To celebrate World Book Day about a month ago, The Independent Online asked leading British authors to name their favorite fictional characters. The result is this list of the 100 favorite fictional characters… as chosen by 100 literary luminaries. Of note is the inclusion of some of my favorite fictional characters, including Kim, Tintin, God, Josef K, Paddington Bear, Humbert Humbert, and The Cat in the Hat.

While I’m here, I want to note a few characters that may have been missed, or at least characters I would have thought of nominating:

Winnie the Pooh

Today’s Disney-fication of Pooh Bear strays from Milne’s original creation, but has brought the loving bear to a whole new generation. Milne’s Hundred-Acre Wood is the place where many children have been lost in fantasy since its publication in 1926.

Holden Caulfield

Caulfield is perhaps the greatest fictional character of all time. He represents every lost young soul, every person that didn’t quite fit in. Salinger’s most popular character is complex and simple at the same time, making him a character that is impossible to forget.

The Little Prince

He taught us to think in a way that was foreign to us; to explore the beauty in little things. De Saint-Exupery’s little stranger from above opened eyes and hearts.

I’ve been a big fan of Google since it’s inception, and I must say that they do a lot of things right: their search is amazing, GMail is my favorite webmail service, and Blogger may just be the best free hosted blog service in the world. However, I must admit that Yahoo! has come a long way in the past few months, and it looks like they may be the one web company that has learned from Google and is building services that people want to use.

A few examples of this stand out, the first being Yahoo! Mail’s decision to up their storage capacity to 1Gb to compete with GMail. GMail, running on AJAX, is still miles ahead, but Yahoo! Mail is slowly making headway into a market where MSN Hotmail is still king, but is losing ground quickly.

Another example is Yahoo! Movies, which is quietly taking aim at sites like Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, and perhaps even IMDB. By aggregating showtimes, critics reviews, user reviews, trailers and previews, and film information, Yahoo! is slowly becoming the one-stop place to go for all your movie-watching needs. Though the repository of information isn’t as extensive as IMDB, it is perfect for the casual Hollywood movie watcher.

In the past month, Yahoo! has done three significant things that prove that they have a clear vision of where they want to go; Yahoo! isn’t just an ignored portal anymore. The first of this was launching a Creative Commons search, which has led them credibility among the world of online personal publishing (and some geek cred as well). The second was the announcement of Yahoo 360, a hosted blogging and social networking tool which seems to be modeled on a LJ-type basis, but is promising much more — and is garnering decent reviews.

Finally, what is perhaps most exciting — for me at least — is Yahoo!’s acquisition of Flickr, which is possibly the most-discussed business move on the web right now. Flickr is definitely one of the best tools on the web right now, and there is tremendous possibility for Yahoo! to not only integrate Flickr’s social networking into their fold, but to learn from Flickr’s amazing interface and excellent use of technology such as Javascript and Flash. Plus, maybe eventually, they’ll get rid of the horrible Yahoo! Photos.

Other things such as The Buzz Game (very entertaining and educational), and the Yahoo! Publisher Network (can’t wait until this launches) and the new look for Yahoo! Groups (better than Google Groups Beta?) are just added proof that Yahoo! knows what people want and are going to do everything to make sure that they can provide what people need.

Paul Bausch has already begun work on Yahoo! Hacks, a part of the popular O’Reilly Hacks Series, and its publication will only further serve to exemplify Yahoo!’s comeback on the scene. Om Malik has a great post on his website on How Yahoo! Got Its Mojo Back, which partly inspired this post as well.

As much as I love Google, Yahoo! is growing up, and seems to be, in many cases, the new place to find the information and web services you need. I’m excited to see where Terry, Jerry, David, Dan, and Susan are going next.

If there is one thing I regret in my decision to leave Georgetown University early, it was the fact that I was never able to take Reverend Alvaro Ribeiro’s class on The Booker Prize for Fiction. In the one class that I did take with Father Ribeiro, I learned of his passion for literature; but what’s more, I learned of his true talent in conveying that same passion to his students.

Because of this, I am extremely grateful that the Man Booker International Prize for 2005 decided to honor Father Ribeiro by announcing the nominees of this year’s prize and hosting a symposium at Georgetown University. Georgetown’s English Department is one of distinction and has produced great writers and literary critics.

In establishing the Man Booker International Prize this year, the Booker Prize Foundation has shown its commitment to the recognition of literature around the world, and has established the importance of acknowledging the influence many writers have on the lives and cultures of people from from all parts of the globe. I am sure many people will agree with me that though being shortlisted for the Booker Prize may be quite an accomplishment, simply working in a field where such awards as the Booker Prize exist is quite monumental.

Why is the Booker Prize important? For the simple reason that all literary and writing prizes — whether it be the Giller, the Pulitzer, the Governor General’s Award, the Nobel Prize for Literature, the National Book Awards, and any of the many other markers of distinction in writing — get people talking about reading. By recognizing quality writing, these awards pique the interest of the public, similar to how movie sales go up significantly after the Oscar nominations.

When people talk about the books, poems, and articles they are reading, the written word makes its way into mainstream culture. This is important because not every book that is released gets the instant celebrity that a movie or television show would. Most, in fact, depend on the word of mouth to generate buzz and incite interest. In a survey done by World Book Day in England (as reported by the BBC), many new bestselling novels which had low initial print runs, such as The Da Vinci Code and Memoirs of a Geisha, are now selling millions because of personal recommendations.

A friend, Beth Jefferson, once compared book reading to film and television in popular culture: when children meet in the schoolyard, they are all talking about the same shows or movies — the same ones they all saw over the weekend. However, because books don’t have the same kind of significant time constraints as other media — such as prime-time television, or first run Hollywood blockbusters — nobody talks about what books they are reading, because no one else is reading the same one.

This is where the importance of the Booker Prize and other literary prizes is most evident. If books are being recognized on a grand scale, they receive media attention; people love talking about what they see on TV. By bringing literature and writing of all genres into the forefront of popular culture by recognizing the best and brightest, people are urged to pick up a book to keep up with the mainstream trends.

Many people may say that though this may encourage reading in general, it will only serve to promote pieces of writing that don’t necessarily need any more promotion: books written by Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie don’t need more accolades to prove to the world that they deserve to be read. I argue that this is clearly not the case, especially with the advent of the Internet. I am fully aware that certain works will be favored in prize selection, but when people pick up those books in a bookstore, either in person or online, they will be introduced to a variety of other titles that may pique their interest.

Amazon’s recommendation engine is a perfect example of this. When purchasing a book on Amazon.com, a few lists appear on the page: related items, similar items, and other items purchased by people who purchased the book you are buying. All these lists help someone diversify and find new products. They may have come looking for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but may just leave with Le Petit Nicolas. Other services such as AllConsuming.net and BookCrossing.com are working on connecting readers with other like-minded readers around the world.

A clear example of this is given by Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine when he recently wrote about “the long tail.” In his article, he explains how Touching the Void, published in 1988, began gaining popularity a decade after publication because of the gaining popularity of another related book, Into Thin Air. The virtually unlimited choice of books for readers in this age has enabled less-read material to resurface and gain popularity, so much that now 25-30% of Amazon’s book sales comes from books that are not stocked at your neighborhood Barnes & Noble.

Therefore, it is clear that critical acclaim and recognition for certain books through prizes such as the Booker Prize is not only beneficial for the authors nominated, but for the entire publishing industry - and subsequently, beneficial for the entire culture of reading. And that, I argue, is good for the culture of humankind in general.