Thread by @vermontgmg

FINAL NIGHTLY READING THREAD: And so we come to the end. Edition #101 of #GMGReads! Every night through this weird time, I've been tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online.

Tonight we wrap it up (for now). I want to thank everyone who has helped make this project fun; I never expected to write some 20,000 words of book recommendations when this started, stretching across more than 600 books....

But beyond sharing what I've already read, it's opened my eyes to just how much *more* there is to read in the world, both authors and topics! Knowledge is that rare quest where the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know....

Thanks to your suggestions, I've added more than 120 books to my already long "books-to-read" list—so that's like another three years or so of reading for me to power through just to catch up on your new suggestions! I really appreciate it....

I'll hope to do future #GMGReads from time to time, as subjects arise. I still have another dozen or so categories I sketched out that I never did, so some may come as the summer unfolds. There are a bunch of my favorite books I never even mentioned (TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY!) ...

(And, yes, I'm going to amass the recommendations on my website and will share that when it's collected together.)

Without further ado, tonight's final list—an idea that actually @jorge_guajardo suggested early on that struck me as a perfect coda: Best novel characters. Some books I've mentioned before, but each of these characters I continue to think about long after reading the book:

1) The whisky priest in Graham Greene's THE POWER AND THE GLORY has to be the most troubled soul I've ever inhabited as a reader: northshire.com/book/978014310…

2) I've never come across a character I've hated as passionately as the stepmom in Ann Patchett's DUTCH HOUSE. Why oh why is Andrea so mean?! She seriously kept me up at night stewing in my own agitation. northshire.com/book/978006296…

3) Two remarkable cautionary examples of the perils of ambition: The pianist in Frank Conroy's BODY & SOUL northshire.com/book/978038531… and the iconic Sammy Glick in Budd Schulberg's WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN: northshire.com/book/978067973…

4) If you ask me which fictional character I'd most want to have dinner with, hands down it's author Maurice Bendrix from Greene's END OF THE AFFAIR: northshire.com/book/978014243…

5) George Smiley, from John Le Carre, surely has to be the greatest spy in all of literature: northshire.com/book/978014311…

6) If I ever find myself in trouble, I hope either righteous drifter Jack Reacher, from Lee Child, northshire.com/book/978051515… or detective Erast Petrovich Fandorin, from Boris Akunin, will come to my aid: northshire.com/book/978081296…

PS: Speaking of thrillers, Olen Steinhauer's Milo Weaver is one of the great thriller characters of modern times and the network of "Tourists" a great conceit. Start with THE TOURIST: northshire.com/book/978125062…

7) One book stands out to me for its group tapestry of characters: Ann Patchett's BEL CANTO: northshire.com/book/978006083…

8)  Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, from Amor Towles' GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, is about as good an example I've found of a character's life well and honorably lived:  northshire.com/book/978014311…

9) To read Virginia Woolf's novel inside the head of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares for her party is to never forget her: northshire.com/book/978015662…

10)  Lastly, two of the most crotchety but lovable people in literature: Ove, from Fredrik Backman, northshire.com/book/978147673… and Murray Tepper, from Calvin Trillin:  northshire.com/book/978037575…

Those are tonight's #GMGReads. Thanks so much for following along these last 101 nights. Who are your favorite characters from your reading? It's a deeply personal list, I know, but: SHARE! #avidreadersunite