Eight of the best fictional travel companions

At B & N Reads, Jenny Kawecki tagged eight fictional characters who would make the best travel companions, including:

Merry and Pippin (The Lord of the Rings series, by J.R. R. Tolkien)

With Merry and Pippin on your trip, you’ll never get bored. In between pulling pranks on each other (and you) when things get a little slow, you know they’d be finding all of the best places to eat and drink along the way. And because they, like you, understand the importance of every meal (including elevensies), you’d never have to feel guilty about wanting to stop for a snack. Besides all that, with their cheerful dispositions, they’d never complain about the weather or the lines or the dingy motel rooms—and definitely not about the lack of legroom.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Lord of the Rings also made Kimberley Freeman's list of five books that changed her, SF Said's top ten list of unlikely heroes, Nicole Hill's top eight list of notable royal figures in fiction, Becky Ferreira's top seven list of bromances in literature, Nicole Hill's list of eleven of the most eccentric relatives in fiction, Nicole Hill's top seven list of literary wedding themes, Charlie Jane Anders's list of fifteen moments from science fiction and fantasy that will make absolutely anyone cry, Elizabeth Wein's top ten list of dynamic duos in fiction, Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the ten sources that inspired the dark storytelling of Game of Thrones, Rob Bricken's list of 11 preposterously manly fantasy series, Conrad Mason's top ten list of magical objects in fiction, Linus Roache's six best books list, Derek Landy's top ten list of villains in children's books, Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs' list of ten classic SF books that were originally considered failures, Lev Grossman's list of the six greatest fantasy books of all time, and appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best women dressed as men, ten of the best bows and arrows in literature, ten of the best beards in literature, ten of the best towers in literature, ten of the best volcanoes in literature, ten of the best chases in literature, and ten of the best monsters in literature. It is one of Salman Rushdie's five best fantasy novels for all ages. It is a book that made a difference to Pat Conroy.

--Marshal Zeringue