Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. I thought this would be a fun way to share a condensed version of potential rambles and thoughts that I have.
This Week’s Theme:
“Welcome to Bromance in Fiction 101”
Initial Thoughts:
Hello you, welcome to Bromance in Fiction 101. If you turn to page 3 of your syllabus, I’ll go through some of the titles we’ll be covering this term.
Though you’re probably wondering: how does one teach Bromance 101? A very good question Jimmy Bob–you see…I have no idea except for the necessity of a fleshed out and invigorating friendship. Plus, I am just full of ridiculousness so there’s that to look forward to in the semester.
Patrick Ness – A Monster Calls
Yes, I’d begin with an accessible (but insightful) introductory through an anthropomorphic enigma in The Monster being a suitable representation of feels.
J.R.R Tolkien – Lord of the Rings
This might be a title that is read throughout the course as opposed to a singular study; meaning this needs to be started early. (An alternative to this is Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.)
Andrew Smith – The Alex Crow
The exploration of childhood experimentalism and creative ingenuity.
Tadatoshi Fujimaki – Kuroko’s Basketball
A story of goals and achievements; of pressure and defeat. It fits somewhere in the middle for a nice change in scenery to look at bromance from a comic/manga perspective.
Benjamin Alire Saenz – Ari & Dante
The midpoint of this course calls for something rather slow, perhaps, meditative, but definitely thoughtful. Yeah I’m using this title [again] despite not having read it [yet]. Why do I keep doing this? Who knoooows.
Colleen Hoover – Hopeless
CoHo is required reading? Absolutely says every single person who wants me to read CoHo LOL. (Don’t worry you guys, #JoeyReadsNA is happening soon…and it’ll start with this title). Yeah it’s a New-Adult pick; its subtext in contemporary romance is something that should garner wonderful discussions because lesson plans involve talking through feels. How not absurd?!
Scott Westerfeld – Zeroes
Maybe I’m just still on this book high that I have to promote this book over-and-over again like a broken record. Or maybe not, but this first book is actually pretty self-contained and has some good feels in it that’d make for some easy reading…because friendships at its best are faultless and easy. As they ought to be.
Maggie Stiefvater – The Raven Boys
And I quote from Joséphine (@wordrevel): “PYNCH!!!” But as I have heard, there are wonderful polygamist-y bromance dynamics between the four; among other wonderful things.
Ernest Cline – Ready Player One
The penultimate title for reasons aligned to the satire and pop-culture influences of today’s necessity toward the digitization of friendship. Because a like isn’t always just a like. (That, and I felt like this is a reward to students taking this class LOL.)
S.E. Hinton – The Outsiders
While part of me thinks that this would be a great introductory read into the course, I’m honestly thinking that I’d rather have this as a course capstone read to wrap everything up.
Afterthoughts:
I MEAN WHY NOT? Plus, I’m proud of this syllabus LOL. I think it’s well-rounded! Though let’s be serious: my teaching methods would be horrendous because I haven’t read everything that is in the syllabus so my existing experience giving presentations to hundreds of students could prove moot if I were to teach this tomorrow hah.
Other stellar choices that came to mind might have been ‘The Maze Runner’, ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Gentleman Bastards’, ‘More Happy Than Not’, and ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’.
But my question to you is: which book with an awesome bromance is something you’d have for a required reading if you taught this nonsensical course?
Cheers,
Joey
connect: afterthoughtAn // twitter | anotherafterthought // goodreads
Paper towns by John Green had a pretty awesome bromance.
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Wonderful! Time to add that to the list of bro-feels that I should read up on.
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Awesome! 🙂
And, please do check out my newest post https://ramexabella.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/books-vs-e-books-2/
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I’ve only read Lord of the Rings and The Outsiders, but they were the first books to spring to mind when I saw your topic – perfect! On your alternate, The Maze Runner series is a great choice. Maybe add some Sherlock Holmes? Or the Biblical story of David and Jonathan!
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Oh dang, I totally would have included Sherlock Holmes if I was more familiar with it. Great addition though!
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I read it as if you were mimicking a posh accent throughout this whole post and 😂😂😂 I don’t know, I guess that’s just how it read, or I’m strange and tend to read things in the voice of the author/character than my own? *shrugs*
Ah…Half Bad, I’m a huge fan of that one. But for more platonic ones, Liars Inc or More Happy Than Not.
