles. The sole mention of such titles is evocative of all the feelings, good or bad, that the eponymous character represents. A list like Carrie, Hamlet, Rebecca, or Ulysses would be sufficient to prove this point, but we will elaborate:All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Lists commending books abound. Annually, we get a rank of the best books every year from different sources, there are countless lists for the 1,000 or 1,001 novels to be read, and the list of literary prizes and awards gets longer as you read this. However, even books in those ultimate 1000-long lists do not always enjoy good reviews. In fact, Bill Henderson has compiled Rotten Reviews Redux, a book containing very unfavorable reviews given to titles you might not expect to be harshly criticized. In a very ironic turn of events, it turns out Bill Henderson's book has itself received unfavorable criticism; you can read some of them in Goodreads.  We have compiled a list of books receiving very unfavorable reviews that we want to share with you. All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Like one-name celebrities, there are books with one-name titles. The sole mention of such titles is evocative of all the feelings, good or bad, that the eponymous character represents. A list like Carrie, Hamlet, Rebecca, or Ulysses would be sufficient to prove this point, but we will elaborate.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Maybe it was serendipity? Recently we came across two articles which gave us the idea for this episode: to talk about books being written by authors despite problems with their eyesight.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.comAt our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork.You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Once upon a time...we read an article listing the 100 Best First Lines in literature. The article includes all the ones you expect: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,...", "Call me Ishmael.", "It is a truth universally known...",  "Somewhere in La Mancha,...", and "Happy families are all alike;...". But the list also contained some unorthodox and brilliant ways to start a novel, so we decided to talk about those odd ones in this episode.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

When characters become part of our collective consciousness, their stories transcend time and place, and their tales get told and retold. It is also often that these stories are reimagined and recounted from the point of view of another character, sometimes the villains, making for some entertaining and creative books. In this episode, we will discuss book retellings from a different perspective, that of a different character in the original book. All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

Colors, in general, have been associated with many feelings, holidays, ideas, even individuals. But the symbolism associated with red is probably one of the oldest and better known. Such a symbolic color had to find its way into books, and in a prominent place since several authors have chosen RED to be part of the titles of their books. In this episode, we offer you a list of such instances.All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.

In this episode, we talk about books featuring writers as the main characters. How is that for an inside job?All books discussed and links to all the topics mentioned in this episodes can be found in the show notes at www.twobookramblers.com At our page, you can also check our Cover Gallery and join us in Book vs. Book, Six-Word Reviews, and GuessWork. You can purchase any book we mentioned in the show by visiting our TBR Bundles.