Yesterday was World Book Day, the day when kids and all the coolest adults dress up as their favourite literary characters to celebrate all things reading. We at I'm With Geek are no exception, and thus here we provide for you a run down of some of our costumes.
You will be happy to know that my costume is award-winning. My day job is at a sixth form college, where all the staff (and some of the students) really got into the spirit of things. We had several War Horses, a Lady Capulet, Wally (we found him!) and plenty more. But myself, and my learning support team (pictured) decided a group costume was the way to go, and so we present the Artful Dodger (me), Oliver, Fagin and Nancy from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. As you can tell from our awesome outfits, we won the Best Group prize, and the box of Celebrations was eaten with triumphant and gleeful abandon. Also, we're in the local paper, so that's cool.
The character I've chosen to dress as for World Book Day is Seras Victoria from the Hellsing manga books. Seras is a strong but flawed female character. She's a survivor of many traumas from an early age and whilst she may serve her vampire master Alucard and her human mistress Integra, she's her own person. She's strong, kind and unique and she's a character one can admire but also relate to.
World Book Day is a chance to celebrate everything between pages from our favourite stories to our favourite characters. It's also a great way for everyone to get creative and costume up as a book character. "Huzzah!" I thought because that means I could talk about Filth again. The corrupt sleaze ball Bruce Robertson is the centre of Irvine Welsh's book. Robertson is a cop trying to piece together a murder case all the whole gorging himself on drugs, alcohol and girls. However, as the book progresses, it's clear that he is unravelling due to the pressure of a promotion and his wife's departure. A terrifically written character who was brought to unforgettable heights by James McAvoy in 2013's film. I just couldn't resist getting a bit filthy again.
As a student, I don't have many opportunities for cosplay in my wardrobe. Actually, my two options were The Mad Hatter and the 11th Doctor. I decided to opt for the Doctor because, not only is it warmer, but he is also one of my favourite characters of all time. "But he isn't a character from a book!" I hear you cry. But don't you fret, there are many Doctor Who novellas out there, so if you want to delve into something other than just the TV show, then you can also read the books, plus other books affiliated with the show, including the excellent and informative Whoology. It is pretty awesome being able to dress as the 2000 year old Time Lord that always seems to save the universe from one threat or another. It really makes me want to go out into the world and right all the wrongs, defeat the bad guys and make the world a better place (plus a TARDIS would be cool too.) Allons-y!
World Book Day is upon us. To celebrate, I selected Captain America as my character. He has meant so much to me. To inspire me to read, as a child, my mother bought me comic books. The first one I ever remember getting was an old Cap issue. I was instantly hooked on this character. Steve Rogers represents so much about what is good in the world. Honour, duty, commitment to a cause, loyalty, sacrifice, and courage under fire are all things that we should strive for. Even more importantly, it is a story about power. Power will make a good person even better, and a bad person even worse. These are but a few of the many reasons why I love Captain America