A to Z Challenge 2015: Q - Don Quixote

Welcome back to the Challenge!

We are getting close.

This is the final stretch.

For those of you who made it this far: congratulations!

Today's 2015 April A to Z Blogging Challenge story for the letter Q:

Don Quixote

Here is the summary, from Goodreads:

Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances, that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote's fancy often leads him astray – he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants – Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers' imaginations for nearly four hundred years.

With its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote generally has been recognized as the first modern novel. The book has had enormous influence on a host of writers, from Fielding and Sterne to Flaubert, Dickens, Melville, and Faulkner, who reread it once a year, "just as some people read the Bible."

Author: Miguel de Cervantes

Man, I haven't read this one since college. I think I'll give it another go sometime soon.

That's it! Come back tomorrow.

And for something a little special, here's Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, by Pablo Picasso:

"Donquixote". Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Donquixote.JPG#/media/File:Donquixote.JPG

A to Z Challenge: Q - Quixotic

Quixotic

Q oh Q, how shall I compare thee ... er, something like that. If you can't tell from the title of my blog, I like the letter Q. I remember when I first settled on that title, and how worried I was people would think it was stupid. It seemed a bit Quixotic to me, but people ended up liking it, and it all worked out.

quix·ot·ic [kwik-sot-ik] adj. caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality

Synonyms: unrealistic, idealistic, romantic, absurd, imaginary, visionary, fanciful, impractical, dreamy, Utopian, impulsive, fantastical, impracticable, chivalrous, unworldly, chimerical

Etymology: "extravagantly chivalrous," 1791, from Don Quixote, romantic, impractical hero of Cervantes' satirical novel "Don Quixote de la Mancha" (1605). His name lit. means "thigh," also "a cuisse" (a piece of armor for the thigh), in Mod.Sp. quijote, from L. coxa "hip."

Like Gargantuan, this is another word that comes from a novel. Isn't it fun to imagine writing such an important piece of literature that terms from your novel become widespread words?

UPDATE: I completely forgot this was coming up, but Kela McLellenad talked me into an interview not long ago, and you can read it, here.