LOL, you would make a great teacher (or not, if that’s not what you want to do with your life), 😂😂😂😂😂😂.
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I wrote this all with my pinky finger lifted, so, perhaps you could be correct in that I am posh.
Does Half Bad have a romance between guys? Is that what you meant by that platonic comment to differentiate the two (I am just confused is all).
I’ve done lectures in front of hundreds of students before so I can do it. It’s just that I doubt anyone would take me seriously LOLOL.
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Sort of, yes that’s why I used platonic.
Awww, LOL.
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Definitely a fan of Ready Player One and Lord of the Rings for this category. Clever – very clever class
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Though I haven’t read RPO, gamer feels can be quite strong. So I’ll take your word for it!
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Totally love this post!
Ari & Dante is so good! You should read already!
I really want to throw I Hunt Killers out there again. 😛 Jasper and his best friend Howie.
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I have added Jasper Dent into my daily “books/authors I need to check daily”!
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Hopefully you get to them soon then! 🙂 and I hope you actually like it, lol. I’ll feel like a complete failure if I mentioned it to you so much and then you completely hate it. Haha.
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I love this class! A Monster Calls is a wonderful book and The Outsiders is also on my list.
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Nothing like learning about friendships, huh?
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Can I sign up for Bromance 101? I promise I’ll help Jimmy Bob study CoHo. Love this post. Made me smile! 🙂
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Made someone smile? Achievement Unlocked.
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For unlocking the achievement, you get a smiley face t-shirt for your Avatar. 😉 Lol.
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Love your subject choice! A Monster Calls is the only book I’ve read from your list, it’s so beautiful 🙂 Looks like I have some reading to do for this class!
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Friendships are complex; bromance even more so. Happy reading!
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I loved this so much. If this was a class I would be already a part of it! Even if your teaching skills are not all that great. 😂
Many of these books I want to read, like The Alex Crow and The Raven Boys. And A Monster Calls and The Lord of the Rings are perfect for any syllabus!
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The timeless quality in AMC and LOTR seems to find its way in so many syllabi!
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Haven’t read any of the books above except Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I can vouch that it’s a great book! A book I would recommend for this course on bromances would be Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. Will and Jem are amazingly close! 😉
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Will and Jem sound wonderful! I’ve been told to try TID instead of TMI so I’ll definitely have something to look forward to if I do!
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Bromance is such a great topic for a class! But i think your syllabus is missing the most epic bromance of all time – Will and Jem from The Infernal Devices. That bromance gave me all the feels and made me cry like no other bromance has before.
I can’t wait until Zeroes is out! I need that book right now!!!
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Oh my goodness another Will and Jem comment. Now I must go find out more about this bromance that’s missing…or perhaps that’s in the second year course, Bromance 201 :D!
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HAH yes, it is an advanced and complex relationship!
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Haha, great topic! My first thought when I saw your TTT was The Great Gatsby. Also, googling The Great Gatsby Bromance brought up some other lists of great bromances in literature.
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Though I didn’t read Gatsby, I did see the film! It’s definitely a solid addition to this list that I didn’t even think of.
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Lool. Can I sign up for this?! Bromance does make my day when I read them in books.
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OF COURSE YOU CAN SIGN UP!
You can also cook during class if you so wish. Like that guy who brought a George Foreman grill and cooked bacon. In class.
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Lool. I do have a portable GF grill. This I like.
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Haaaaaaaa, I frequently assign books to my students that I haven’t read. That’s what forces me to read them!
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Wonderful incentive indeed!
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Great prompt! Thankfully, I read most of the books on your list, so I’m ready for a pop quiz, Prof. 🙂
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LOL. Joy knowledgeable about the brofeels…so in tune with it that she’s… BoyousReads HAAAAAAA.
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Haha as always Joey your posts never fails to make me smile. 😀
I will definitely sign up for your class even if you lacked knowledge in some of the books that you will be using.
I can definitely vouch for The Raven Boys and The Outsiders as being great examples for this class. 🙂 As for the rest I already know that I will be doing a lot of reading for this class. Lol
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Excellent. Part of course requirements is that you have fun and have a good laugh with the bro-feels! And don’t worry, I’ll be doing the same readings as the rest of you.
