#EasterReads-Hoppy Reading!

For this latest in my series of seasonal posts, I hit a literal brick wall-how do you find books which feature Easter? Beyond thinking of Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’ which features the character Ostara, I came up with empty hands…

…so I decided on featuring books with Easter eggs in them !

*I have been as careful as I can be to avoid spoilers, however, anyone who hasn’t read/seen all of the Harry Potterbooks/ movies may want to avoid the second part of this post*

‘IT’ by Stephen King features a terrifying Easter Egg Hunt at the Kitchener Ironworks that ends unlike any other I have ever read about- if you are lucky enough to have the Illustrated Edition from Cemetery Press, the accompanying colour plate might put you off chocolate forever!

Almost all of King’s novels have Easter Eggs hidden in them, interconnecting his worlds and characters, and the Bank Holiday weekend is perfect for a binge read! I love how his characters just walk into each other’s books , just like you would in real life wander into a shop…look out for familiar characters re-appearing in 11.22.63 and follow my instagram @booksinmyhallway for my Castle Rock/Stephen King linkathon/readalong!

http://79.170.40.167/rachelreadit.co.uk/castle-rock-reread-athon/

The Harry Potter universe is littered with Easter Eggs, one of the saddest and most moving is linked to the Marauder’s Map-the four friends die in reverse order to how they are mentioned on the map…sob!

Professor Slughorn refers to Ron as ‘Rupert’ in ‘The Half-Blood Prince’, a cheey nod to Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the movies.

These are just 2 facts from 100’s of articles online, pointing out astonishing facts,that add to the enjoyment you get from the Potterverse!

The ‘Series Of Unfortunate Events’ novels by Lemony Snicket feature the mis-adventures of Baudelaire orphans,Violet, Klaus and Sunny. However, each book has an end illustration which links it to the next book in the series!

Check them out and see if you can work the connection between them, and try to spot the number 13 which is littered throughout all 13 volumes at the same time.

There are so many literary and real life allusions throughout the books that they make a great treasure hunt, from Dante’s Beatrice to the self explanatory Mr Poe and his sons Edgar and Allan.

Even the names of the Baudelaire children have sinister undertones…linking to poet Charles Baudelaire

Agatha Christie hid some of her Easter Eggs in plain sight, particularly her eventual dislike of her most popular creation, Hercule Poirot.

She introduces a character named Ariadne Oliver(a thinly veiled Christie), into several Poirot stories. Ariadne’s books feature a Finnish detective named Sven Hjerson.

Christie uses Ariadne’s expositions to gently mock both herself and her famous Belgian in books such as ‘Mrs McGinty’s Dead’, Apart from that, there is the the ultimate reveal in ‘The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd’ which add layers on layers of her masterly writing technique!

George RR Martin is a fan of eggs, both dragon born and Easter garden variety-Jon Snow’s best friends on the Wall,Sam and Pyp are direct tributes to JRR Tolkien’s erstwhile hobbits Samwise and Pippin.

The Greyjoy family worship a deity known as ‘The Drowned God’, a direct nod to one of  GRRM’s literary heroes, H.P Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos.

‘Game Of Thrones’  is just a joy to read, watch and listen to – from mystery cameos to hidden meanings, there are stories stitched into the costumes, concealed in show props and lines of dialogue.

He named the Weirwood Trees after the Grateful Dead singer, Bob Weir, and referenced the Three Stooges, Monty Python and the Muppets amongst many, many cleverly inserted cultural nods-read and enjoy!

‘The Lord Of The Rings’ by JRR Tolkien has been thought to contain references to, amongst others, Shakespeare, fairy tales, and the invention of golf !

The story of ‘Macbeth’ is alluded to in the march of the Ents on Isengard, (Macbeth is promised to reign until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinan) and the role of Eowyn in usurping the prophecy of the Night’s King who cannot be killed by a man (as Macbeth is prophesised to reign until death by ‘man of no woman born’).

The creation of the first original dwarves in Middle Earth , has them christened with Old Norse names that translate to Sleepy (Durin) and so forth, which I never knew, did you? It makes me want to go back and read it all over again.

The cinematic universe is littered with even more, and there is a link between LOTR and GOT-it’s literally hidden in plain sight!!

An eagle eyed viewer believes they have spotted Glamdring as part of the GOT Throne!

Damn those are sharp eyes!

And to finish, one of my all time favourite books, ‘‘The Big Over Easy’.

Set in Reading, a town where the  Nursery Crimes division of the police force is always busy, at Easter, this is a particularly hard case to crack-who killed Humpty Dumpty? Detective Jack Spratt and sidekick Sergeant Mary Mary face their first case, trying to work out who murdered the ex-con and millionaire philanthropist, amongst a cast of well known characters…funny, hardboiled(every pun intended!)and intriguing, this has every hallmark of the Thursday Next books and then some.

*please, on the off chance that THE Jasper Fforde is reading this, may we have a third Nursery Crime book?Thank you!*

I hope that you all have a fabulous Easter weekend and have plenty of chocolate and reading time! Watch out for the Easter Beagle who will be making his rounds tomorrow !

If you have a favourite Easter Egg, let me know below in the comments section!