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The Raven Boys does have quite a bromance! I hadn’t thought of it like that before, but it’s true.
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So I hear! Definitely need to give The Raven Cycle another try in the future to see this bromance for myself!
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Great idea! Ha. I thought of Harry Potter as a good bromance. I haven’t read many of the books on your list. Clearly bromanticism is an aspect of my education I have neglected. Sign me up.
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Oh shoot. I never thought of Bromanticism/Post-Bromanticism! These are wonderful terms omg.
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*raises hand to be your TA because Raven Boys!* After looking at the books I’ve read, I realized the bromance aspect isn’t very well-represented. Oops. So yes, time to work through some books on your syllabus 😉
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Does that mean you’re gonna make a bromance shelf?
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Lol I absolutely love that you put books you haven’t read yet on your course! That is as only a true teacher would! Great list!
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I’mma make them students buy the books that I’ll never reference. Ever. #doingwhatprofsdo
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Bromance over romance any day, fab list, I will give it my stamp of approval.
I see Ari & Dante like 10x EVERY week, I need to read it so I can be hip with all the kids 😉
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We’re old, Aunty. We can’t be hip with the kids :(!
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Nice list! I like that you went on a totally different path with it, most people’s were along the lines of Fantasy, YA Lit, Historical Fantasy, etc.
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Haha, yeah, that sounds like me alright…always straying away from the prompt!
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This is a cool topic! As soon as I saw your topic, I knew The Alex Crow was going to be on there, but it’s perfect for this one.
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I’m hoping to read more A.Smith books to see if this is the TRUE bromance book of his–although I’m sure people would say Winger is the ultimate Smith book.
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I just bought Winger at the book festival, so I hope to read it soon. I’ll let you know about the bromance. 🙂
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This is the start of something beauuuuutiful. One CoHo mention leads to LOTS OF COHO. I can’t wait for you to read Hopeless, but I’m also really nervous, so please don’t hate it, k?!
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So I picked up Hopeless….and then I put it back down (I decided to go play games instead of read again LOLOL). You’ll know I’m reading it when you see #JoeyReadsNA #CoHopeless
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I’m glad I’m not the only one including books on my syllabus that I haven’t actually read. (And I actually had a professor do that, just because HE wanted to read the book.) I love that READY PLAYER ONE made your list, but I definitely would have had to make room for HARRY POTTER. Harry and Ron are an epic bromance.
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If you think about it, it’s pretty good incentive to read any title because as a prof, I’m sure you’d want to be one-up to your class haha.
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This is such a great subject, I think I would take this class based on its title only, haha! And probably because all of the books you listed on here are on my TBR, or I’m about to add them soon! 😀
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I realised I should have just called it Modern Bromanticism or something…
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Ah The Raven Boys, definitely a perfect choice for this class!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/top-ten-tuesday-19/
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With so many vouching for The Raven Cycle, I should give the series another chance!
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Yes you should!
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Who doesn’t love a good bromance? Will Grayson, Will Grayson was one of the ones that sprung to mind for me.
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Right? Bromances are like friendships…but better?! I’m glad you could identify some wonderful stories with bro-feels too!
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The Raven Boys is a great choice, so much bromance in that book. Loved A Monster Calls – one of my favourites of the year. I haven’t read Any Colleen Hoover books either. I recommend my friend, Perks of Being a Wallflower and she actually teaches it at school! Anyway, great topic to teach in a syllabus 🙂
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That’s book recommending at it’s finest! To think you’re the catalyst for early readers of Perk!
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I love this subject! This is so interesting, and I loved your choices.
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You love it now but maybe not so much so if you actually had to study friendships under a microscope haha.
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I wasn’t expecting Kuroko’s Basketball to appear on this list but that’s a good one to include. As for the rest… I haven’t read those yet so I would take your class. XD
Great list, Joey! This is probably my favorite syllabus from this week’s T10T!
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Thank you my Sweet Corn 🙂 surely you’d be the brightest pupil of the cob….
But yeah, Kuroko was just too much epic feels; especially if you watched the anime. Yikes, the intense music wooooo.
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